diff --git a/compiler_gym/envs/compiler_env.py b/compiler_gym/envs/compiler_env.py
index ee0f6af42..b479a4e01 100644
--- a/compiler_gym/envs/compiler_env.py
+++ b/compiler_gym/envs/compiler_env.py
@@ -840,7 +840,7 @@ def _reward_view_type(self):
         """
         return RewardView
 
-    def require_datasets(self, datasets: List[Union[str, Dataset]]) -> None:
+    def require_datasets(self, datasets: List[Union[str, Dataset]]) -> bool:
         """Require that the given datasets are available to the environment.
 
         Example usage:
@@ -857,6 +857,8 @@ def require_datasets(self, datasets: List[Union[str, Dataset]]) -> None:
         :param datasets: A list of datasets to require. Each dataset is the name
             of an available dataset, the URL of a dataset to download, or a
             :class:`Dataset` instance.
+        :return: :code:`True` if one or more datasets were downloaded, or
+            :code:`False` if all datasets were already available.
         """
         dataset_installed = False
         for dataset in datasets:
@@ -872,8 +874,9 @@ def require_datasets(self, datasets: List[Union[str, Dataset]]) -> None:
                 ),
             )
             self.make_manifest_file()
+        return dataset_installed
 
-    def require_dataset(self, dataset: Union[str, Dataset]) -> None:
+    def require_dataset(self, dataset: Union[str, Dataset]) -> bool:
         """Require that the given dataset is available to the environment.
 
         Alias for
@@ -881,6 +884,8 @@ def require_dataset(self, dataset: Union[str, Dataset]) -> None:
 
         :param dataset: The name of the dataset to download, the URL of the dataset, or a
             :class:`Dataset` instance.
+        :return: :code:`True` if the dataset was downloaded, or :code:`False` if
+            the dataset was already available.
         """
         return self.require_datasets([dataset])