diff --git a/docs/kustomization.yaml b/docs/kustomization.yaml
index 315c6599d..ac377f5e8 100644
--- a/docs/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/docs/kustomization.yaml
@@ -115,3 +115,19 @@ patches:
 - service_port_8888.yaml
 - deployment_increase_replicas.yaml
 - deployment_increase_memory.yaml
+
+
+# Each entry in this list should be a relative path to
+# a file for custom resource definition(CRD).
+#
+# The presence of this field is to allow kustomize be
+# aware of CRDs and apply proper
+# transformation for any objects in those types.
+#
+# Typical use case: A CRD object refers to a ConfigMap object.
+# In kustomization, the ConfigMap object name may change by adding namePrefix or hashing
+# The name reference for this ConfigMap object in CRD object need to be
+# updated with namePrefix or hashing in the same way.
+crds:
+- crds/typeA.yaml
+- crds/typeB.yaml
diff --git a/pkg/app/application.go b/pkg/app/application.go
index 27bbf6ce5..d458853f9 100644
--- a/pkg/app/application.go
+++ b/pkg/app/application.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
 
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/constants"
+	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/crds"
 	interror "github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/internal/error"
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/loader"
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/resmap"
@@ -102,7 +103,11 @@ func (a *Application) loadCustomizedResMap() (resmap.ResMap, error) {
 	errs := &interror.KustomizationErrors{}
 	result, err := a.loadResMapFromBasesAndResources()
 	if err != nil {
-		errs.Append(errors.Wrap(err, "rawResources"))
+		errs.Append(errors.Wrap(err, "loadResMapFromBasesAndResources"))
+	}
+	err = crds.RegisterCRDs(a.loader, a.kustomization.CRDs)
+	if err != nil {
+		errs.Append(errors.Wrap(err, "RegisterCRDs"))
 	}
 
 	cms, err := resmap.NewResMapFromConfigMapArgs(a.loader, a.kustomization.ConfigMapGenerator)
diff --git a/pkg/crds/crds.go b/pkg/crds/crds.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..847bfad19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/crds/crds.go
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2018 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+// Package crds read in files for CRD schemas and parse annotations from it
+package crds
+
+import (
+	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/loader"
+)
+
+// RegisterCRDs parse CRD schemas from paths and update various pathConfigs
+func RegisterCRDs(loader loader.Loader, paths []string) error {
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotations_test.go b/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotations_test.go
index d4886f9b0..68037e05b 100644
--- a/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotations_test.go
+++ b/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotations_test.go
@@ -311,3 +311,23 @@ func TestAnnotationsRun(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("actual doesn't match expected: %v", err)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestAddPathConfigs(t *testing.T) {
+	aexpected := len(defaultAnnotationsPathConfigs) + 1
+	lexpected := len(defaultLabelsPathConfigs) + 1
+	pathConfigs := []PathConfig{
+		{
+			GroupVersionKind:   &schema.GroupVersionKind{Group: "GroupA", Kind: "KindB"},
+			Path:               []string{"path", "to", "a", "field"},
+			CreateIfNotPresent: true,
+		},
+	}
+	AddLabelsPathConfigs(pathConfigs)
+	AddAnnotationsPathConfigs(pathConfigs)
+	if len(defaultAnnotationsPathConfigs) != aexpected {
+		t.Fatalf("actual %v doesn't match expected: %v", len(defaultAnnotationsPathConfigs), aexpected)
+	}
+	if len(defaultLabelsPathConfigs) != lexpected {
+		t.Fatalf("actual %v doesn't match expected: %v", len(defaultLabelsPathConfigs), lexpected)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotationsconfig.go b/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotationsconfig.go
index 7156fee78..8248ffb2d 100644
--- a/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotationsconfig.go
+++ b/pkg/transformers/labelsandannotationsconfig.go
@@ -162,3 +162,13 @@ var defaultAnnotationsPathConfigs = []PathConfig{
 		CreateIfNotPresent: true,
 	},
 }
+
+// AddLabelsPathConfigs adds extra path configs to the default one
+func AddLabelsPathConfigs(pathConfigs []PathConfig) {
+	defaultLabelsPathConfigs = append(defaultLabelsPathConfigs, pathConfigs...)
+}
+
+// AddAnnotationsPathConfigs adds extra path configs to the default one
+func AddAnnotationsPathConfigs(pathConfigs []PathConfig) {
+	defaultAnnotationsPathConfigs = append(defaultAnnotationsPathConfigs, pathConfigs...)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/transformers/namereference_test.go b/pkg/transformers/namereference_test.go
index f7ce0edca..a66d3780c 100644
--- a/pkg/transformers/namereference_test.go
+++ b/pkg/transformers/namereference_test.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/resmap"
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/resource"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema"
 )
 
 func TestNameReferenceRun(t *testing.T) {
@@ -199,3 +200,29 @@ func TestNameReferenceRun(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("actual doesn't match expected: %v", err)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestAddNameReferencePathConfigs(t *testing.T) {
+	expected := len(defaultNameReferencePathConfigs) + 1
+
+	pathConfigs := []referencePathConfig{
+		{
+			referencedGVK: schema.GroupVersionKind{
+				Kind: "KindA",
+			},
+			pathConfigs: []PathConfig{
+				{
+					GroupVersionKind: &schema.GroupVersionKind{
+						Kind: "KindB",
+					},
+					Path:               []string{"path", "to", "a", "field"},
+					CreateIfNotPresent: false,
+				},
+			},
+		},
+	}
+
+	AddNameReferencePathConfigs(pathConfigs)
+	if len(defaultNameReferencePathConfigs) != expected {
+		t.Fatalf("actual %v doesn't match expected: %v", len(defaultAnnotationsPathConfigs), expected)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/transformers/namereferenceconfig.go b/pkg/transformers/namereferenceconfig.go
index 100f91d4a..dd0f83a03 100644
--- a/pkg/transformers/namereferenceconfig.go
+++ b/pkg/transformers/namereferenceconfig.go
@@ -733,3 +733,8 @@ var defaultNameReferencePathConfigs = []referencePathConfig{
 		},
 	},
 }
+
+// AddNameReferencePathConfigs adds extra reference path configs to the default one
+func AddNameReferencePathConfigs(r []referencePathConfig) {
+	defaultNameReferencePathConfigs = append(defaultNameReferencePathConfigs, r...)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/types/kustomization.go b/pkg/types/kustomization.go
index 146c302ef..52e5a4963 100644
--- a/pkg/types/kustomization.go
+++ b/pkg/types/kustomization.go
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ type Kustomization struct {
 	// URLs and globs.
 	Resources []string `json:"resources,omitempty" yaml:"resources,omitempty"`
 
+	// CRDs specifies relative paths to custom resource definition files.
+	CRDs []string `json:"crds,omitempty" yaml:"crds,omitempty"`
+
 	// An Patch entry is very similar to an Resource entry.
 	// It specifies the relative paths within the package, and could be any
 	// format that kubectl -f allows.