diff --git a/api/internal/target/kusttarget_configplugin.go b/api/internal/target/kusttarget_configplugin.go
index 9a3c63086fe..652f2ded0fd 100644
--- a/api/internal/target/kusttarget_configplugin.go
+++ b/api/internal/target/kusttarget_configplugin.go
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ func (kt *KustTarget) configureBuiltinTransformers(
 		builtinhelpers.ReplicaCountTransformer,
 		builtinhelpers.ImageTagTransformer,
 		builtinhelpers.ReplacementTransformer,
+		builtinhelpers.SortOrderTransformer,
 	} {
 		r, err := transformerConfigurators[bpt](
 			kt, bpt, builtinhelpers.TransformerFactories[bpt], tc)
@@ -418,6 +419,13 @@ var transformerConfigurators = map[builtinhelpers.BuiltinPluginType]func(
 		result = append(result, p)
 		return result, nil
 	},
+	builtinhelpers.SortOrderTransformer: func(
+		kt *KustTarget, bpt builtinhelpers.BuiltinPluginType, f tFactory, _ *builtinconfig.TransformerConfig) (
+		result []resmap.Transformer, err error) {
+		// SortOrderTransformer is only called for the top-level kustomization,
+		// so we don't wire the plugin here!
+		return result, nil
+	},
 	builtinhelpers.ReplicaCountTransformer: func(
 		kt *KustTarget, bpt builtinhelpers.BuiltinPluginType, f tFactory, tc *builtinconfig.TransformerConfig) (
 		result []resmap.Transformer, err error) {