diff --git a/api/internal/target/kusttarget.go b/api/internal/target/kusttarget.go
index 0fe3c6daf5..b05743e6f3 100644
--- a/api/internal/target/kusttarget.go
+++ b/api/internal/target/kusttarget.go
@@ -235,7 +235,18 @@ func (kt *KustTarget) runGenerators(
 
 func (kt *KustTarget) configureExternalGenerators() ([]resmap.Generator, error) {
 	ra := accumulator.MakeEmptyAccumulator()
-	ra, err := kt.accumulateResources(ra, kt.kustomization.Generators)
+	var generatorPaths []string
+	for _, p := range kt.kustomization.Generators {
+		// handle inline generators
+		rm, err := kt.rFactory.NewResMapFromBytes([]byte(p))
+		if err != nil {
+			// not an inline config
+			generatorPaths = append(generatorPaths, p)
+			continue
+		}
+		ra.AppendAll(rm)
+	}
+	ra, err := kt.accumulateResources(ra, generatorPaths)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -260,7 +271,18 @@ func (kt *KustTarget) runTransformers(ra *accumulator.ResAccumulator) error {
 
 func (kt *KustTarget) configureExternalTransformers(transformers []string) ([]resmap.Transformer, error) {
 	ra := accumulator.MakeEmptyAccumulator()
-	ra, err := kt.accumulateResources(ra, transformers)
+	var transformerPaths []string
+	for _, p := range transformers {
+		// handle inline transformers
+		rm, err := kt.rFactory.NewResMapFromBytes([]byte(p))
+		if err != nil {
+			// not an inline config
+			transformerPaths = append(transformerPaths, p)
+			continue
+		}
+		ra.AppendAll(rm)
+	}
+	ra, err := kt.accumulateResources(ra, transformerPaths)
 
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/api/krusty/inlinetransformer_test.go b/api/krusty/inlinetransformer_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f204e5a1c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/krusty/inlinetransformer_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+// Copyright 2019 The Kubernetes Authors.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+package krusty_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	kusttest_test "sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/testutils/kusttest"
+)
+
+func TestInlineTransformer(t *testing.T) {
+	th := kusttest_test.MakeEnhancedHarness(t)
+	defer th.Reset()
+
+	th.WriteF("/app/resource.yaml", `
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+kind: ConfigMap
+metadata:
+  name: whatever
+data: {}
+`)
+	th.WriteK("/app", `
+resources:
+- resource.yaml
+transformers:
+- |-
+  apiVersion: builtin
+  kind: NamespaceTransformer
+  metadata:
+    name: not-important-to-example
+    namespace: test
+  fieldSpecs:
+  - path: metadata/namespace
+    create: true
+`)
+
+	expected := `
+apiVersion: apps/v1
+data: {}
+kind: ConfigMap
+metadata:
+  name: whatever
+  namespace: test
+`
+
+	m := th.Run("/app", th.MakeDefaultOptions())
+	th.AssertActualEqualsExpected(m, expected)
+}
+
+func TestInlineGenerator(t *testing.T) {
+	th := kusttest_test.MakeEnhancedHarness(t)
+	defer th.Reset()
+
+	th.WriteK("/app", `
+generators:
+- |-
+  apiVersion: builtin
+  kind: ConfigMapGenerator
+  metadata:
+    name: mymap
+  literals:
+  - FRUIT=apple
+  - VEGETABLE=carrot
+`)
+
+	expected := `
+apiVersion: v1
+data:
+  FRUIT: apple
+  VEGETABLE: carrot
+kind: ConfigMap
+metadata:
+  name: mymap-kfd8tf729k
+`
+
+	m := th.Run("/app", th.MakeDefaultOptions())
+	th.AssertActualEqualsExpected(m, expected)
+}