diff --git a/cli/commands.go b/cli/commands.go
index 7907bc6a..afe61a40 100644
--- a/cli/commands.go
+++ b/cli/commands.go
@@ -90,6 +90,10 @@ func CreateCluster(c *cli.Context) error {
 	}
 
 	// k3s server arguments
+	// TODO: --port will soon be --api-port since we want to re-use --port for arbitrary port mappings
+	if c.IsSet("port") {
+		log.Println("WARNING: --port will soon be used for arbitrary port-mappings. It's original functionality can then be used via --api-port.")
+	}
 	k3sServerArgs := []string{"--https-listen-port", c.String("port")}
 	if c.IsSet("server-arg") || c.IsSet("x") {
 		k3sServerArgs = append(k3sServerArgs, c.StringSlice("server-arg")...)
diff --git a/cli/port.go b/cli/port.go
index 3b7bd439..e760f13e 100644
--- a/cli/port.go
+++ b/cli/port.go
@@ -59,11 +59,11 @@ func CreatePublishedPorts(specs []string) (*PublishedPorts, error) {
 
 // validatePortSpecs matches the provided port specs against a set of rules to enable early exit if something is wrong
 func validatePortSpecs(specs []string) error {
-	// regex matching (no sophisticated IP/Hostname matching at the moment)
-	regex := regexp.MustCompile(`^(((?P<host>[\w\.]+)?:)?((?P<hostPort>[0-9]{0,6}):)?(?P<containerPort>[0-9]{1,6}))((/(?P<protocol>udp|tcp))?(?P<nodes>(@(?P<node>[\w-]+))*))$`)
+	// regex matching (no sophisticated IP matching at the moment)
+	regex := regexp.MustCompile(`^(((?P<ip>[\d\.]+)?:)?((?P<hostPort>[0-9]{0,6}):)?(?P<containerPort>[0-9]{1,6}))((/(?P<protocol>udp|tcp))?(?P<nodes>(@(?P<node>[\w-]+))+))$`)
 	for _, spec := range specs {
 		if !regex.MatchString(spec) {
-			return fmt.Errorf("[ERROR] Provided port spec [%s] didn't match format specification", spec)
+			return fmt.Errorf("[ERROR] Provided port spec [%s] didn't match format specification (`[ip:][host-port:]container-port[/protocol]@node-specifier`)", spec)
 		}
 	}
 	return nil
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 94d70519..222e7a77 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ func main() {
 				},
 				cli.StringSliceFlag{
 					Name:  "publish, add-port",
-					Usage: "publish k3s node ports to the host (Docker notation: `ip:public:private/proto`, use multiple options to expose more ports)",
+					Usage: "publish k3s node ports to the host (Format: `[ip:][host-port:]container-port[/protocol]@node-specifier`, use multiple options to expose more ports)",
 				},
 				cli.StringFlag{
 					// TODO: to be deprecated