diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 5f69870b..e312ad37 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -55,4 +55,4 @@ Config/Needs/cpp11/cpp_register:
     vctrs
 Encoding: UTF-8
 Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
-RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
+RoxygenNote: 7.3.1
diff --git a/R/vendor.R b/R/vendor.R
index 5fe10fe2..a7e40fbb 100644
--- a/R/vendor.R
+++ b/R/vendor.R
@@ -8,14 +8,12 @@
 #' 'cpp11 version: XYZ' to the top of the files, where XYZ is the version of
 #' cpp11 currently installed on your machine.
 #'
-#' If you choose to vendor the headers you should _remove_ `LinkingTo:
-#' cpp11` from your DESCRIPTION.
-#'
 #' **Note**: vendoring places the responsibility of updating the code on
 #' **you**. Bugfixes and new features in cpp11 will not be available for your
 #' code until you run `cpp_vendor()` again.
 #'
-#' @inheritParams cpp_register
+#' @param dir The directoyy to vendor the code into.
+#' @param subdir The subdirectory to vendor the code into.
 #' @return The file path to the vendored code (invisibly).
 #' @export
 #' @examples
@@ -30,34 +28,83 @@
 #'
 #' # cleanup
 #' unlink(dir, recursive = TRUE)
-cpp_vendor <- function(path = ".") {
-  new <- file.path(path, "inst", "include", "cpp11")
+cpp_vendor <- function(dir = NULL, subdir = "/inst/include") {
+  if (is.null(dir)) {
+    stop("You must provide a path to vendor the code into", call. = FALSE)
+  }
+
+  path <- paste0(dir, subdir)
 
-  if (dir.exists(new)) {
-    stop("'", new, "' already exists\n * run unlink('", new, "', recursive = TRUE)", call. = FALSE)
+  path2 <- file.path(path, "cpp11")
+  if (dir.exists(path2)) {
+    stop("'", path2, "' already exists\n * run unlink('", path2, "', recursive = TRUE)", call. = FALSE)
   }
 
-  dir.create(new , recursive = TRUE, showWarnings = FALSE)
+  # Vendor cpp11 ----
+
+  dir.create(
+    path2,
+    recursive = TRUE,
+    showWarnings = FALSE
+  )
 
-  current <- system.file("include", "cpp11", package = "cpp11")
-  if (!nzchar(current)) {
+  current_cpp11 <- system.file(
+    "include",
+    "cpp11",
+    package = "cpp11"
+  )
+
+  if (!nzchar(current_cpp11)) {
     stop("cpp11 is not installed", call. = FALSE)
   }
 
   cpp11_version <- utils::packageVersion("cpp11")
 
-  cpp11_header <- sprintf("// cpp11 version: %s\n// vendored on: %s", cpp11_version, Sys.Date())
+  cpp11_header <- sprintf(
+    "// cpp11 version: %s\n// vendored on: %s",
+    cpp11_version,
+    Sys.Date()
+  )
+
+  write_header(
+    path, "cpp11.hpp", "cpp11",
+    cpp11_header
+  )
+
+  copy_files(
+    list.files(current_cpp11, full.names = TRUE),
+    path, "cpp11", cpp11_header
+  )
+
+  # Additional steps to make vendoring work ----
+
+  message(paste(
+    "Makevars and/or Makevars.win should have a line such as",
+    "'PKG_CPPFLAGS = -I../inst/include'"
+  ))
 
-  files <- list.files(current, full.names = TRUE)
+  message("DESCRIPTION should not have lines such as 'LinkingTo: cpp11'")
 
+  invisible(path)
+}
+
+write_header <- function(path, header, pkg, cpp11armadillo_header) {
   writeLines(
-    c(cpp11_header, readLines(system.file("include", "cpp11.hpp", package = "cpp11"))),
-    file.path(dirname(new), "cpp11.hpp")
+    c(
+      cpp11armadillo_header,
+      readLines(
+        system.file("include", header, package = pkg)
+      )
+    ),
+    file.path(path, header)
   )
+}
 
+copy_files <- function(files, path, out, cpp11armadillo_header) {
   for (f in files) {
-    writeLines(c(cpp11_header, readLines(f)), file.path(new, basename(f)))
+    writeLines(
+      c(cpp11armadillo_header, readLines(f)),
+      file.path(path, out, basename(f))
+    )
   }
-
-  invisible(new)
 }
diff --git a/man/cpp_vendor.Rd b/man/cpp_vendor.Rd
index 857e49cf..0fd75e0a 100644
--- a/man/cpp_vendor.Rd
+++ b/man/cpp_vendor.Rd
@@ -4,10 +4,12 @@
 \alias{cpp_vendor}
 \title{Vendor the cpp11 dependency}
 \usage{
-cpp_vendor(path = ".")
+cpp_vendor(dir = NULL, subdir = "/inst/include")
 }
 \arguments{
-\item{path}{The path to the package root directory}
+\item{dir}{The directoyy to vendor the code into.}
+
+\item{subdir}{The subdirectory to vendor the code into.}
 }
 \value{
 The file path to the vendored code (invisibly).
@@ -22,8 +24,6 @@ headers into the \code{inst/include} folder of your package and adding
 'cpp11 version: XYZ' to the top of the files, where XYZ is the version of
 cpp11 currently installed on your machine.
 
-If you choose to vendor the headers you should \emph{remove} \code{LinkingTo: cpp11} from your DESCRIPTION.
-
 \strong{Note}: vendoring places the responsibility of updating the code on
 \strong{you}. Bugfixes and new features in cpp11 will not be available for your
 code until you run \code{cpp_vendor()} again.