diff --git a/autocomplete/table.go b/autocomplete/table.go
index b759afb3ca..9f1858c4aa 100644
--- a/autocomplete/table.go
+++ b/autocomplete/table.go
@@ -7,8 +7,10 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/c-bata/go-prompt"
 	"github.com/turbot/go-kit/helpers"
+	"github.com/turbot/steampipe/db/db_common"
 	"github.com/turbot/steampipe/schema"
 	"github.com/turbot/steampipe/steampipeconfig"
+	"github.com/turbot/steampipe/utils"
 )
 
 // GetTableAutoCompleteSuggestions :: derives and returns tables for typeahead
@@ -47,7 +49,7 @@ func GetTableAutoCompleteSuggestions(schema *schema.Metadata, connectionMap *ste
 		// add qualified names of all tables
 		for tableName := range schemaDetails {
 			if !isTemporarySchema {
-				qualifiedTablesToAdd = append(qualifiedTablesToAdd, fmt.Sprintf("%s.%s", schemaName, tableName))
+				qualifiedTablesToAdd = append(qualifiedTablesToAdd, fmt.Sprintf("%s.%s", schemaName, escapeIfRequired(tableName)))
 			}
 		}
 
@@ -71,15 +73,17 @@ func GetTableAutoCompleteSuggestions(schema *schema.Metadata, connectionMap *ste
 	sort.Strings(qualifiedTablesToAdd)
 
 	for _, schema := range schemasToAdd {
-		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: schema, Description: "Schema"})
+		// we don't need to escape schema names, since schema names are derived from connection names
+		// which are validated so that we don't end up with names which need it
+		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: schema, Description: "Schema", Output: schema})
 	}
 
 	for _, table := range unqualifiedTablesToAdd {
-		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: table, Description: "Table"})
+		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: table, Description: "Table", Output: escapeIfRequired(table)})
 	}
 
 	for _, table := range qualifiedTablesToAdd {
-		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: table, Description: "Table"})
+		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: table, Description: "Table", Output: escapeIfRequired(table)})
 	}
 
 	return s
@@ -88,3 +92,15 @@ func GetTableAutoCompleteSuggestions(schema *schema.Metadata, connectionMap *ste
 func stripVersionFromPluginName(pluginName string) string {
 	return strings.Split(pluginName, "@")[0]
 }
+
+func escapeIfRequired(strToEscape string) string {
+	tokens := utils.SplitByRune(strToEscape, '.')
+	escaped := []string{}
+	for _, token := range tokens {
+		if strings.ContainsAny(token, " -") {
+			token = db_common.PgEscapeName(token)
+		}
+		escaped = append(escaped, token)
+	}
+	return strings.Join(escaped, ".")
+}
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index defbde3425..812740055d 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -73,4 +73,4 @@ require (
 	sigs.k8s.io/yaml v1.1.0
 )
 
