diff --git a/doc/04-schema.md b/doc/04-schema.md
index dbc02ff24..926c2504f 100644
--- a/doc/04-schema.md
+++ b/doc/04-schema.md
@@ -884,8 +884,8 @@ Optional.
 
 ### bin
 
-A set of files that should be treated as binaries and symlinked into the `bin-dir`
-(from config).
+A set of files that should be treated as binaries and made available
+into the `bin-dir` (from config).
 
 See [Vendor Binaries](articles/vendor-binaries.md) for more details.
 
diff --git a/doc/06-config.md b/doc/06-config.md
index 96bd1840e..2a31bc512 100644
--- a/doc/06-config.md
+++ b/doc/06-config.md
@@ -257,8 +257,8 @@ If it is `auto` then Composer only installs .bat proxy files when on Windows or
 set to `full` then both .bat files for Windows and scripts for Unix-based
 operating systems will be installed for each binary. This is mainly useful if you
 run Composer inside a linux VM but still want the `.bat` proxies available for use
-in the Windows host OS. If set to `symlink` Composer will always symlink even on
-Windows/WSL.
+in the Windows host OS. If set to `proxy` Composer will only create bash/Unix-style
+proxy files and no .bat files even on Windows/WSL.
 
 ## prepend-autoloader
 
diff --git a/doc/07-runtime.md b/doc/07-runtime.md
index 79f0022fd..9f4f90c8e 100644
--- a/doc/07-runtime.md
+++ b/doc/07-runtime.md
@@ -152,4 +152,10 @@ not its exact version.
 
 `lib-*` requirements are never supported/checked by the platform check feature.
 
+## Autoloader path in binaries
+
+composer-runtime-api 2.2 introduced a new `$_composer_autoload_path` global
+variable set when running binaries installed with Composer. Read more
+about this [on the vendor binaries docs](articles/vendor-binaries.md#finding-the-composer-autoloader-from-a-binary).
+
 ← [Config](06-config.md)  |  [Community](08-community.md) →
diff --git a/doc/articles/vendor-binaries.md b/doc/articles/vendor-binaries.md
index 0022b90b9..120b73dec 100644
--- a/doc/articles/vendor-binaries.md
+++ b/doc/articles/vendor-binaries.md
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ For the binaries that a package defines directly, nothing happens.
 ## What happens when Composer is run on a composer.json that has dependencies with vendor binaries listed?
 
 Composer looks for the binaries defined in all of the dependencies. A
-symlink is created from each dependency's binaries to `vendor/bin`.
+proxy file (or two on Windows/WSL) is created from each dependency's
+binaries to `vendor/bin`.
 
 Say package `my-vendor/project-a` has binaries setup like this:
 
@@ -69,8 +70,28 @@ Running `composer install` for this `composer.json` will look at
 all of project-a's binaries and install them to `vendor/bin`.
 
 In this case, Composer will make `vendor/my-vendor/project-a/bin/project-a-bin`
-available as `vendor/bin/project-a-bin`. On a Unix-like platform
-this is accomplished by creating a symlink.
+available as `vendor/bin/project-a-bin`.
+
+## Finding the Composer autoloader from a binary
+
+As of Composer 2.2, a new `$_composer_autoload_path` global variable
+is defined by the bin proxy file, so that when your binary gets executed
+it can use it to easily locate the project's autoloader.
+
+This global will not be available however when running binaries defined
+by the root package itself, so you need to have a fallback in place.
+
+This can look like this for example:
+
+```php
+<?php
+
+include $_composer_autoload_path ?? __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
+```
+
+If you want to rely on this in your package you should however make sure to
+also require `"composer-runtime-api": "^2.2"` to ensure that the package
+gets installed with a Composer version supporting the feature.
 
 ## What about Windows and .bat files?
 
@@ -79,8 +100,8 @@ Packages managed entirely by Composer do not *need* to contain any
 of binaries in a special way when run in a Windows environment:
 
  * A `.bat` file is generated automatically to reference the binary
- * A Unix-style proxy file with the same name as the binary is generated
-   automatically (useful for Cygwin or Git Bash)
+ * A Unix-style proxy file with the same name as the binary is also
+   generated, which is useful for WSL, Linux VMs, etc.
 
