diff --git a/headless-services/commons/commons-yaml/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/yaml/ast/YamlParser.java b/headless-services/commons/commons-yaml/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/yaml/ast/YamlParser.java
index b1834517c..07786aaa9 100644
--- a/headless-services/commons/commons-yaml/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/yaml/ast/YamlParser.java
+++ b/headless-services/commons/commons-yaml/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/yaml/ast/YamlParser.java
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@
 
 package org.springframework.ide.vscode.commons.yaml.ast;
 
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
+import org.springframework.ide.vscode.commons.util.Assert;
 import org.springframework.ide.vscode.commons.util.text.IDocument;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.nodes.Node;
@@ -27,9 +31,64 @@ public class YamlParser implements YamlASTProvider {
 	@Override
 	public YamlFileAST getAST(IDocument doc) throws Exception {
 		CharSequenceReader reader = new CharSequenceReader();
-		reader.setInput(doc.get());
+		reader.setInput(atTokenTransformHack(doc.get()));
 		Iterable<Node> nodes = new Yaml().composeAll(reader);
 		return new YamlFileAST(doc, ImmutableList.copyOf(nodes));
 	}
 
+	Pattern AT_TOKEN = Pattern.compile("^.*?(\\@[a-zA-z0-9_\\-\\.]*\\@).*?$", Pattern.MULTILINE);
+	
+	static class StringCopier {
+		private int offset = 0;
+		private String input;
+		private StringBuilder output;
+
+		public StringCopier(String input) {
+			this.input = input;
+			this.output = new StringBuilder();
+		}
+
+		public void copyUpto(int upto) {
+			if (upto>offset) {
+				output.append(input.substring(offset, upto));
+				offset = upto;
+			}
+		}
+
+		public void replace(int len) {
+			if (len>=3) {
+				offset+=len;
+				len-=2;
+				output.append('"');
+				for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+					output.append('@');
+				}
+				output.append('"');
+			} else {
+				copyUpto(offset+len);
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	
+	private CharSequence atTokenTransformHack(String input) {
+		Matcher matcher = AT_TOKEN.matcher(input);
+		StringCopier transformed = new StringCopier(input);
+		while (matcher.find()) {
+			int lineStart = matcher.start();
+			
+			int tokenStart = matcher.start(1);
+			int tokenEnd = matcher.end(1);
+			
+			String pre = input.substring(lineStart, tokenStart);
+			if (!pre.contains("\"")) {
+				transformed.copyUpto(tokenStart);
+				transformed.replace(tokenEnd-tokenStart);
+			}
+		}
+		transformed.copyUpto(input.length());
+		String out = transformed.output.toString();
+		Assert.isTrue(out.length()==input.length());
+		return out;
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/headless-services/spring-boot-language-server/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationYamlEditorTest.java b/headless-services/spring-boot-language-server/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationYamlEditorTest.java
index 846014033..ba41d8d22 100644
--- a/headless-services/spring-boot-language-server/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationYamlEditorTest.java
+++ b/headless-services/spring-boot-language-server/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationYamlEditorTest.java
@@ -90,6 +90,23 @@ public class ApplicationYamlEditorTest extends AbstractPropsEditorTest {
 	
 	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 	
+	@Test public void GH_190_tolerate_placeholders_without_quotes() throws Exception {
+		//See: https://github.com/spring-projects/sts4/issues/190
+		data("info.build", "java.util.Map<String,String>", null, null);
+		Editor editor = harness.newEditor(
+				"info:\n" + 
+				"  build:\n" + 
+				"    artifact: @project.artifactId@\n" + 
+				"    name: @project.name@\n" + 
+				"    description: @project.description@\n" + 
+				"    version: @project.version@\n" +
+				"bad: problem"
+		);
+		editor.assertProblems(
+				"bad|Unknown"
+		);
+	}
+	
 	@Test public void GH_449_inheritedPropertiesInListValues() throws Exception {
 		//See: https://github.com/spring-projects/sts4/issues/449
 		MavenJavaProject p = createPredefinedMavenProject("gh_449");