-replace github.com/c-bata/go-prompt => github.com/turbot/go-prompt v0.2.6-steampipe.0.20210830083819-c872df2bdcc9
+replace github.com/c-bata/go-prompt => github.com/turbot/go-prompt v0.2.6-steampipe.0.20211124090719-0709bc8d8ce2
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index cd7bbcc057..dc46cec3e9 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -909,8 +909,8 @@ github.com/tmc/grpc-websocket-proxy v0.0.0-20190109142713-0ad062ec5ee5/go.mod h1
 github.com/tombuildsstuff/giovanni v0.15.1/go.mod h1:0TZugJPEtqzPlMpuJHYfXY6Dq2uLPrXf98D2XQSxNbA=
 github.com/turbot/go-kit v0.3.0 h1:o4zZIO1ovdmJ2bHWOdXnnt8jJMIDGqYSkZvBREzFeMQ=
 github.com/turbot/go-kit v0.3.0/go.mod h1:SBdPRngbEfYubiR81iAVtO43oPkg1+ASr+XxvgbH7/k=
-github.com/turbot/go-prompt v0.2.6-steampipe.0.20210830083819-c872df2bdcc9 h1:mcDQVuT3E9tQtCB7sdLgEm3uC/eGGtBr27WwQCU6j+s=
-github.com/turbot/go-prompt v0.2.6-steampipe.0.20210830083819-c872df2bdcc9/go.mod h1:vFnjEGDIIA/Lib7giyE4E9c50Lvl8j0S+7FVlAwDAVw=
+github.com/turbot/go-prompt v0.2.6-steampipe.0.20211124090719-0709bc8d8ce2 h1:mydbzShy5MB1XMDu2S4DocAo8/Jl8vRmEa37FvpY2jY=
+github.com/turbot/go-prompt v0.2.6-steampipe.0.20211124090719-0709bc8d8ce2/go.mod h1:vFnjEGDIIA/Lib7giyE4E9c50Lvl8j0S+7FVlAwDAVw=
 github.com/turbot/steampipe-plugin-sdk v1.8.0 h1:bPHlCnAg66UTMz7W7AwR8jCszOwwe6Bfmvpiko7VB2k=
 github.com/turbot/steampipe-plugin-sdk v1.8.0/go.mod h1:76H3wr6KB6t+kDS38EEOZAsw61Ie/q7/IV9X0kv5NjI=
 github.com/tv42/httpunix v0.0.0-20191220191345-2ba4b9c3382c/go.mod h1:hzIxponao9Kjc7aWznkXaL4U4TWaDSs8zcsY4Ka08nM=
diff --git a/interactive/interactive_client.go b/interactive/interactive_client.go
index 2b83e78911..99c29f8904 100644
--- a/interactive/interactive_client.go
+++ b/interactive/interactive_client.go
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ func (c *InteractiveClient) queryCompleter(d prompt.Document) []prompt.Suggest {
 		//named queries
 		s = append(s, c.namedQuerySuggestions()...)
 		// "select"
-		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: "select"})
+		s = append(s, prompt.Suggest{Text: "select", Output: "select"}, prompt.Suggest{Text: "with", Output: "with"})
 
 		// metaqueries
 		s = append(s, metaquery.PromptSuggestions()...)
@@ -528,7 +528,7 @@ func (c *InteractiveClient) namedQuerySuggestions() []prompt.Suggest {
 		if q.Description != nil {
 			description += fmt.Sprintf(": %s", *q.Description)
 		}
-		res = append(res, prompt.Suggest{Text: queryName, Description: description})
+		res = append(res, prompt.Suggest{Text: queryName, Output: queryName, Description: description})
 	}
 	// add all the controls in the workspace
 	for controlName, c := range c.workspace().GetControlMap() {
diff --git a/query/metaquery/completers.go b/query/metaquery/completers.go
index a9a64d3ff5..e409f7ab0a 100644
--- a/query/metaquery/completers.go
+++ b/query/metaquery/completers.go
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ func completerFromArgsOf(cmd string) completer {
 		metaQueryDefinition, _ := metaQueryDefinitions[cmd]
 		suggestions := make([]prompt.Suggest, len(metaQueryDefinition.args))
 		for idx, arg := range metaQueryDefinition.args {
-			suggestions[idx] = prompt.Suggest{Text: arg.value, Description: arg.description}
+			suggestions[idx] = prompt.Suggest{Text: arg.value, Description: arg.description, Output: arg.value}
 		}
 		return suggestions
 	}
diff --git a/query/metaquery/definitions.go b/query/metaquery/definitions.go
index a7dcc7b5a2..9ab2c50baf 100644
--- a/query/metaquery/definitions.go
+++ b/query/metaquery/definitions.go
@@ -111,9 +111,12 @@ func init() {
 			completer: completerFromArgsOf(constants.CmdCache),
 		},
 		constants.CmdInspect: {
-			title:       constants.CmdInspect,
-			handler:     inspect,
-			validator:   atMostNArgs(1),
+			title:   constants.CmdInspect,
+			handler: inspect,
+			// .inspect only supports a single arg, however the arg validation code cannot understand escaped arguments
+			// e.g. it will treat csv."my table" as 2 args
+			// the logic to handle this escaping is lower down so we just validate to ensure at least one argument has been provided
+			validator:   atLeastNArgs(0),
 			description: "View connections, tables & column information",
 			completer:   inspectCompleter,
 		},
diff --git a/query/metaquery/handlers.go b/query/metaquery/handlers.go
index a0da4ef777..a3479ac43a 100644
--- a/query/metaquery/handlers.go
+++ b/query/metaquery/handlers.go
@@ -260,9 +260,23 @@ func inspect(input *HandlerInput) error {
 	if len(input.args()) == 0 {
 		return listConnections(input)
 	}
-	// arg can be one of <connection_name> or <connection_name>.<table_name>
 	tableOrConnection := input.args()[0]
+	if len(input.args()) > 0 {
+		// this should be one argument, but may have been split by the tokenizer
+		// because of the escape characters that autocomplete puts in
+		// join them up
+		tableOrConnection = strings.Join(input.args(), " ")
+	}
+	// arg can be one of <connection_name> or <connection_name>.<table_name>
 	split := strings.Split(tableOrConnection, ".")
+	for i, s := range split {
+		// trim escaping
+		s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+		s = strings.TrimPrefix(s, `"`)
+		s = strings.TrimSuffix(s, `"`)
+
+		split[i] = s
+	}
 