 Packages that need to support workflows that may not include Composer
 are welcome to maintain custom `.bat` files. In this case, the package
diff --git a/res/composer-schema.json b/res/composer-schema.json
index e079bb962..83d9b0e00 100644
--- a/res/composer-schema.json
+++ b/res/composer-schema.json
@@ -251,8 +251,8 @@
                     "description": "Whether to use the Composer cache in read-only mode."
                 },
                 "bin-compat": {
-                    "enum": ["auto", "full", "symlink"],
-                    "description": "The compatibility of the binaries, defaults to \"auto\" (automatically guessed), can be \"full\" (compatible with both Windows and Unix-based systems) and \"symlink\" (symlink also for WSL)."
+                    "enum": ["auto", "full", "proxy", "symlink"],
+                    "description": "The compatibility of the binaries, defaults to \"auto\" (automatically guessed), can be \"full\" (compatible with both Windows and Unix-based systems) and \"proxy\" (only bash-style proxy)."
                 },
                 "discard-changes": {
                     "type": ["string", "boolean"],
diff --git a/src/Composer/Composer.php b/src/Composer/Composer.php
index 41e68b611..83e64ae4a 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Composer.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Composer.php
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ class Composer
      *
      * @var string
      */
-    const RUNTIME_API_VERSION = '2.1.0';
+    const RUNTIME_API_VERSION = '2.2.0';
 
     /**
      * @return string
diff --git a/src/Composer/Config.php b/src/Composer/Config.php
index 9d879013a..00707bbad 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Config.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Config.php
@@ -367,12 +367,16 @@ class Config
             case 'bin-compat':
                 $value = $this->getComposerEnv('COMPOSER_BIN_COMPAT') ?: $this->config[$key];
 
-                if (!in_array($value, array('auto', 'full', 'symlink'))) {
+                if (!in_array($value, array('auto', 'full', 'proxy', 'symlink'))) {
                     throw new \RuntimeException(
-                        "Invalid value for 'bin-compat': {$value}. Expected auto, full or symlink"
+                        "Invalid value for 'bin-compat': {$value}. Expected auto, full or proxy"
                     );
                 }
 
+                if ($value === 'symlink') {
+                    trigger_error('config.bin-compat "symlink" is deprecated since Composer 2.2, use auto, full (for Windows compatibility) or proxy instead.', E_USER_DEPRECATED);
+                }
+
                 return $value;
 
             case 'discard-changes':
diff --git a/src/Composer/Factory.php b/src/Composer/Factory.php
index 6b5e38c03..bc9f7ef29 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Factory.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Factory.php
@@ -594,7 +594,7 @@ class Factory
     protected function createDefaultInstallers(Installer\InstallationManager $im, Composer $composer, IOInterface $io, ProcessExecutor $process = null)
     {
         $fs = new Filesystem($process);
-        $binaryInstaller = new Installer\BinaryInstaller($io, rtrim($composer->getConfig()->get('bin-dir'), '/'), $composer->getConfig()->get('bin-compat'), $fs);
+        $binaryInstaller = new Installer\BinaryInstaller($io, rtrim($composer->getConfig()->get('bin-dir'), '/'), $composer->getConfig()->get('bin-compat'), $fs, rtrim($composer->getConfig()->get('vendor-dir'), '/'));
 
         $im->addInstaller(new Installer\LibraryInstaller($io, $composer, null, $fs, $binaryInstaller));
         $im->addInstaller(new Installer\PluginInstaller($io, $composer, $fs, $binaryInstaller));
diff --git a/src/Composer/Installer/BinaryInstaller.php b/src/Composer/Installer/BinaryInstaller.php
index 084bef18a..5b4771db9 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Installer/BinaryInstaller.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Installer/BinaryInstaller.php
@@ -36,19 +36,23 @@ class BinaryInstaller
     protected $io;
     /** @var Filesystem */
     protected $filesystem;
+    /** @var string|null */
+    private $vendorDir;
 
