diff --git a/pkg/runtime/codec.go b/pkg/runtime/codec.go
index 585df98924..640d6c3eb3 100644
--- a/pkg/runtime/codec.go
+++ b/pkg/runtime/codec.go
@@ -16,11 +16,47 @@ limitations under the License.
 
 package runtime
 
+import (
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util/yaml"
+)
+
 // CodecFor returns a Codec that invokes Encode with the provided version.
 func CodecFor(scheme *Scheme, version string) Codec {
 	return &codecWrapper{scheme, version}
 }
 
+// yamlCodec converts YAML passed to the Decoder methods to JSON.
+type yamlCodec struct {
+	// a Codec for JSON
+	Codec
+}
+
+// yamlCodec implements Codec
+var _ Codec = yamlCodec{}
+
+// YAMLDecoder adds YAML decoding support to a codec that supports JSON.
+func YAMLDecoder(codec Codec) Codec {
+	return &yamlCodec{codec}
+}
+
+func (c yamlCodec) Decode(data []byte) (Object, error) {
+	out, err := yaml.ToJSON(data)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	data = out
+	return c.Codec.Decode(data)
+}
+
+func (c yamlCodec) DecodeInto(data []byte, obj Object) error {
+	out, err := yaml.ToJSON(data)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	data = out
+	return c.Codec.DecodeInto(data, obj)
+}
+
 // EncodeOrDie is a version of Encode which will panic instead of returning an error. For tests.
 func EncodeOrDie(codec Codec, obj Object) string {
 	bytes, err := codec.Encode(obj)
diff --git a/pkg/util/yaml/decoder.go b/pkg/util/yaml/decoder.go
index e6e281b1c3..8dfc56cd82 100644
--- a/pkg/util/yaml/decoder.go
+++ b/pkg/util/yaml/decoder.go
@@ -27,6 +27,17 @@ import (
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
 )
 
+// ToJSON converts a single YAML document into a JSON document
+// or returns an error. If the document appears to be JSON the
+// YAML decoding path is not used (so that error messages are)
+// JSON specific.
+func ToJSON(data []byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	if hasJSONPrefix(data) {
+		return data, nil
+	}
+	return yaml.YAMLToJSON(data)
+}
+
 // YAMLToJSONDecoder decodes YAML documents from an io.Reader by
 // separating individual documents. It first converts the YAML
 // body to JSON, then unmarshals the JSON.
@@ -143,11 +154,19 @@ func (d *YAMLOrJSONDecoder) Decode(into interface{}) error {
 func guessJSONStream(r io.Reader, size int) (io.Reader, bool) {
 	buffer := bufio.NewReaderSize(r, size)
 	b, _ := buffer.Peek(size)
-	return buffer, hasPrefix(b, []byte("{"))
+	return buffer, hasJSONPrefix(b)
+}
+
+var jsonPrefix = []byte("{")
+
+// hasJSONPrefix returns true if the provided buffer appears to start with
+// a JSON open brace.
+func hasJSONPrefix(buf []byte) bool {
+	return hasPrefix(buf, jsonPrefix)
 }
 
 // Return true if the first non-whitespace bytes in buf is
-// prefix
+// prefix.
 func hasPrefix(buf []byte, prefix []byte) bool {
 	trim := bytes.TrimLeftFunc(buf, unicode.IsSpace)
 	return bytes.HasPrefix(trim, prefix)