 	if len(split) == 1 {
 		// only a connection name (or maybe unqualified table name)
diff --git a/query/metaquery/utils.go b/query/metaquery/utils.go
index b1ac19a5f8..08de9cab56 100644
--- a/query/metaquery/utils.go
+++ b/query/metaquery/utils.go
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 package metaquery
 
 import (
-	"encoding/csv"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/c-bata/go-prompt"
+	"github.com/turbot/steampipe/utils"
 )
 
 // IsMetaQuery :: returns true if the query is a metaquery, false otherwise
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ func IsMetaQuery(query string) bool {
 
 func getCmdAndArgs(query string) (string, []string) {
 	query = strings.TrimSuffix(query, ";")
-	split := splitByWhitespace(query)
+	split := utils.SplitByWhitespace(query)
 	cmd := split[0]
 	args := []string{}
 	if len(split) > 1 {
@@ -32,24 +32,11 @@ func getCmdAndArgs(query string) (string, []string) {
 	return cmd, args
 }
 
-// splitByWhitespace uses the CSV decoder, using '\s' as the separator rune
-// this enables us to parse out the tokens - even if they are quoted and/or escaped
-func splitByWhitespace(str string) (s []string) {
-	csvDecoder := csv.NewReader(strings.NewReader(str))
-	csvDecoder.Comma = ' '
-	csvDecoder.LazyQuotes = true
-	csvDecoder.TrimLeadingSpace = true
-	// Read can never error, because we are passing in a StringReader
-	// lookup csv.Reader.Read
-	split, _ := csvDecoder.Read()
-	return split
-}
-
 // PromptSuggestions :: Returns a list of the suggestions for go-prompt
 func PromptSuggestions() []prompt.Suggest {
 	suggestions := make([]prompt.Suggest, 0, len(metaQueryDefinitions))
 	for k, definition := range metaQueryDefinitions {
-		suggestions = append(suggestions, prompt.Suggest{Text: k, Description: definition.description})
+		suggestions = append(suggestions, prompt.Suggest{Text: k, Description: definition.description, Output: k})
 	}
 
 	sort.SliceStable(suggestions[:], func(i, j int) bool {
diff --git a/query/metaquery/validators.go b/query/metaquery/validators.go
index 60d3318a57..a686cc218b 100644
--- a/query/metaquery/validators.go
+++ b/query/metaquery/validators.go
@@ -91,6 +91,18 @@ func validatorFromArgsOf(cmd string) validator {
 	}
 }
 
+var atLeastNArgs = func(n int) validator {
+	return func(args []string) ValidationResult {
+		numArgs := len(args)
+		if numArgs < n {
+			return ValidationResult{
+				Err: fmt.Errorf("command needs at least %d argument(s) - got %d", n, numArgs),
+			}
+		}
+		return ValidationResult{ShouldRun: true}
+	}
+}
+
 var atMostNArgs = func(n int) validator {
 	return func(args []string) ValidationResult {
 		numArgs := len(args)
diff --git a/utils/string.go b/utils/string.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a01d5fe953
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils/string.go
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+package utils
+
+import (
+	"encoding/csv"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// SplitByRune uses the CSV decoder to parse out the tokens - even if they are quoted and/or escaped
+func SplitByRune(str string, r rune) []string {
+	csvDecoder := csv.NewReader(strings.NewReader(str))
+	csvDecoder.Comma = r
+	csvDecoder.LazyQuotes = true
+	csvDecoder.TrimLeadingSpace = true
+	split, _ := csvDecoder.Read()
+	return split
+}
+
+// SplitByWhitespace splits by the ' ' rune
+func SplitByWhitespace(str string) []string {
+	return SplitByRune(str, ' ')
+}