You can use the following limits on your named parameters. AltoRouter will create the correct regexes for you.
* // Match all request URIs
[i] // Match an integer
[i:id] // Match an integer as 'id'
[a:action] // Match alphanumeric characters as 'action'
[h:key] // Match hexadecimal characters as 'key'
[:action] // Match anything up to the next / or end of the URI as 'action'
[create|edit:action] // Match either 'create' or 'edit' as 'action'