diff --git a/compiler/cli/cli-common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/common/arguments/K2JVMCompilerArguments.java b/compiler/cli/cli-common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/common/arguments/K2JVMCompilerArguments.java
index f038db1ffa4..eaa71c125a9 100644
--- a/compiler/cli/cli-common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/common/arguments/K2JVMCompilerArguments.java
+++ b/compiler/cli/cli-common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/common/arguments/K2JVMCompilerArguments.java
@@ -111,6 +111,10 @@ public class K2JVMCompilerArguments extends CommonCompilerArguments {
     @Argument(value = "Xload-builtins-from-dependencies", description = "Load definitions of built-in declarations from module dependencies, instead of from the compiler")
     public boolean loadBuiltInsFromDependencies;
 
+    @Argument(value = "Xscript-resolver-environment", description = "Script resolver environment in key-value pairs (the value could be quoted and escaped)")
+    @ValueDescription("<key=value[,]>")
+    public String[] scriptResolverEnvironment;
+
     // Paths to output directories for friend modules.
     public String[] friendPaths;
 
diff --git a/compiler/cli/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/jvm/K2JVMCompiler.kt b/compiler/cli/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/jvm/K2JVMCompiler.kt
index fa5461cfb6f..a0fd4e7cf86 100644
--- a/compiler/cli/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/jvm/K2JVMCompiler.kt
+++ b/compiler/cli/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/cli/jvm/K2JVMCompiler.kt
@@ -214,13 +214,14 @@ class K2JVMCompiler : CLICompiler<K2JVMCompilerArguments>() {
         }
     }
 
+
     private fun createEnvironmentWithScriptingSupport(rootDisposable: Disposable,
                                                       configuration: CompilerConfiguration,
                                                       arguments: K2JVMCompilerArguments,
                                                       messageCollector: MessageCollector
     ): KotlinCoreEnvironment? {
 
-        val scriptResolverEnv = hashMapOf<String, Any?>()
+        val scriptResolverEnv = createScriptResolverEnvironment(arguments, messageCollector) ?: return null
         configureScriptDefinitions(arguments.scriptTemplates, configuration, messageCollector, scriptResolverEnv)
         if (!messageCollector.hasErrors()) {
             val environment = createCoreEnvironment(rootDisposable, configuration)
@@ -415,6 +416,27 @@ class K2JVMCompiler : CLICompiler<K2JVMCompilerArguments>() {
             }
             configuration.add(JVMConfigurationKeys.SCRIPT_DEFINITIONS, StandardScriptDefinition)
         }
+
+        fun createScriptResolverEnvironment(arguments: K2JVMCompilerArguments, messageCollector: MessageCollector): HashMap<String, Any?>? {
+            val scriptResolverEnv = hashMapOf<String, Any?>()
+            // parses key/value pairs in the form <key>=<value>, where
+            //   <key> - is a single word (\w+ pattern)
+            //   <value> - optionally quoted string with allowed escaped chars (only double-quote and backslash chars are supported)
+            // TODO: implement generic unescaping
+            val envParseRe = """(\w+)=(?:"((?:\\.|[^"])*)"|([^\s]*))""".toRegex()
+            val unescapeRe = """\\(["\\])""".toRegex()
+            if (arguments.scriptResolverEnvironment != null) {
+                for (envParam in arguments.scriptResolverEnvironment) {
+                    val match = envParseRe.matchEntire(envParam)
+                    if (match == null || match.groupValues.size < 4 || match.groupValues[1].isBlank()) {
+                        messageCollector.report(CompilerMessageSeverity.ERROR, "Unable to parse script-resolver-environment argument $envParam", CompilerMessageLocation.NO_LOCATION)
+                        return null
+                    }
+                    scriptResolverEnv.put(match.groupValues[1], match.groupValues.drop(2).firstOrNull { it.isNotEmpty() }?.let { unescapeRe.replace(it, "\$1") })
+                }
+            }
+            return scriptResolverEnv
+        }
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/compiler/testData/cli/jvm/extraHelp.out b/compiler/testData/cli/jvm/extraHelp.out
index b8d7c4e55ba..c2458c6caae 100644
--- a/compiler/testData/cli/jvm/extraHelp.out
+++ b/compiler/testData/cli/jvm/extraHelp.out
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ where advanced options include:
   -Xadd-compiler-builtins    Add definitions of built-in declarations to the compilation classpath (useful with -no-stdlib)
   -Xload-builtins-from-dependencies
                              Load definitions of built-in declarations from module dependencies, instead of from the compiler
+  -Xscript-resolver-environment <key=value[,]>
+                             Script resolver environment in key-value pairs (the value could be quoted and escaped)
   -Xno-inline                Disable method inlining
   -Xrepeat <count>           Repeat compilation (for performance analysis)
   -Xskip-metadata-version-check Load classes with bad metadata version anyway (incl. pre-release classes)
diff --git a/compiler/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/daemon/CompilerApiTest.kt b/compiler/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/daemon/CompilerApiTest.kt
index 8e8490492ba..22c647a8bdc 100644
--- a/compiler/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/daemon/CompilerApiTest.kt
+++ b/compiler/tests/org/jetbrains/kotlin/daemon/CompilerApiTest.kt
@@ -92,6 +92,18 @@ class CompilerApiTest : KotlinIntegrationTestBase() {
         }
     }
 
+    fun testScriptResolverEnvironmentArgsParsing() {
+
+        fun args(body: K2JVMCompilerArguments.() -> Unit): K2JVMCompilerArguments =
+                K2JVMCompilerArguments().apply(body)
+
+        val messageCollector = TestMessageCollector()
+        Assert.assertEquals(hashMapOf("abc" to "def", "11" to "ab cd \\ \""),
+                            K2JVMCompiler.createScriptResolverEnvironment(
+                                args { scriptResolverEnvironment = arrayOf("abc=def", """11="ab cd \\ \""""") },
+                                messageCollector))
+    }
+
     fun testHelloAppLocal() {
         val messageCollector = TestMessageCollector()
         val jar = tmpdir.absolutePath + File.separator + "hello.jar"