diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/Support/MlirOptMain.h b/mlir/include/mlir/Support/MlirOptMain.h
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/Support/MlirOptMain.h
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/Support/MlirOptMain.h
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 #include "mlir/Support/LogicalResult.h"
 #include "llvm/ADT/StringRef.h"
 
+#include <cstdlib>
 #include <memory>
 
 namespace llvm {
@@ -61,6 +62,20 @@
                           DialectRegistry &registry,
                           bool preloadDialectsInContext = false);
 
+/// Helper wrapper to return the result of MlirOptMain directly from main.
+///
+/// Example:
+///
+///     int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+///       // ...
+///       return mlir::AsMainReturnCode(mlir::MlirOptMain(
+///           argc, argv, /* ... */);
+///     }
+///
+inline int AsMainReturnCode(LogicalResult r) {
+  return r.succeeded() ? EXIT_SUCCESS : EXIT_FAILURE;
+}
+
 } // end namespace mlir
 
 #endif // MLIR_SUPPORT_MLIROPTMAIN_H