     /**
      * @param IOInterface $io
      * @param string      $binDir
      * @param string      $binCompat
      * @param Filesystem  $filesystem
+     * @param string|null $vendorDir
      */
-    public function __construct(IOInterface $io, $binDir, $binCompat, Filesystem $filesystem = null)
+    public function __construct(IOInterface $io, $binDir, $binCompat, Filesystem $filesystem = null, $vendorDir = null)
     {
         $this->binDir = $binDir;
         $this->binCompat = $binCompat;
         $this->io = $io;
         $this->filesystem = $filesystem ?: new Filesystem();
+        $this->vendorDir = $vendorDir;
     }
 
     /**
@@ -72,38 +76,37 @@ class BinaryInstaller
                 $this->io->writeError('    <warning>Skipped installation of bin '.$bin.' for package '.$package->getName().': file not found in package</warning>');
                 continue;
             }
-
-            // in case a custom installer returned a relative path for the
-            // $package, we can now safely turn it into a absolute path (as we
-            // already checked the binary's existence). The following helpers
-            // will require absolute paths to work properly.
-            $binPath = realpath($binPath);
-
+            if (!$this->filesystem->isAbsolutePath($binPath)) {
+                // in case a custom installer returned a relative path for the
+                // $package, we can now safely turn it into a absolute path (as we
+                // already checked the binary's existence). The following helpers
+                // will require absolute paths to work properly.
+                $binPath = realpath($binPath);
+            }
             $this->initializeBinDir();
             $link = $this->binDir.'/'.basename($bin);
             if (file_exists($link)) {
-                if (is_link($link)) {
-                    // likely leftover from a previous install, make sure
-                    // that the target is still executable in case this
-                    // is a fresh install of the vendor.
-                    Silencer::call('chmod', $link, 0777 & ~umask());
+                if (!is_link($link)) {
+                    if ($warnOnOverwrite) {
+                        $this->io->writeError('    Skipped installation of bin '.$bin.' for package '.$package->getName().': name conflicts with an existing file');
+                    }
+                    continue;
                 }
-                if ($warnOnOverwrite) {
-                    $this->io->writeError('    Skipped installation of bin '.$bin.' for package '.$package->getName().': name conflicts with an existing file');
+                if (realpath($link) === realpath($binPath)) {
+                    // It is a linked binary from a previous installation, which can be replaced with a proxy file
+                    $this->filesystem->unlink($link);
                 }
-                continue;
             }
 
-            if ($this->binCompat === "auto") {
-                if (Platform::isWindows() || Platform::isWindowsSubsystemForLinux()) {
-                    $this->installFullBinaries($binPath, $link, $bin, $package);
-                } else {
-                    $this->installSymlinkBinaries($binPath, $link);
-                }
-            } elseif ($this->binCompat === "full") {
+            $binCompat = $this->binCompat;
+            if ($binCompat === "auto" && (Platform::isWindows() || Platform::isWindowsSubsystemForLinux())) {
+                $binCompat = 'full';
+            }
+
+            if ($this->binCompat === "full") {
                 $this->installFullBinaries($binPath, $link, $bin, $package);
-            } elseif ($this->binCompat === "symlink") {
-                $this->installSymlinkBinaries($binPath, $link);
+            } else {
+                $this->installUnixyProxyBinaries($binPath, $link);
             }
             Silencer::call('chmod', $binPath, 0777 & ~umask());
         }
@@ -122,10 +125,10 @@ class BinaryInstaller
         }
         foreach ($binaries as $bin) {
             $link = $this->binDir.'/'.basename($bin);
-            if (is_link($link) || file_exists($link)) {
+            if (is_link($link) || file_exists($link)) { // still checking for symlinks here for legacy support
                 $this->filesystem->unlink($link);
             }
-            if (file_exists($link.'.bat')) {
+            if (is_file($link.'.bat')) {
                 $this->filesystem->unlink($link.'.bat');
             }
         }
@@ -188,19 +191,6 @@ class BinaryInstaller
         }
     }
 
