feat: annotation to disable list conversion

api/resource/factory.go

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
+	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/ifc"
@@ -189,6 +190,16 @@ func (rf *Factory) inlineAnyEmbeddedLists(
 	var n0 *yaml.RNode
 	for len(nodes) > 0 {
 		n0, nodes = nodes[0], nodes[1:]
+		annotations := n0.GetAnnotations()
+		convertToInlineList, err := strconv.ParseBool(annotations["kustomize.config.k8s.io/convertToInlineList"])
+		if err != nil {
+			convertToInlineList = true
+		}
+		if !convertToInlineList {
+			// if the annotation is set to true, then we should not convert the list to inline
+			result = append(result, n0)
+			continue
+		}
 		kind := n0.GetKind()
 		if !strings.HasSuffix(kind, "List") {
 			result = append(result, n0)