diff --git a/heron/api/src/java/BUILD b/heron/api/src/java/BUILD
index 443bd319992..e5a0e897866 100644
--- a/heron/api/src/java/BUILD
+++ b/heron/api/src/java/BUILD
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ licenses(["notice"])
 
 package(default_visibility = ["//visibility:public"])
 
-load("/tools/rules/heron_deps", "heron_java_proto_files")
+load("/tools/rules/heron_deps", "heron_java_api_proto_files")
 load("/tools/rules/jarjar_rules", "jarjar_binary")
 load("/tools/rules/build_defs", "DOCLINT_HTML_AND_SYNTAX")
 load("/tools/rules/javadoc", "java_doc")
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ java_doc(
 )
 
 api_deps_files =  \
-    heron_java_proto_files() + [
+    heron_java_api_proto_files() + [
         ":classification",
         "//heron/common/src/java:basics-java",
     ]
diff --git a/heron/proto/BUILD b/heron/proto/BUILD
index d814fe93930..21b38fe6a5b 100644
--- a/heron/proto/BUILD
+++ b/heron/proto/BUILD
@@ -177,40 +177,6 @@ java_library(
     ],
 )
 
-# This is for binaries that don't want protobuf 
-# dependency to be included in the generated jar
-java_library(
-    name = "proto-java-nl",
-    srcs = [
-        "Empty.java",
-    ],
-    deps = [
-        ":proto_common_java",
-        ":proto_execution_state_java",
-        ":proto_stats_java",
-        ":proto_topology_java",
-        ":proto_scheduler_java",
-        ":proto_packing_plan_java",
-        ":proto_physical_plan_java",
-        ":proto_metrics_java",
-        ":proto_tmaster_java",
-        ":proto_tuple_java",
-        ":proto_stmgr_java",
-        ":proto_ckptmgr_java",
-        ":proto_networktests_java",
-        "//third_party/java:protobuf-java-neverlink",
-    ],
-)
-
-java_binary(
-    name = "proto-bin-java",
-    srcs = ["Empty.java"],
-    create_executable = 0,
-    deps = [
-        ":proto-java-nl",
-    ],
-)
-
 pex_library(
     name = "proto-py",
     deps = [
diff --git a/tools/rules/heron_deps.bzl b/tools/rules/heron_deps.bzl
index d02dcb5b020..4b1fbeb51a9 100644
--- a/tools/rules/heron_deps.bzl
+++ b/tools/rules/heron_deps.bzl
@@ -16,3 +16,9 @@ def heron_java_proto_files():
         "//heron/proto:proto_stmgr_java",
         "@com_google_protobuf_protobuf_java//jar",
     ]
+
+def heron_java_api_proto_files():
+    return [
+        "//heron/proto:proto_topology_java",
+        "@com_google_protobuf_protobuf_java//jar",
+    ]