diff --git a/modules/common/BUILD.bazel b/modules/common/BUILD.bazel
index bb08d8712..ddf0ba844 100644
--- a/modules/common/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/modules/common/BUILD.bazel
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@ ng_module(
         "src/**/*.ts",
     ]),
     module_name = "@nguniversal/common",
-    deps = [],
+    deps = [
+        "//modules/common/tokens",
+    ],
 )
 
 ng_package(
@@ -19,7 +21,10 @@ ng_package(
     srcs = [":package.json"],
     entry_point = "modules/common/index.js",
     readme_md = ":README.md",
-    deps = [":common"],
+    deps = [
+        ":common",
+        "//modules/common/tokens",
+    ],
 )
 
 ts_library(
diff --git a/modules/common/private_api.ts b/modules/common/private_api.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dfd2d5d77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/private_api.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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
+ */
+export { FileLoader as ɵFileLoader, CommonEngine as ɵCommonEngine } from './src/common-engine';
diff --git a/modules/common/public_api.ts b/modules/common/public_api.ts
index befe74ee7..09b8c3b81 100644
--- a/modules/common/public_api.ts
+++ b/modules/common/public_api.ts
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@
  */
 export { TransferHttpCacheModule } from './src/transfer_http';
 export { StateTransferInitializerModule } from './src/state-transfer-initializer/module';
+export * from './private_api';
diff --git a/modules/common/src/common-engine/engine.ts b/modules/common/src/common-engine/engine.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..09992b8dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/src/common-engine/engine.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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 {ResourceLoader} from '@angular/compiler';
+import {Compiler, Type, NgModuleFactory, CompilerFactory, StaticProvider} from '@angular/core';
+import {INITIAL_CONFIG, renderModuleFactory, platformDynamicServer} from '@angular/platform-server';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
+
+import {FileLoader} from './file-loader';
+import {RenderOptions} from './interfaces';
+
+/**
+ * A common rendering engine utility. This abstracts the logic
+ * for handling the platformServer compiler, the module cache, and
+ * the document loader
+ */
+export class CommonEngine {
+
+  /** Return an instance of the platformServer compiler */
+  getCompiler(): Compiler {
+    const compilerFactory: CompilerFactory = platformDynamicServer().injector.get(CompilerFactory);
+    return compilerFactory.createCompiler([
+      {providers: [{provide: ResourceLoader, useClass: FileLoader, deps: []}]}
+    ]);
+  }
+
+  private factoryCacheMap = new Map<Type<{}>, NgModuleFactory<{}>>();
+  private templateCache: {[key: string]: string} = {};
+
+  constructor(private moduleOrFactory: Type<{}> | NgModuleFactory<{}>,
+              private providers: StaticProvider[] = []) {}
+
+  /**
+   * Render an HTML document for a specific URL with specified
+   * render options
+   */
+  render(filePath: string, opts: RenderOptions): Promise<string> {
+    const extraProviders = [
+      ...(opts.providers || []),
+      ...(this.providers || []),
+      [
+        {
+          provide: INITIAL_CONFIG,
+          useValue: {
+            document: opts.document || this.getDocument(filePath),
+            url: opts.url
+          }
+        }
+      ]
+    ];
+
+    return this.getFactory()
+      .then(factory => renderModuleFactory(factory, {extraProviders}));
+  }
+
+  /** Return the factory for a given engine instance */
+  getFactory(): Promise<NgModuleFactory<{}>> {
+    // If module has been compiled AoT
+    const moduleOrFactory = this.moduleOrFactory;
+    if (moduleOrFactory instanceof NgModuleFactory) {
+      return Promise.resolve(moduleOrFactory);
+    } else {
+      // we're in JIT mode
+      let moduleFactory = this.factoryCacheMap.get(moduleOrFactory);
+
+      // If module factory is cached
+      if (moduleFactory) {
+        return Promise.resolve(moduleFactory);
+      }
+
+      // Compile the module and cache it
+      return this.getCompiler().compileModuleAsync(moduleOrFactory)
+        .then((factory) => {
+          this.factoryCacheMap.set(moduleOrFactory, factory);
+          return factory;
+        });
+    }
+  }
+
+  /** Retrieve the document from the cache or the filesystem */
+  private getDocument(filePath: string): Promise<string> {
+    const doc = this.templateCache[filePath] = this.templateCache[filePath] ||
+    fs.readFileSync(filePath).toString();
+
+    // As  promise so we can change the API later without breaking
+    return Promise.resolve(doc);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/modules/common/src/common-engine/file-loader.ts b/modules/common/src/common-engine/file-loader.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..351460a21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/src/common-engine/file-loader.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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 * as fs from 'fs';
+import { ResourceLoader } from '@angular/compiler';
+
+/**
+ * ResourceLoader implementation for loading files
+ * @internal
+ */
+export class FileLoader implements ResourceLoader {
+  get(url: string): Promise<string> {
+    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+      fs.readFile(url, (err: NodeJS.ErrnoException, buffer: Buffer) => {
+        if (err) {
+          return reject(err);
+        }
+
+        resolve(buffer.toString());
+      });
+    });
+  }
+}
diff --git a/modules/common/src/common-engine/index.ts b/modules/common/src/common-engine/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3aa25ddb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/src/common-engine/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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
+ */
+export * from './interfaces';
+export * from './file-loader';
+export * from './engine';
diff --git a/modules/common/src/common-engine/interfaces.ts b/modules/common/src/common-engine/interfaces.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8fcee65e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/src/common-engine/interfaces.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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 {NgModuleFactory, StaticProvider, Type} from '@angular/core';
+
+/** These are the allowed options for the engine */
+export interface NgSetupOptions {
+  bootstrap: Type<{}> | NgModuleFactory<{}>;
+  providers?: StaticProvider[];
+}
+
+/** These are the allowed options for the render */
+export interface RenderOptions extends NgSetupOptions {
+  req: any;
+  res?: any;
+  document?: string;
+  url?: string;
+}
diff --git a/modules/common/tokens/BUILD.bazel b/modules/common/tokens/BUILD.bazel
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0540382fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/tokens/BUILD.bazel
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+package(default_visibility = ["//visibility:public"])
+
+load("//tools:defaults.bzl", "ng_module")
+
+ng_module(
+    name = "tokens",
+    srcs = glob([
+        "src/*.ts",
+    ]),
+    module_name = "@nguniversal/common/tokens",
+)
diff --git a/modules/common/tokens/private_api.ts b/modules/common/tokens/private_api.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9a662390c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/tokens/private_api.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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
+ */
+export {ORIGIN_URL as ɵORIGIN_URL, REQUEST as ɵREQUEST, RESPONSE as ɵRESPONSE} from './src/tokens';
diff --git a/modules/common/tokens/public_api.ts b/modules/common/tokens/public_api.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..64280dd13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/tokens/public_api.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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
+ */
+export * from './private_api';
diff --git a/modules/common/tokens/src/tokens.ts b/modules/common/tokens/src/tokens.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..671ddbd11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/common/tokens/src/tokens.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC 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 { InjectionToken } from '@angular/core';
+
+export const ORIGIN_URL = new InjectionToken<any>('ORIGIN_URL');
+export const REQUEST = new InjectionToken<any>('REQUEST');
+export const RESPONSE = new InjectionToken<any>('RESPONSE');