diff --git a/cmd/config/cmds/cmds.go b/cmd/config/cmds/cmds.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..78235b8f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/config/cmds/cmds.go
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+// Copyright 2019 The Kubernetes Authors.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+// Package cmds provides a target for embedding the config command group in another
+// cobra command.
+package cmds
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/cmd/config/cmd"
+	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/cmd/config/cmddocs/api"
+)
+
+var root = &cobra.Command{
+	Use:     "config",
+	Short:   "Utilities for working with Resource Configuration.",
+	Long:    `Utilities for working with Resource Configuration.`,
+	Version: "v0.0.1",
+}
+
+// NewConfigCommand returns a new *cobra.Command for the config command group.  This may
+// be embedded into other go binaries as a way of packaging the "config" command as part
+// of another binary.
+//
+// name is substituted into the built-in documentation for each sub-command as the command
+// invocation prefix -- e.g. if the result is embedded in kustomize, then name should be
+// "kustomize" and the built-in docs will display "kustomize config" in the examples.
+//
+func NewConfigCommand(name string) *cobra.Command {
+	root.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&cmd.StackOnError, "stack-trace", false,
+		"print a stack-trace on failure")
+
+	name = strings.TrimSpace(name + " config")
+	cmd.ExitOnError = true
+	root.AddCommand(cmd.GrepCommand(name))
+	root.AddCommand(cmd.TreeCommand(name))
+	root.AddCommand(cmd.CatCommand(name))
+	root.AddCommand(cmd.FmtCommand(name))
+	root.AddCommand(cmd.MergeCommand(name))
+	root.AddCommand(cmd.CountCommand(name))
+	root.AddCommand(cmd.RunFnCommand(name))
+
+	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
+		Use:   "docs-merge",
+		Short: "Documentation for merging Resources (2-way merge).",
+		Long:  api.Merge2Long,
+	})
+	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
+		Use:   "docs-merge3",
+		Short: "Documentation for merging Resources (3-way merge).",
+		Long:  api.Merge3Long,
+	})
+	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
+		Use:   "docs-fn",
+		Short: "Documentation for writing containerized functions run by run-fns.",
+		Long:  api.ConfigFnLong,
+	})
+	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
+		Use:   "docs-io-annotations",
+		Short: "Documentation for annotations used by io.",
+		Long:  api.ConfigIoLong,
+	})
+	return root
+}
diff --git a/cmd/config/cmds/example_test.go b/cmd/config/cmds/example_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4634a2c02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/config/cmds/example_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+// Copyright 2019 The Kubernetes Authors.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+package cmds_test
+
+import (
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/cmd/config/cmds"
+)
+
+// ExampleNewConfigCommand demonstrates how to embed the config command as a command inside
+// another group.
+func ExampleNewConfigCommand() {
+	var root = &cobra.Command{
+		Use:   "my-cmd",
+		Short: "My command.",
+		Long:  `My command.`,
+	}
+	root.AddCommand(cmds.NewConfigCommand("my-cmd"))
+}
diff --git a/cmd/config/main.go b/cmd/config/main.go
index 7ae0c275f..520fe7f97 100644
--- a/cmd/config/main.go
+++ b/cmd/config/main.go
@@ -8,53 +8,11 @@ package main
 import (
 	"os"
 
-	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
-	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/cmd/config/cmd"
-	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/cmd/config/cmddocs/api"
+	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/cmd/config/cmds"
 )
 
-var root = &cobra.Command{
-	Use:   "config",
-	Short: "Utilities for working with Resource Configuration.",
-	Long:  `Utilities for working with Resource Configuration.`,
-}
-
 func main() {
-	root.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&cmd.StackOnError, "stack-trace", false,
-		"print a stack-trace on failure")
-
-	name := "config"
-	cmd.ExitOnError = true
-	root.AddCommand(cmd.GrepCommand(name))
-	root.AddCommand(cmd.TreeCommand(name))
-	root.AddCommand(cmd.CatCommand(name))
-	root.AddCommand(cmd.FmtCommand(name))
-	root.AddCommand(cmd.MergeCommand(name))
-	root.AddCommand(cmd.CountCommand(name))
-	root.AddCommand(cmd.RunFnCommand(name))
-
-	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
-		Use:   "docs-merge",
-		Short: "Documentation for merging Resources (2-way merge).",
-		Long:  api.Merge2Long,
-	})
-	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
-		Use:   "docs-merge3",
-		Short: "Documentation for merging Resources (3-way merge).",
-		Long:  api.Merge3Long,
-	})
-	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
-		Use:   "docs-fn",
-		Short: "Documentation for writing containerized functions run by run-fns.",
-		Long:  api.ConfigFnLong,
-	})
-	root.AddCommand(&cobra.Command{
-		Use:   "docs-io-annotations",
-		Short: "Documentation for annotations used by io.",
-		Long:  api.ConfigIoLong,
-	})
-
-	if err := root.Execute(); err != nil {
+	if err := cmds.NewConfigCommand("").Execute(); err != nil {
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
 }