diff --git a/src/backend/src/util/objutil.js b/src/backend/src/util/objutil.js
index 8022cd2e1..6d635ad14 100644
--- a/src/backend/src/util/objutil.js
+++ b/src/backend/src/util/objutil.js
@@ -1,10 +1,16 @@
+const { config } = require("yargs");
 const { whatis } = require("./langutil");
 
+const DO_NOT_DEFINE = Symbol('DO_NOT_DEFINE');
+
 const createTransformedValues = (input, options = {}, state = {}) => {
     // initialize state
     if ( ! state.keys ) state.keys = [];
 
     if ( whatis(input) === 'array' ) {
+        if ( options.doNotProcessArrays ) {
+            return DO_NOT_DEFINE;
+        }
         const output = [];
         for ( let i=0 ; i < input.length; i++ ) {
             const value = input[i];
@@ -19,7 +25,10 @@ const createTransformedValues = (input, options = {}, state = {}) => {
         Object.setPrototypeOf(output, input);
         for ( const k in input ) {
             state.keys.push(k);
-            output[k] = createTransformedValues(input[k], options);
+            const new_value = createTransformedValues(input[k], options);
+            if ( new_value !== DO_NOT_DEFINE ) {
+                output[k] = new_value;
+            }
             state.keys.pop();
         }
         return output;
@@ -31,6 +40,21 @@ const createTransformedValues = (input, options = {}, state = {}) => {
     return value;
 };
 
+
+config.__set_config_object__(createTransformedValues(config, {
+    mutateValue: (input, { state }) => {
+        const path = state.keys.join('.'); // or jq
+        // ....
+        if ( should_replace ) {
+            return 'replacement';
+        } else {
+            return DO_NOT_DEFINE;
+        }
+    }
+}))
+
+
 module.exports = {
     createTransformedValues,
+    DO_NOT_DEFINE,
 };