diff --git a/lib/puppet/functions/inline_yaml.rb b/lib/puppet/functions/inline_yaml.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..92ea6f50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/puppet/functions/inline_yaml.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+require 'yaml'
+
+Puppet::Functions.create_function(:inline_yaml) do
+  dispatch :from_variable do
+    param 'Hash', :variable
+    optional_param 'Hash', :parameters
+    return_type 'String'
+  end
+
+  def from_variable(variable, parameters = {})
+    params = {
+      'header'       => '# File managed by puppet - modifications will be lost',
+      'indent_lines' => 0,
+    }.merge(parameters)
+
+    header = params['header']
+    indent_lines = params['indent_lines']
+
+    data = YAML.dump(variable).lines[1..-1].join.rstrip << "\n"
+    if indent_lines
+      data = data.each_line { |l| (' ' * indent_lines) + l }
+    end
+
+    if header
+      "#{header}\n#{data}"
+    else
+      data
+    end
+  end
+end
+