diff --git a/pkg/skaffold/instrumentation/meter.go b/pkg/skaffold/instrumentation/meter.go
index 80af3c27960..6574fa0235f 100644
--- a/pkg/skaffold/instrumentation/meter.go
+++ b/pkg/skaffold/instrumentation/meter.go
@@ -66,5 +66,6 @@ func InitMeter(runCtx *runcontext.RunContext, config *latest.SkaffoldConfig) {
 			meter.SyncType[yamltags.GetYamlTag(artifact.Sync)] = true
 		}
 	}
+	meter.Deployers = yamltags.GetYamlTags(config.Deploy.DeployType)
 	meter.BuildArtifacts = len(config.Pipeline.Build.Artifacts)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags.go b/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags.go
index 24593010590..3f787f4260c 100644
--- a/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags.go
+++ b/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags.go
@@ -17,9 +17,12 @@ limitations under the License.
 package yamltags
 
 import (
+	"bufio"
+	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 	"strings"
+	"unicode"
 
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 
@@ -74,6 +77,39 @@ func GetYamlTag(value interface{}) string {
 	return rawStr[:i]
 }
 
+// GetYamlTags returns the tags of the non-nested fields of the given non-nil value
+// If value interface{} is
+// latest.DeployType{HelmDeploy: &HelmDeploy{...}, KustomizeDeploy: &KustomizeDeploy{...}}
+// then this parses that interface as it's raw yaml:
+// 	kubectl:
+//    manifests:
+//    - k8s/*.yaml
+//  kustomize:
+//    paths:
+//    - k8s/
+// and returns ["kubectl", "kustomize"]
+// empty structs (e.g. latest.DeployType{}) when parsed look like "{}"" and so this function returns []
+func GetYamlTags(value interface{}) []string {
+	var tags []string
+
+	buf, err := yaml.Marshal(value)
+	if err != nil {
+		logrus.Warnf("error marshaling %-v", value)
+		return tags
+	}
+
+	r := bufio.NewScanner(bytes.NewBuffer(buf))
+	for r.Scan() {
+		l := r.Text()
+		i := strings.Index(l, ":")
+		if !unicode.IsSpace(rune(l[0])) && l[0] != '-' && i >= 0 {
+			tags = append(tags, l[:i])
+		}
+	}
+
+	return tags
+}
+
 func processTags(yamltags string, val reflect.Value, parentStruct reflect.Value, field reflect.StructField) error {
 	tags := strings.Split(yamltags, ",")
 	for _, tag := range tags {
diff --git a/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags_test.go b/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags_test.go
index fa66239a0d0..037d4384fac 100644
--- a/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags_test.go
+++ b/pkg/skaffold/yamltags/tags_test.go
@@ -242,3 +242,57 @@ func TestGetYamlTag(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestGetYamlTags(t *testing.T) {
+	a := "it's A"
+	b := "it's B"
+	c := "it's C"
+
+	tests := []struct {
+		name         string
+		yaml         interface{}
+		expectedTags []string
+	}{
+		{
+			name:         "empty struct of pointers returns nil array",
+			yaml:         abc{},
+			expectedTags: nil,
+		},
+		{
+			name:         "subset of fields returns subset of tags",
+			yaml:         abc{B: &b, C: &c},
+			expectedTags: []string{"b", "c"},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "nested fields are not returned",
+			yaml: struct {
+				D      *string `yaml:"d"`
+				Nested *abc    `yaml:"nested"`
+			}{D: &a, Nested: &abc{A: &a, B: &b}},
+			expectedTags: []string{"d", "nested"},
+		},
+		{
+			name:         "only one field is returned if only one set",
+			yaml:         abc{C: &c},
+			expectedTags: []string{"c"},
+		},
+		{
+			name:         "non-pointer fields are returned in empty struct",
+			yaml:         struct{ A string }{},
+			expectedTags: []string{"a"},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "array fields are not included",
+			yaml: struct {
+				List []abc `yaml:"abcs"`
+			}{List: []abc{{A: &a}, {B: &b}}},
+			expectedTags: []string{"abcs"},
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		testutil.Run(t, test.name, func(t *testutil.T) {
+			t.CheckDeepEqual(test.expectedTags, GetYamlTags(test.yaml))
+		})
+	}
+}