diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7ca9ac1..259c15b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ kubeconfig_location: "{{env(KUBECONFIG)}}"
 ```
 
 
-## himl config merger
+## himl-config-merger
 
 The `himl-config-merger` script, contains logic of merging a hierarchical config directory and creating the end result YAML files.
 
@@ -343,6 +343,56 @@ Leveraging HIML, the config-merger script loads the configs tree structure and d
 
 Under each level, there is a mandatory "level key" that is used by config-merger for computing the end result. This key should be present in one of the files under each level. (eg. env.yaml under env).
 
+### Output filtering
+
+Some configs that are specified in the higher levels of the directory tree might not be needed in the end (leaf) result. For this reason, the config-merger script can apply a set of filter rules that are specified via the `--filter-rules-key` parameter. This property must be present in the config and contains rules for removing root level keys from the output. The filter is applied if the selector object matches a subset of the output keys and will keep the keys specified in the `values` list or the keys that match the `regex` pattern.
+
+
+```yaml
+# intermediate config after hierarchical merge
+env: dev
+cluster: cluster1
+region: us-east-1
+key1: persisted
+key2: dropped
+keep_1: persisted
+tags:
+  cost_center: 123
+_filters:
+- selector:
+    env: "dev"
+  keys:
+    values:
+    - key1
+    regex: "keep_.*"
+- selector:
+    cluster:
+      regex: "cluster1"
+  keys:
+    values:
+    - tags
+```
+
+Build the output with filtering:
+```sh
+himl-config-merger examples/filters --output-dir merged_output --levels env region cluster --leaf-directories cluster --filter-rules-key _filters
+```
+
+```yaml
+# output after filtering
+env: dev
+cluster: cluster1
+region: us-east-1
+key1: persisted
+keep_1: persisted
+tags:
+  cost_center: 123
+```
+#### Filtering limitations
+
+Rule selectors and keys filtering only works at the root level of the config. It is not possible to filter nested keys.
+
+
 ### Extra merger features
 
 Apart from the standard features found in the `PyYaml` library, the `himl-config-merger` component also implements a custom YAML tag called `!include`.
diff --git a/examples/filters/default.yaml b/examples/filters/default.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68755f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/default.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+env: default
+region: default
+cluster: default
+
+cluster_info:
+  name: default # this will be overridden by the inner cluster.yaml file
+
+  # Interpolation example
+  description: "This is cluster: {{cluster}}. It is using {{cluster_info.node_type}} instance type."
+  node_type: c3.2xlarge # default value, which can be overridden by each cluster
+cluster_metrics:
+  - id: 1
+    metric: cpu
+    value: 90
+  - id: 2
+    metric: memory
+    value: 90
+  - id: 3
+    metric: disk
+    value: 90
+metrics:
+  - cpu
+  - memory
+  - disk
+myList:
+ - id1
+ - id4
+# Fetching the secret value at runtime, from a secrets store (in this case AWS SSM).
+# passphrase: "{{ssm.path(/key/coming/from/aws/secrets/store/manager).aws_profile(myprofile)}}"
+
+# Fetching the value at runtime from S3
+# my_secret: "{{s3.bucket(my-bucket).path(path/to/file.txt).base64encode(true).aws_profile(myprofile)}}"
+
+
+_filters:
+  # Keep _filters key for all outputs. No selector matches all outputs by default.
+  # - keys:
+  #     values:
+  #     - "_filters"
+
+  - selector:
+      cluster: "cluster.*"
+    keys:
+      values:
+      - persisted_key
+      # - persisted_key_referenced
+      # - persisted_key_to_drop
+      # - persisted_key_to_drop2
+      # - cluster_persisted_object
+      # - cluster_persisted_list
+
+  - selector:
+      cluster: cluster1
+    keys:
+      values:
+        - testkey
+        - home
+        - cluster_persisted_key
+
+  - selector:
+      cluster: cluster2
+    keys:
+      values:
+        - metrics
+        - myList
+      regex: ".*persisted.*"
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=dev/env.yaml b/examples/filters/env=dev/env.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44389fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=dev/env.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+env: dev
+persisted_key: &persisted persisted key
+dropped_key: &dropped object will be filtered out
+persisted_key_referenced: *persisted
+persisted_key_to_drop: *dropped
+persisted_key_to_drop2: *dropped
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/cluster=cluster1/cluster.yaml b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/cluster=cluster1/cluster.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af86b70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/cluster=cluster1/cluster.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+cluster: cluster1
+
+testkey: |-
+  # Set to true to log user information returned from LDAP
+    verbose_logging = true
+
+    [[servers]]
+    # Ldap server host
+    host = "someaddress"
+
+    # Default port is 389 or 636 if use_ssl = true
+    port = 389
+
+    start_tls = true
+
+cluster_persisted_key: this object will be persisted
+cluster_filtered_key: this object will be filtered out
+cluster_persisted_list: "{{ myList }}"
+cluster_persisted_object:
+  cluster_info: "{{ cluster_info }}"
+  cluster_list: "{{ myList }}"
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/cluster=cluster2/cluster.yaml b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/cluster=cluster2/cluster.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a37034
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/cluster=cluster2/cluster.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+cluster: cluster2
+cluster_metrics:
+  - id: 1
+    metric: cpu
+    value: 95
+  - id: 2
+    metric: memory
+    value: 95
+  - id: 3
+    metric: disk
+    remove: True
+  - metric: exec
+    value: 5
+metrics:
+  - cpu
+  - exec
+myList:
+ - id1
+ - id2
+ - id3
+persisted_key: this object will be persisted
+dropped_key: this object will be dropped
+another_persisted_key: this object will also be persisted
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/region.yaml b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/region.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bfc3ab4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-east-1/region.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+region: us-east-1
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-west-2/cluster=cluster1/cluster.yaml b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-west-2/cluster=cluster1/cluster.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9fbe122
