diff --git a/start.sh b/start.sh
index fd2e40b..55e855a 100644
--- a/start.sh
+++ b/start.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ echo "MY Network Node setup (interactive)"
 
 SCRIPT_DIR=$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)
 BASE_DIR="$SCRIPT_DIR/.."
+BASE_DIR=$(cd "$BASE_DIR" && pwd)
 ENV_FILE="$BASE_DIR/.env"
 EXAMPLE_FILE="$BASE_DIR/.env.example"
 
@@ -236,7 +237,17 @@ fi
 
 set -x
 COMPOSE_FILE_PATH="$BASE_DIR/configs/docker-compose.yml"
-COMPOSE_PROJECT=${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME:-$(basename "$BASE_DIR")}
+COMPOSE_PROJECT_RAW=${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME:-$(basename "$BASE_DIR")}
+COMPOSE_PROJECT=$(printf '%s' "$COMPOSE_PROJECT_RAW" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | tr -c '[:alnum:]_-' '-')
+while [[ $COMPOSE_PROJECT == -* || $COMPOSE_PROJECT == _* ]]; do
+  COMPOSE_PROJECT=${COMPOSE_PROJECT#?}
+done
+if [[ -z $COMPOSE_PROJECT ]]; then
+  COMPOSE_PROJECT=mynetwork
+fi
+if [[ $COMPOSE_PROJECT != [a-z0-9]* ]]; then
+  COMPOSE_PROJECT="n$COMPOSE_PROJECT"
+fi
 if command -v docker compose >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   docker compose -p "$COMPOSE_PROJECT" -f "$COMPOSE_FILE_PATH" down --remove-orphans
   docker compose -p "$COMPOSE_PROJECT" -f "$COMPOSE_FILE_PATH" up -d --build --force-recreate