Sorry, replied too soon and then found my answer above:
in app.yml:
expose:
- "127.0.0.1:8888:80" # fwd host port 80 to container port 8888 (http)
- "2222:22" # fwd host port 22 to container port 2222 (ssh)
in /etc/nginx-sp/vhosts.d/discourse.d/main.conf (renamed to main.custom.conf as suggested):
location / {
proxy_pass $backend_protocol://$backend_host:8888;
}