diff --git a/agent/config/builder.go b/agent/config/builder.go
index 9cd5956ed0..031c4b0cf9 100644
--- a/agent/config/builder.go
+++ b/agent/config/builder.go
@@ -635,17 +635,16 @@ func (b *Builder) Build() (rt RuntimeConfig, err error) {
 
 	var configEntries []structs.ConfigEntry
 
-	if len(c.ConfigEntries.Bootstrap.ProxyDefaults) > 0 {
-		for name, config := range c.ConfigEntries.Bootstrap.ProxyDefaults {
-			if name != structs.ProxyConfigGlobal {
-				return RuntimeConfig{}, fmt.Errorf("invalid config.proxy_defaults name (%q), only %q is supported", name, structs.ProxyConfigGlobal)
+	if len(c.ConfigEntries.Bootstrap) > 0 {
+		for i, rawEntry := range c.ConfigEntries.Bootstrap {
+			entry, err := structs.DecodeConfigEntry(rawEntry)
+			if err != nil {
+				return RuntimeConfig{}, fmt.Errorf("config_entries.bootstrap[%d]: %s", i, err)
 			}
-
-			configEntries = append(configEntries, &structs.ProxyConfigEntry{
-				Kind:   structs.ProxyDefaults,
-				Name:   structs.ProxyConfigGlobal,
-				Config: config,
-			})
+			if err := entry.Validate(); err != nil {
+				return RuntimeConfig{}, fmt.Errorf("config_entries.bootstrap[%d]: %s", i, err)
+			}
+			configEntries = append(configEntries, entry)
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/agent/config/config.go b/agent/config/config.go
index 1e769118d6..9cbfa2ad32 100644
--- a/agent/config/config.go
+++ b/agent/config/config.go
@@ -97,6 +97,8 @@ func Parse(data string, format string) (c Config, err error) {
 		"services.connect.sidecar_service.checks",
 		"service.connect.sidecar_service.proxy.upstreams",
 		"services.connect.sidecar_service.proxy.upstreams",
+
+		"config_entries.bootstrap",
 	})
 
 	// There is a difference of representation of some fields depending on
@@ -654,9 +656,10 @@ type Tokens struct {
 }
 
 type ConfigEntries struct {
-	Bootstrap ConfigEntriesBootstrap `json:"bootstrap,omitempty" hcl:"bootstrap" mapstructure:"bootstrap"`
-}
-
-type ConfigEntriesBootstrap struct {
-	ProxyDefaults map[string]map[string]interface{} `json:"proxy_defaults,omitempty" hcl:"proxy_defaults" mapstructure:"proxy_defaults"`
+	// Bootstrap is the list of config_entries that should only be persisted to
+	// cluster on initial startup of a new leader if no such config exists
+	// already. The type is map not structs.ConfigEntry for decoding reasons - we
+	// need to figure out the right concrete type before we can decode it
+	// unabiguously.
+	Bootstrap []map[string]interface{} `json:"bootstrap,omitempty" hcl:"bootstrap" mapstructure:"bootstrap"`
 }
diff --git a/agent/config/runtime_test.go b/agent/config/runtime_test.go
index 18d9a7e354..5a7515c26b 100644
--- a/agent/config/runtime_test.go
+++ b/agent/config/runtime_test.go
@@ -2693,6 +2693,82 @@ func TestConfigFlagsAndEdgecases(t *testing.T) {
 				}
 			},
 		},
+
+		// ------------------------------------------------------------
+		// ConfigEntry Handling
+		//
+		{
+			desc: "ConfigEntry bootstrap doesn't parse",
+			args: []string{`-data-dir=` + dataDir},
+			json: []string{`{
+				"config_entries": {
+					"bootstrap": [
+						{
+							"foo": "bar"
+						}
+					]
+				}
+			}`},
+			hcl: []string{`
+			config_entries {
+				bootstrap {
+					foo = "bar"
+				}
+			}`},
+			err: "config_entries.bootstrap[0]: Payload does not contain a kind/Kind",
+		},
+		{
+			desc: "ConfigEntry bootstrap unknown kind",
+			args: []string{`-data-dir=` + dataDir},
+			json: []string{`{
+				"config_entries": {
+					"bootstrap": [
+						{
+							"kind": "foo",
+							"name": "bar",
+							"baz": 1
+						}
+					]
+				}
+			}`},
+			hcl: []string{`
+			config_entries {
+				bootstrap {
+					kind = "foo"
+					name = "bar"
+					baz = 1
+				}
+			}`},
+			err: "config_entries.bootstrap[0]: invalid config entry kind: foo",
+		},
+		{
+			desc: "ConfigEntry bootstrap invalid",
+			args: []string{`-data-dir=` + dataDir},
+			json: []string{`{
+				"config_entries": {
+					"bootstrap": [
+						{
+							"kind": "proxy-defaults",
+							"name": "invalid-name",
+							"config": {
+								"foo": "bar"
+							}
+						}
+					]
+				}
+			}`},
+			hcl: []string{`
+			config_entries {
+				bootstrap {
+					kind = "proxy-defaults"
+					name = "invalid-name"
+					config {
+						foo = "bar"
+					}
+				}
+			}`},
+			err: "config_entries.bootstrap[0]: invalid name (\"invalid-name\"), only \"global\" is supported",
+		},
 	}
 
 	testConfig(t, tests, dataDir)
@@ -3009,14 +3085,16 @@ func TestFullConfig(t *testing.T) {
 			"check_update_interval": "16507s",
 			"client_addr": "93.83.18.19",
 			"config_entries": {
-				"bootstrap": {
-					"proxy_defaults": {
-						"global": {
+				"bootstrap": [
+					{
+						"kind": "proxy-defaults",
+						"name": "global",
+						"config": {
 							"foo": "bar",
 							"bar": 1.0
 						}
 					}
-				}
+				]
 			},
 			"connect": {
 				"ca_provider": "consul",
@@ -3573,9 +3651,14 @@ func TestFullConfig(t *testing.T) {
 			check_update_interval = "16507s"
 			client_addr = "93.83.18.19"
 			config_entries {
-				bootstrap proxy_defaults global {
-					foo = "bar"
-					bar = 1.0
+				# This is using the repeated block-to-array HCL magic
+				bootstrap {
+					kind = "proxy-defaults"
+					name = "global"
+					config {
+						foo = "bar"
+						bar = 1.0
+					}
 				}
 			}
 			connect {