diff --git a/.github/workflows/template-sync.yml b/.github/workflows/template-sync.yml
index b26de5e..85a8b1a 100755
--- a/.github/workflows/template-sync.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/template-sync.yml
@@ -71,8 +71,9 @@ jobs:
               sys.exit(f"Cannot read canonical project ID from records/SPEC.md: {error}")
           fields = []
           fence = None
+          tick = chr(96)
           for line in lines:
-              marker = re.match(r" {0,3}(`{3,}|~{3,})(.*)$", line)
+              marker = re.match(r" {0,3}(" + tick + r"{3,}|~{3,})(.*)$", line)
               if fence is not None:
                   if (marker and marker[1][0] == fence[0]
                           and len(marker[1]) >= len(fence) and not marker[2].strip()):
@@ -82,15 +83,21 @@ jobs:
                   fence = marker[1]
                   continue
               field = re.fullmatch(r" {0,3}-[ \t]+Project id:[ \t]*(.*)", line)
-              if field:
-                  fields.append(field[1].strip())
+              table = re.fullmatch(r" {0,3}\|[ \t]*Project id[ \t]*\|[ \t]*([^|]*)\|[ \t]*", line)
+              if re.match(r" {0,3}\|[ \t]*Project id[ \t]*\|", line) and not table:
+                  sys.exit("Malformed Project id table row in records/SPEC.md")
+              bold = re.fullmatch(r" {0,3}\*\*Project id:\*\*[ \t]*(.*)", line)
+              if field or table or bold:
+                  fields.append((field or table or bold)[1].strip())
           if len(fields) != 1:
               sys.exit("records/SPEC.md must contain exactly one Project id field outside code blocks")
           project_id = fields[0]
-          if project_id.startswith("`") and project_id.endswith("`"):
+          if project_id.startswith(tick) or project_id.endswith(tick):
+              if len(project_id) < 2 or not (project_id.startswith(tick) and project_id.endswith(tick)):
+                  sys.exit("Unbalanced Project id backticks in records/SPEC.md")
               project_id = project_id[1:-1]
-          if not re.fullmatch(r"[a-z0-9]+(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*", project_id):
-              sys.exit("records/SPEC.md Project id must be a lowercase kebab-case ID, optionally wrapped in backticks")
+          if not re.fullmatch(r"[A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[-_][A-Za-z0-9]+)*", project_id):
+              sys.exit("records/SPEC.md Project id must be a nonempty alphanumeric, hyphen or underscore ID")
           print(project_id)
           PY
           )