diff --git a/doc/source/tune-config.rst b/doc/source/tune-config.rst
index 3dd7da4b0..2dba809a9 100644
--- a/doc/source/tune-config.rst
+++ b/doc/source/tune-config.rst
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ dictionary.
             "trial_resources": { "cpu": 1, "gpu": 0 },
             "stop": { "mean_accuracy": 100 },
             "config": {
-                "alpha": grid_search([0.2, 0.4, 0.6]),
-                "beta": grid_search([1, 2]),
+                "alpha": tune.grid_search([0.2, 0.4, 0.6]),
+                "beta": tune.grid_search([1, 2]),
             },
             "upload_dir": "s3://your_bucket/path",
             "local_dir": "~/ray_results",
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ An example of this can be found in `async_hyperband_example.py <https://github.c
 Trial Variant Generation
 ------------------------
 
-In the above example, we specified a grid search over two parameters using the ``grid_search`` helper function. Ray Tune also supports sampling parameters from user-specified lambda functions, which can be used in combination with grid search.
+In the above example, we specified a grid search over two parameters using the ``tune.grid_search`` helper function. Ray Tune also supports sampling parameters from user-specified lambda functions, which can be used in combination with grid search.
 
 The following shows grid search over two nested parameters combined with random sampling from two lambda functions. Note that the value of ``beta`` depends on the value of ``alpha``, which is represented by referencing ``spec.config.alpha`` in the lambda function. This lets you specify conditional parameter distributions.
 
@@ -59,14 +59,18 @@ The following shows grid search over two nested parameters combined with random
         "alpha": lambda spec: np.random.uniform(100),
         "beta": lambda spec: spec.config.alpha * np.random.normal(),
         "nn_layers": [
-            grid_search([16, 64, 256]),
-            grid_search([16, 64, 256]),
+            tune.grid_search([16, 64, 256]),
+            tune.grid_search([16, 64, 256]),
         ],
     },
     "repeat": 10,
 
 By default, each random variable and grid search point is sampled once. To take multiple random samples or repeat grid search runs, add ``repeat: N`` to the experiment config. E.g. in the above, ``"repeat": 10`` repeats the 3x3 grid search 10 times, for a total of 90 trials, each with randomly sampled values of ``alpha`` and ``beta``.
 
+.. note::
+
+    Lambda functions will be evaluated during trial variant generation. If you need to pass a literal function in your config, use ``tune.function(...)`` to escape it.
+
 For more information on variant generation, see `basic_variant.py <https://github.com/ray-project/ray/blob/master/python/ray/tune/suggest/basic_variant.py>`__.
 
 Resource Allocation
diff --git a/python/ray/rllib/examples/multiagent_cartpole.py b/python/ray/rllib/examples/multiagent_cartpole.py
index 767bf84aa..8faeb184b 100644
--- a/python/ray/rllib/examples/multiagent_cartpole.py
+++ b/python/ray/rllib/examples/multiagent_cartpole.py
@@ -17,10 +17,10 @@ import gym
 import random
 
 import ray
-from ray.rllib.agents.pg.pg import PGAgent
+from ray import tune
 from ray.rllib.agents.pg.pg_policy_graph import PGPolicyGraph
 from ray.rllib.test.test_multi_agent_env import MultiCartpole
-from ray.tune.logger import pretty_print
+from ray.tune import run_experiments
 from ray.tune.registry import register_env
 
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
@@ -53,16 +53,19 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     }
     policy_ids = list(policy_graphs.keys())
 
-    agent = PGAgent(
-        env="multi_cartpole",
-        config={
-            "multiagent": {
-                "policy_graphs": policy_graphs,
-                "policy_mapping_fn": (
-                    lambda agent_id: random.choice(policy_ids)),
+    run_experiments({
+        "test": {
+            "run": "PG",
+            "env": "multi_cartpole",
+            "stop": {
+                "training_iteration": args.num_iters
             },
-        })
-
-    for i in range(args.num_iters):
-        print("== Iteration", i, "==")
-        print(pretty_print(agent.train()))
+            "config": {
+                "multiagent": {
+                    "policy_graphs": policy_graphs,
+                    "policy_mapping_fn": tune.function(
+                        lambda agent_id: random.choice(policy_ids)),
+                },
+            },
+        }
+    })
diff --git a/python/ray/tune/__init__.py b/python/ray/tune/__init__.py
index 535e728bc..83d4f4fde 100644
--- a/python/ray/tune/__init__.py
+++ b/python/ray/tune/__init__.py
@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ from ray.tune.tune import run_experiments
 from ray.tune.experiment import Experiment
 from ray.tune.registry import register_env, register_trainable
 from ray.tune.trainable import Trainable
-from ray.tune.suggest import grid_search
+from ray.tune.suggest import grid_search, function
 
 __all__ = [
     "Trainable", "TuneError", "grid_search", "register_env",
-    "register_trainable", "run_experiments", "Experiment"
+    "register_trainable", "run_experiments", "Experiment", "function"
 ]
diff --git a/python/ray/tune/suggest/__init__.py b/python/ray/tune/suggest/__init__.py
index f237a7f33..f0146ca5e 100644
--- a/python/ray/tune/suggest/__init__.py
+++ b/python/ray/tune/suggest/__init__.py
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@ from ray.tune.suggest.search import SearchAlgorithm
 from ray.tune.suggest.basic_variant import BasicVariantGenerator
 from ray.tune.suggest.suggestion import SuggestionAlgorithm
 from ray.tune.suggest.hyperopt import HyperOptSearch
-from ray.tune.suggest.variant_generator import grid_search
+from ray.tune.suggest.variant_generator import grid_search, function
 
 __all__ = [
     "SearchAlgorithm", "BasicVariantGenerator", "HyperOptSearch",
-    "SuggestionAlgorithm", "grid_search"
+    "SuggestionAlgorithm", "grid_search", "function"
 ]
diff --git a/python/ray/tune/suggest/variant_generator.py b/python/ray/tune/suggest/variant_generator.py
index bbd7f9f36..866f7d262 100644
--- a/python/ray/tune/suggest/variant_generator.py
+++ b/python/ray/tune/suggest/variant_generator.py
@@ -51,6 +51,16 @@ def grid_search(values):
     return {"grid_search": values}
 
 
+class function(object):
+    """Wraps `func` to make sure it is not expanded during resolution."""
+
+    def __init__(self, func):
+        self.func = func
+
+    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        return self.func(*args, **kwargs)
+
+
 _STANDARD_IMPORTS = {
     "random": random,
     "np": numpy,