diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/interfaces.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/interfaces.go
index bded5bf1591..acb0d24e7c7 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/interfaces.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/interfaces.go
@@ -39,11 +39,30 @@ type GroupVersioner interface {
 	KindForGroupVersionKinds(kinds []schema.GroupVersionKind) (target schema.GroupVersionKind, ok bool)
 }
 
+// Identifier represents an identifier.
+// Identitier of two different objects should be equal if and only if for every
+// input the output they produce is exactly the same.
+type Identifier string
+
 // Encoder writes objects to a serialized form
 type Encoder interface {
 	// Encode writes an object to a stream. Implementations may return errors if the versions are
 	// incompatible, or if no conversion is defined.
 	Encode(obj Object, w io.Writer) error
+	// Identifier returns an identifier of the encoder.
+	// Identifiers of two different encoders should be equal if and only if for every input
+	// object it will be encoded to the same representation by both of them.
+	//
+	// Identifier is inteted for use with CacheableObject#CacheEncode method. In order to
+	// correctly handle CacheableObject, Encode() method should look similar to below, where
+	// doEncode() is the encoding logic of implemented encoder:
+	//   func (e *MyEncoder) Encode(obj Object, w io.Writer) error {
+	//     if co, ok := obj.(CacheableObject); ok {
+	//       return co.CacheEncode(e.Identifier(), e.doEncode, w)
+	//     }
+	//     return e.doEncode(obj, w)
+	//   }
+	Identifier() Identifier
 }
 
 // Decoder attempts to load an object from data.
@@ -256,6 +275,27 @@ type Object interface {
 	DeepCopyObject() Object
 }
 
+// CacheableObject allows an object to cache its different serializations
+// to avoid performing the same serialization multiple times.
+type CacheableObject interface {
+	// CacheEncode writes an object to a stream. The <encode> function will
+	// be used in case of cache miss. The <encode> function takes ownership
+	// of the object.
+	// If CacheableObject is a wrapper, then deep-copy of the wrapped object
+	// should be passed to <encode> function.
+	// CacheEncode assumes that for two different calls with the same <id>,
+	// <encode> function will also be the same.
+	CacheEncode(id Identifier, encode func(Object, io.Writer) error, w io.Writer) error
+	// GetObject returns a deep-copy of an object to be encoded - the caller of
+	// GetObject() is the owner of returned object. The reason for making a copy
+	// is to avoid bugs, where caller modifies the object and forgets to copy it,
+	// thus modifying the object for everyone.
+	// The object returned by GetObject should be the same as the one that is supposed
+	// to be passed to <encode> function in CacheEncode method.
+	// If CacheableObject is a wrapper, the copy of wrapped object should be returned.
+	GetObject() Object
+}
+
 // Unstructured objects store values as map[string]interface{}, with only values that can be serialized
 // to JSON allowed.
 type Unstructured interface {