diff --git a/api/internal/plugins/builtinconfig/transformerconfig.go b/api/internal/plugins/builtinconfig/transformerconfig.go
index c539c290d5..82883e8e09 100644
--- a/api/internal/plugins/builtinconfig/transformerconfig.go
+++ b/api/internal/plugins/builtinconfig/transformerconfig.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ package builtinconfig
 import (
 	"log"
 	"sort"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/ifc"
@@ -78,8 +79,26 @@ func MakeDefaultConfig() *TransformerConfig {
 // MakeTransformerConfig returns a merger of custom config,
 // if any, with default config.
 func MakeTransformerConfig(
-	ldr ifc.Loader, paths []string) (*TransformerConfig, error) {
+	ldr ifc.Loader, configurations []string) (*TransformerConfig, error) {
 	t1 := MakeDefaultConfig()
+	if len(configurations) == 0 {
+		return t1, nil
+	}
+	var paths []string
+	for _, configuration := range configurations {
+		if !strings.Contains(configuration, "\n") && !strings.Contains(configuration, "\r") {
+			paths = append(paths, configuration)
+			continue
+		}
+		config, err := makeTransformerConfigFromBytes([]byte(configuration))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		t1, err = t1.Merge(config)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+	}
 	if len(paths) == 0 {
 		return t1, nil
 	}
diff --git a/api/krusty/customconfig_test.go b/api/krusty/customconfig_test.go
index a3d5253626..08002b92c4 100644
--- a/api/krusty/customconfig_test.go
+++ b/api/krusty/customconfig_test.go
@@ -336,6 +336,45 @@ spec:
 `)
 }
 
+func TestInlineConfig(t *testing.T) {
+	th := kusttest_test.MakeEnhancedHarness(t)
+	defer th.Reset()
+
+	th.WriteF("/app/resource.yaml", `
+apiVersion: config/v1
+kind: MyKind
+metadata:
+  name: testSvc
+spec:
+  container:
+    image: crd-image
+`)
+	th.WriteK("/app", `
+resources:
+- resource.yaml
+images:
+- name: crd-image
+  newName: new-crd-image
+  newTag: new-v1-tag
+configurations:
+- |-
+  images:
+  - kind: MyKind
+    path: spec/container/image
+`)
+
+	m := th.Run("/app", th.MakeDefaultOptions())
+	th.AssertActualEqualsExpected(m, `
+apiVersion: config/v1
+kind: MyKind
+metadata:
+  name: testSvc
+spec:
+  container:
+    image: new-crd-image:new-v1-tag
+`)
+}
+
 func TestLabelTransformerConfig(t *testing.T) {
 	testCases := []struct {
 		name              string