diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5e8362f6..4027e11a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -361,6 +361,7 @@ For example, this is a JSON version of an emitted RuntimeContainer struct:
 * *`contains $map $key`*: Returns `true` if `$map` contains `$key`. Takes maps from `string` to any type.
 * *`dir $path`*: Returns an array of filenames in the specified `$path`.
 * *`exists $path`*: Returns `true` if `$path` refers to an existing file or directory. Takes a string.
+* *`eval $templateName [$data]`*: Evaluates the named template like Go's built-in `template` action, but instead of writing out the result it returns the result as a string so that it can be post-processed.  The `$data` argument may be omitted, which is equivalent to passing `nil`.
 * *`groupBy $containers $fieldPath`*: Groups an array of `RuntimeContainer` instances based on the values of a field path expression `$fieldPath`. A field path expression is a dot-delimited list of map keys or struct member names specifying the path from container to a nested value, which must be a string. Returns a map from the value of the field path expression to an array of containers having that value. Containers that do not have a value for the field path in question are omitted.
 * *`groupByKeys $containers $fieldPath`*: Returns the same as `groupBy` but only returns the keys of the map.
 * *`groupByMulti $containers $fieldPath $sep`*: Like `groupBy`, but the string value specified by `$fieldPath` is first split by `$sep` into a list of strings. A container whose `$fieldPath` value contains a list of strings will show up in the map output under each of those strings.
diff --git a/internal/template/template.go b/internal/template/template.go
index c6711e29..3b8eaf80 100644
--- a/internal/template/template.go
+++ b/internal/template/template.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package template
 import (
 	"bufio"
 	"bytes"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
@@ -43,11 +44,27 @@ func getArrayValues(funcName string, entries interface{}) (*reflect.Value, error
 }
 
 func newTemplate(name string) *template.Template {
-	tmpl := template.New(name).Funcs(sprig.TxtFuncMap()).Funcs(template.FuncMap{
+	tmpl := template.New(name)
+	// The eval function is defined here because it must be a closure around tmpl.
+	eval := func(name string, args ...any) (string, error) {
+		buf := bytes.NewBuffer(nil)
+		data := any(nil)
+		if len(args) == 1 {
+			data = args[0]
+		} else if len(args) > 1 {
+			return "", errors.New("too many arguments")
+		}
+		if err := tmpl.ExecuteTemplate(buf, name, data); err != nil {
+			return "", err
+		}
+		return buf.String(), nil
+	}
+	tmpl.Funcs(sprig.TxtFuncMap()).Funcs(template.FuncMap{
 		"closest":                arrayClosest,
 		"coalesce":               coalesce,
 		"contains":               contains,
 		"dir":                    dirList,
+		"eval":                   eval,
 		"exists":                 utils.PathExists,
 		"groupBy":                groupBy,
 		"groupByKeys":            groupByKeys,
diff --git a/internal/template/template_test.go b/internal/template/template_test.go
index da55f762..3fc2805c 100644
--- a/internal/template/template_test.go
+++ b/internal/template/template_test.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package template
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"errors"
 	"reflect"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -13,7 +14,7 @@ import (
 type templateTestList []struct {
 	tmpl     string
 	context  interface{}
-	expected string
+	expected interface{}
 }
 
 func (tests templateTestList) run(t *testing.T) {
@@ -21,6 +22,11 @@ func (tests templateTestList) run(t *testing.T) {
 		test := test
 		t.Run(strconv.Itoa(n), func(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Parallel()
+			wantErr, _ := test.expected.(error)
+			want, ok := test.expected.(string)
+			if !ok && wantErr == nil {
+				t.Fatalf("test bug: want a string or error for .expected, got %v", test.expected)
+			}
 			tmpl, err := newTemplate("testTemplate").Parse(test.tmpl)
 			if err != nil {
 				t.Fatalf("Template parse failed: %v", err)
@@ -28,13 +34,17 @@ func (tests templateTestList) run(t *testing.T) {
 
 			var b bytes.Buffer
 			err = tmpl.ExecuteTemplate(&b, "testTemplate", test.context)
+			got := b.String()
 			if err != nil {
+				if wantErr != nil {
+					return
+				}
 				t.Fatalf("Error executing template: %v", err)
+			} else if wantErr != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("Expected error, got %v", got)
 			}
-
-			got := b.String()
-			if test.expected != got {
-				t.Fatalf("Incorrect output found; expected %s, got %s", test.expected, got)
+			if want != got {
+				t.Fatalf("Incorrect output found; want %#v, got %#v", want, got)
 			}
 		})
 	}
@@ -151,3 +161,35 @@ func TestSprig(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestEval(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		desc string
+		tts  templateTestList
+	}{
+		{"undefined", templateTestList{
+			{`{{eval "missing"}}`, nil, errors.New("")},
+			{`{{eval "missing" nil}}`, nil, errors.New("")},
+			{`{{eval "missing" "abc"}}`, nil, errors.New("")},
+			{`{{eval "missing" "abc" "def"}}`, nil, errors.New("")},
+		}},
+		// The purpose of the "ctx" context is to assert that $ and . inside the template is the
+		// eval argument, not the global context.
+		{"noArg", templateTestList{
+			{`{{define "T"}}{{$}}{{.}}{{end}}{{eval "T"}}`, "ctx", "<no value><no value>"},
+		}},
+		{"nilArg", templateTestList{
+			{`{{define "T"}}{{$}}{{.}}{{end}}{{eval "T" nil}}`, "ctx", "<no value><no value>"},
+		}},
+		{"oneArg", templateTestList{
+			{`{{define "T"}}{{$}}{{.}}{{end}}{{eval "T" "arg"}}`, "ctx", "argarg"},
+		}},
+		{"moreThanOneArg", templateTestList{
+			{`{{define "T"}}{{$}}{{.}}{{end}}{{eval "T" "a" "b"}}`, "ctx", errors.New("")},
+		}},
+	} {
+		t.Run(tc.desc, func(t *testing.T) {
+			tc.tts.run(t)
+		})
+	}
+}