diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 991b2ec..b6810a0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Released: -
           (RFC 3986) in `Page::evaluateRequestUrl()`
 * [Fixed] #272: Encode URLs using `rawurlencode()` in `Pico::getPageUrl()`
 * [Fixed] #274: Prevent double slashes in `base_url`
+* [Fixed] #285: Make `index.php` work when installed as a composer dependency
 ```
 
 ### Version 1.0.0-beta.1
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 40b811a..24225b8 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -1,6 +1,16 @@
 <?php
+
 // load dependencies
-require_once(__DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php');
+if(is_file($f = __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php')) {
+    // local composer install
+    require_once($f);
+} elseif(is_file($f = __DIR__ . '/../../../vendor/autoload.php')) {
+    // root composer install
+    require_once($f);
+} else {
+    // composer needs install...
+    die('Cannot find composer `/vendor/autoload.php` -- try `composer install`');
+}
 
 // instance Pico
 $pico = new Pico(