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-west-2/cluster=cluster1/cluster.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+cluster: cluster1
+home: "{{env(HOME)}}"
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-west-2/region.yaml b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-west-2/region.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b40416
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=dev/region=us-west-2/region.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+region: us-west-2
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=prod/env.yaml b/examples/filters/env=prod/env.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fdef9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=prod/env.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+env: prod
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=prod/region=eu-west-2/cluster=ireland1/cluster.yaml b/examples/filters/env=prod/region=eu-west-2/cluster=ireland1/cluster.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6338928
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=prod/region=eu-west-2/cluster=ireland1/cluster.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+cluster: ireland1
+
+file: "{{cwd}}/test.txt"
diff --git a/examples/filters/env=prod/region=eu-west-2/region.yaml b/examples/filters/env=prod/region=eu-west-2/region.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3e650d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/filters/env=prod/region=eu-west-2/region.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+region: eu-west-2
diff --git a/himl/config_merger.py b/himl/config_merger.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 670d406..1bb53c9
--- a/himl/config_merger.py
+++ b/himl/config_merger.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 import yaml
 from .config_generator import ConfigProcessor
 from multiprocessing import Pool, cpu_count
-
+from .filter_rules import FilterRules
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ def __traverse_path(self, path: str, yaml_dict: dict):
                 current_key, yaml_dict))
 
 
-def merge_configs(directories, levels, output_dir, enable_parallel):
+def merge_configs(directories, levels, output_dir, enable_parallel, filter_rules):
     """
     Method for running the merge configuration logic under different formats
     :param directories: list of paths for leaf directories
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ def merge_configs(directories, levels, output_dir, enable_parallel):
     config_processor = ConfigProcessor()
     process_config = []
     for path in directories:
-        process_config.append((config_processor, path, levels, output_dir))
+        process_config.append((config_processor, path, levels, output_dir, filter_rules))
 
     if enable_parallel:
         logger.info("Processing config in parallel")
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ def merge_logic(process_params):
     path = process_params[1]
     levels = process_params[2]
     output_dir = process_params[3]
+    filter_rules = process_params[4]
 
     # load the !include tag
     Loader.add_constructor('!include', Loader.include)
@@ -121,6 +122,12 @@ def merge_logic(process_params):
     if not os.path.exists(publish_path):
         os.makedirs(publish_path)
 
+    if filter_rules:
+        if filter_rules not in output:
+            raise Exception("Filter rule key '{}' not found in config".format(filter_rules))
+        filter = FilterRules(output[filter_rules], levels)
+        filter.run(output)
+
     # create the yaml file for output using the publish_path and last level_values element
     filename = "{0}/{1}.yaml".format(publish_path, level_values[-1])
     logger.info("Found input config directory: %s", path)
@@ -171,6 +178,8 @@ def parser_options(args):
                         help='leaf directories, for instance: cluster', required=True)
     parser.add_argument('--enable-parallel', dest='enable_parallel', default=False,
                         action='store_true', help='Process config using multiprocessing')
+    parser.add_argument('--filter-rules-key', dest='filter_rules', default=None, type=str,
+                        help='keep these keys from the generated data, based on the configured filter key')
     return parser.parse_args(args)
 
 
@@ -182,4 +191,4 @@ def run(args=None):
 
     # merge the configs using HIML
     merge_configs(dirs, opts.hierarchy_levels,
-                  opts.output_dir, opts.enable_parallel)
+                  opts.output_dir, opts.enable_parallel, opts.filter_rules)
diff --git a/himl/filter_rules.py b/himl/filter_rules.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6776ea7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/himl/filter_rules.py
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import re
+
+
+class FilterRules(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, rules, levels):
+        self.rules = rules
+        self.levels = levels
+
+    def run(self, output):
+
+        removable_keys = set(output.keys()) - set(self.levels)
+
+        for filter in self.rules:
+            selector = filter.get("selector", {})
+            if type(selector) != dict:
+                raise Exception("Filter selector must be a dictionary")
+
+            if not self.match(output, selector):
+                continue
+
+            keys = filter.get("keys")
+            if "values" in keys:
+                removable_keys = removable_keys - set(keys["values"])
+            if "regex" in keys:
+                key_re = re.compile(keys["regex"])
+                removable_keys = {k for k in removable_keys if not key_re.match(k)}
+
+        for key in removable_keys:
+            del output[key]
+
+    def match(self, output, selector):
+        for key, pattern in selector.items():
+            value = "" if key not in output else output[key]
+            if not re.match(pattern, value):
+                return False
+        return True
diff --git a/himl/main.py b/himl/main.py
index 2eeb400..904a2b3 100644
--- a/himl/main.py
+++ b/himl/main.py
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ def do_run(self, opts):
             opts.print_data = True
 
         config_processor = ConfigProcessor()
-                                 
-        config_processor.process(cwd, opts.path, filters, excluded_keys, opts.enclosing_key, opts.remove_enclosing_key,
+
+        config_processor.process(cwd, opts.path, filters, filter_config, excluded_keys, opts.enclosing_key, opts.remove_enclosing_key,
                                  opts.output_format, opts.print_data, opts.output_file, opts.skip_interpolation_resolving,
                                  opts.skip_interpolation_validation, opts.skip_secrets, opts.multi_line_string,
                                  type_strategies= [(list, [opts.merge_list_strategy.value]), (dict, ["merge"])] )