diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index 96f9815d..9a15a450 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -78,6 +78,10 @@ yq -P sample.json
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&yqlib.ConfiguredXMLPreferences.SkipProcInst, "xml-skip-proc-inst", yqlib.ConfiguredXMLPreferences.SkipProcInst, "skip over process instructions (e.g. <?xml version=\"1\"?>)")
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&yqlib.ConfiguredXMLPreferences.SkipDirectives, "xml-skip-directives", yqlib.ConfiguredXMLPreferences.SkipDirectives, "skip over directives (e.g. <!DOCTYPE thing cat>)")
 
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&yqlib.ConfiguredLuaPreferences.DocPrefix, "lua-prefix", yqlib.ConfiguredLuaPreferences.DocPrefix, "prefix")
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&yqlib.ConfiguredLuaPreferences.DocSuffix, "lua-suffix", yqlib.ConfiguredLuaPreferences.DocSuffix, "suffix")
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&yqlib.ConfiguredLuaPreferences.UnquotedKeys, "lua-unquoted-keys", yqlib.ConfiguredLuaPreferences.UnquotedKeys, "output unquoted string keys (e.g. {foo=\"bar\"})")
+
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&nullInput, "null-input", "n", false, "Don't read input, simply evaluate the expression given. Useful for creating docs from scratch.")
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&noDocSeparators, "no-doc", "N", false, "Don't print document separators (---)")
 
diff --git a/cmd/utils.go b/cmd/utils.go
index b23135e8..a50f7048 100644
--- a/cmd/utils.go
+++ b/cmd/utils.go
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ func createEncoder(format yqlib.PrinterOutputFormat) (yqlib.Encoder, error) {
 	case yqlib.ShellVariablesOutputFormat:
 		return yqlib.NewShellVariablesEncoder(), nil
 	case yqlib.LuaOutputFormat:
-		return yqlib.NewLuaEncoder(), nil
+		return yqlib.NewLuaEncoder(yqlib.ConfiguredLuaPreferences), nil
 	}
 	return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid encoder: %v", format)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/yqlib/encoder_lua.go b/pkg/yqlib/encoder_lua.go
index ed0f6d48..aa44ddcf 100644
--- a/pkg/yqlib/encoder_lua.go
+++ b/pkg/yqlib/encoder_lua.go
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ func (le *luaEncoder) CanHandleAliases() bool {
 	return false
 }
 
-func NewLuaEncoder() Encoder {
+func NewLuaEncoder(prefs LuaPreferences) Encoder {
 	escape := strings.NewReplacer(
 		"\000", "\\000",
 		"\001", "\\001",
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ func NewLuaEncoder() Encoder {
 		"\\", "\\\\",
 		"\177", "\\127",
 	)
-	return &luaEncoder{"return ", ";\n", false, escape}
+	return &luaEncoder{prefs.DocPrefix, prefs.DocSuffix, prefs.UnquotedKeys, escape}
 }
 
 func (le *luaEncoder) PrintDocumentSeparator(writer io.Writer) error {
diff --git a/pkg/yqlib/lua.go b/pkg/yqlib/lua.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cbd8707c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/yqlib/lua.go
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+package yqlib
+
+type LuaPreferences struct {
+	DocPrefix    string
+	DocSuffix    string
+	UnquotedKeys bool
+}
+
+func NewDefaultLuaPreferences() LuaPreferences {
+	return LuaPreferences{
+		DocPrefix:    "return ",
+		DocSuffix:    ";\n",
+		UnquotedKeys: false,
+	}
+}
+
+var ConfiguredLuaPreferences = NewDefaultLuaPreferences()