-    /**
-     * @param string $binPath
-     * @param string $link
-     *
-     * @return void
-     */
-    protected function installSymlinkBinaries($binPath, $link)
-    {
-        if (!$this->filesystem->relativeSymlink($binPath, $link)) {
-            $this->installUnixyProxyBinaries($binPath, $link);
-        }
-    }
-
     /**
      * @param string $binPath
      * @param string $link
@@ -233,6 +223,16 @@ class BinaryInstaller
         $binPath = $this->filesystem->findShortestPath($link, $bin);
         $caller = self::determineBinaryCaller($bin);
 
+        // if the target is a php file, we run the unixy proxy file
+        // to ensure that _composer_autoload_path gets defined, instead
+        // of running the binary directly
+        if ($caller === 'php') {
+            return "@ECHO OFF\r\n".
+                "setlocal DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION\r\n".
+                "SET BIN_TARGET=%~dp0/".trim(ProcessExecutor::escape(basename($link, '.bat')), '"\'')."\r\n".
+                "{$caller} \"%BIN_TARGET%\" %*\r\n";
+        }
+
         return "@ECHO OFF\r\n".
             "setlocal DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION\r\n".
             "SET BIN_TARGET=%~dp0/".trim(ProcessExecutor::escape($binPath), '"\'')."\r\n".
@@ -258,25 +258,15 @@ class BinaryInstaller
         if (preg_match('{^(#!.*\r?\n)?<\?php}', $binContents, $match)) {
             // carry over the existing shebang if present, otherwise add our own
             $proxyCode = empty($match[1]) ? '#!/usr/bin/env php' : trim($match[1]);
-
-            $binPathExported = var_export($binPath, true);
-
-            return $proxyCode . "\n" . <<<PROXY
-<?php
-
-/**
- * Proxy PHP file generated by Composer
- *
- * This file includes the referenced bin path ($binPath) using ob_start to remove the shebang if present
- * to prevent the shebang from being output on PHP<8
- *
- * @generated
- */
-
-namespace Composer;
-
-\$binPath = __DIR__ . "/" . $binPathExported;
-
+            $binPathExported = $this->filesystem->findShortestPathCode($link, $bin, false, true);
+            $autoloadPathCode = $streamProxyCode = $streamHint = '';
+            // Don't expose autoload path when vendor dir was not set in custom installers
+            if ($this->vendorDir) {
+                $autoloadPathCode = '$GLOBALS[\'_composer_autoload_path\'] = ' . $this->filesystem->findShortestPathCode($link, $this->vendorDir . '/autoload.php', false, true).";\n";
+            }
+            if (trim($match[0]) !== '<?php') {
+                $streamHint = ' using a stream wrapper to prevent the shebang from being output on PHP<8'."\n *";
+                $streamProxyCode = <<<STREAMPROXY
 if (PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000) {
     if (!class_exists('Composer\BinProxyWrapper')) {
         /**
@@ -357,6 +347,25 @@ if (PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000) {
     }
 }
 
+STREAMPROXY;
+            }
+
+            return $proxyCode . "\n" . <<<PROXY
+<?php
+
+/**
+ * Proxy PHP file generated by Composer
+ *
+ * This file includes the referenced bin path ($binPath)
+ *$streamHint
+ * @generated
+ */
+
+namespace Composer;
+
+\$binPath = $binPathExported;
+$autoloadPathCode
+$streamProxyCode
 include \$binPath;
 
 PROXY;
diff --git a/src/Composer/Installer/LibraryInstaller.php b/src/Composer/Installer/LibraryInstaller.php
index 1d8c743bb..ace603cfb 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Installer/LibraryInstaller.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Installer/LibraryInstaller.php
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ class LibraryInstaller implements InstallerInterface, BinaryPresenceInterface
 
         $this->filesystem = $filesystem ?: new Filesystem();
         $this->vendorDir = rtrim($composer->getConfig()->get('vendor-dir'), '/');
-        $this->binaryInstaller = $binaryInstaller ?: new BinaryInstaller($this->io, rtrim($composer->getConfig()->get('bin-dir'), '/'), $composer->getConfig()->get('bin-compat'), $this->filesystem);
+        $this->binaryInstaller = $binaryInstaller ?: new BinaryInstaller($this->io, rtrim($composer->getConfig()->get('bin-dir'), '/'), $composer->getConfig()->get('bin-compat'), $this->filesystem, $this->vendorDir);
     }
 
     /**