diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/browser-rollup.config.js b/packages/compiler-cli/browser-rollup.config.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1de437b635
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/browser-rollup.config.js
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.
+ *
+ * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
+ * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.io/license
+ */
+
+import commonjs from 'rollup-plugin-commonjs';
+import * as path from 'path';
+
+import 'reflect-metadata';
+
+var m = /^\@angular\/((\w|\-)+)(\/(\w|\d|\/|\-)+)?$/;
+var location = normalize('../../dist/packages-dist') + '/';
+var rxjsLocation = normalize('../../node_modules/rxjs');
+var tslibLocation = normalize('../../node_modules/tslib');
+var esm = 'esm/';
+
+var locations = {
+  'tsc-wrapped': normalize('../../dist/tools/@angular') + '/',
+  'compiler-cli': normalize('../../dist/packages') + '/'
+};
+
+var esm_suffixes = {};
+
+function normalize(fileName) {
+  return path.resolve(__dirname, fileName);
+}
+
+function resolve(id, from) {
+  // console.log('Resolve id:', id, 'from', from)
+  if (id == '@angular/tsc-wrapped') {
+    // Hack to restrict the import to not include the index of @angular/tsc-wrapped so we don't
+    // rollup tsickle.
+    return locations['tsc-wrapped'] + 'tsc-wrapped/src/collector.js';
+  }
+  var match = m.exec(id);
+  if (match) {
+    var packageName = match[1];
+    var esm_suffix = esm_suffixes[packageName] || '';
+    var loc = locations[packageName] || location;
+    var r = loc !== location && (loc + esm_suffix + packageName + (match[3] || '/index') + '.js') ||
+        loc + packageName + '/@angular/' + packageName + '.es5.js';
+    // console.log('** ANGULAR MAPPED **: ', r);
+    return r;
+  }
+  if (id && id.startsWith('rxjs/')) {
+    const resolved = `${rxjsLocation}${id.replace('rxjs', '')}.js`;
+    return resolved;
+  }
+  if (id == 'tslib') {
+    return tslibLocation + '/tslib.es6.js';
+  }
+}
+
+// hack to get around issues with default exports
+var banner = `ts['default'] = ts['default'] || ts; fs['default'] = fs['default'] || fs;`;
+
+export default {
+  entry: '../../dist/packages-dist/compiler-cli/src/ngc.js',
+  dest: './browser-bundle.umd.js',
+  format: 'umd',
+  moduleName: 'ng.compiler_cli_browser',
+  exports: 'named',
+  external: [
+    'fs',
+    'path',
+    'typescript',
+    'reflect-metadata',
+  ],
+  globals: {
+    'typescript': 'ts',
+    'path': 'path',
+    'fs': 'fs',
+  },
+  banner: banner,
+  plugins: [{resolveId: resolve}, commonjs()]
+}
diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngc.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngc.ts
index 3089a9be74..0b71512894 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngc.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngc.ts
@@ -122,30 +122,14 @@ function getProjectDirectory(project: string): string {
   return isFile ? path.dirname(project) : project;
 }
 
-export function main(
-    args: string[], consoleError: (s: string) => void = console.error, files?: string[],
-    options?: ts.CompilerOptions, ngOptions?: any): number {
+export function performCompilation(
+    basePath: string, files: string[], options: ts.CompilerOptions, ngOptions: any,
+    consoleError: (s: string) => void = console.error, tsCompilerHost?: ts.CompilerHost) {
   try {
-    const parsedArgs = require('minimist')(args);
-    const project = parsedArgs.p || parsedArgs.project || '.';
-
-    const projectDir = getProjectDirectory(project);
-
-    // file names in tsconfig are resolved relative to this absolute path
-    const basePath = path.resolve(process.cwd(), projectDir);
-
-    if (!files || !options || !ngOptions) {
-      const {parsed, ngOptions: readNgOptions} = readConfiguration(project, basePath);
-      if (!files) files = parsed.fileNames;
-      if (!options) options = parsed.options;
-      if (!ngOptions) ngOptions = readNgOptions;
-    }
-
-    // Ignore what the tsconfig.json for baseDir and genDir
     ngOptions.basePath = basePath;
     ngOptions.genDir = basePath;
 
-    let host = ts.createCompilerHost(options, true);
+    let host = tsCompilerHost || ts.createCompilerHost(options, true);
     host.realpath = p => p;
 
     const rootFileNames = files.map(f => path.normalize(f));
@@ -189,18 +173,34 @@ export function main(
     });
   } catch (e) {
     if (isSyntaxError(e)) {
+      console.error(e.message);
       consoleError(e.message);
       return 1;
-    } else {
-      consoleError(e.stack);
-      consoleError('Compilation failed');
-      return 2;
     }
   }
 
   return 0;
 }
 
+
+export function main(args: string[], consoleError: (s: string) => void = console.error): number {
+  try {
+    const parsedArgs = require('minimist')(args);
+    const project = parsedArgs.p || parsedArgs.project || '.';
+
+    const projectDir = fs.lstatSync(project).isFile() ? path.dirname(project) : project;
+
+    // file names in tsconfig are resolved relative to this absolute path
+    const basePath = path.resolve(process.cwd(), projectDir);
+    const {parsed, ngOptions} = readConfiguration(project, basePath);
+    return performCompilation(basePath, parsed.fileNames, parsed.options, ngOptions, consoleError);
+  } catch (e) {
+    consoleError(e.stack);
+    consoleError('Compilation failed');
+    return 2;
+  }
+}
+
 // CLI entry point
 if (require.main === module) {
   process.exit(main(process.argv.slice(2), s => console.error(s)));
diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts
index f5f3a24e03..2c272d0c96 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 import * as ts from 'typescript';
 
-import {main} from '../src/ngc';
+import {main, performCompilation} from '../src/ngc';
 
 function getNgRootDir() {
   const moduleFilename = module.filename.replace(/\\/g, '/');
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ describe('ngc command-line', () => {
     write('tsconfig-base.json', `{
       "compilerOptions": {
         "experimentalDecorators": true,
-        "skipLibCheck": true,     
+        "skipLibCheck": true,
         "types": [],
         "outDir": "built",
         "declaration": true,
@@ -81,8 +81,8 @@ describe('ngc command-line', () => {
 
     spyOn(mockConsole, 'error');
 
-    const result = main(
-        ['-p', basePath], mockConsole.error, [path.join(basePath, 'test.ts')], {
+    const result = performCompilation(
+        basePath, [path.join(basePath, 'test.ts')], {
           experimentalDecorators: true,
           skipLibCheck: true,
           types: [],
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ describe('ngc command-line', () => {
           module: ts.ModuleKind.ES2015,
           moduleResolution: ts.ModuleResolutionKind.NodeJs,
         },
-        {});
+        {}, mockConsole.error);
     expect(mockConsole.error).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
     expect(result).toBe(0);
   });
@@ -419,9 +419,8 @@ describe('ngc command-line', () => {
         export class FlatModule {
         }`);
 
-      const exitCode = main(
-          ['-p', path.join(basePath, 'tsconfig.json')], undefined,
-          [path.join(basePath, 'public-api.ts')], {
+      const exitCode = performCompilation(
+          basePath, [path.join(basePath, 'public-api.ts')], {
             target: ts.ScriptTarget.ES5,
             experimentalDecorators: true,
             noImplicitAny: true,
@@ -439,6 +438,8 @@ describe('ngc command-line', () => {
             flatModuleOutFile: 'index.js',
             skipTemplateCodegen: true
           });
+
+
       expect(exitCode).toEqual(0);
       shouldExist('index.js');
       shouldExist('index.metadata.json');