diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/docgen/BlazeRuleHelpPrinter.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/docgen/BlazeRuleHelpPrinter.java
deleted file mode 100644
index b34bec81b73fdd..00000000000000
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/docgen/BlazeRuleHelpPrinter.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,60 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright 2014 The Bazel Authors. All rights reserved.
-//
-// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-// You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-//    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-package com.google.devtools.build.docgen;
-
-import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.ConfiguredRuleClassProvider;
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.Map;
-
-/**
- * A helper class to load and store printable build rule documentation. The doc
- * printed here doesn't contain attribute and implicit output definitions, just
- * the general rule documentation and examples.
- */
-public class BlazeRuleHelpPrinter {
-
-  private static Map<String, RuleDocumentation> ruleDocMap = null;
-
-  /** Returns the documentation of the given rule to be printed on the console. */
-  public static String getRuleDoc(
-      String ruleName, String productName, ConfiguredRuleClassProvider provider) {
-    if (ruleDocMap == null) {
-      try {
-        BuildDocCollector collector = new BuildDocCollector(productName, provider, false);
-        Map<String, RuleDocumentation> ruleDocs = collector.collect(
-            ImmutableList.of("java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/view",
-                             "java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules"), null);
-        ruleDocMap = new HashMap<>();
-        for (RuleDocumentation ruleDoc : ruleDocs.values()) {
-          ruleDocMap.put(ruleDoc.getRuleName(), ruleDoc);
-        }
-      } catch (BuildEncyclopediaDocException e) {
-        return e.getErrorMsg();
-      } catch (IOException e) {
-        return e.getMessage();
-      }
-    }
-    // TODO(fwe): generate the rule documentation when building the Bazel binary and ship
-    // the text documentation with the binary.
-    // The Bazel binary may not contain the rule sources, which means that the documentation
-    // retrieval step would fail with an exception.
-    if (!ruleDocMap.containsKey(ruleName)) {
-      return String.format("Documentation for rule %s is not part of the binary.\n", ruleName);
-    }
-    return "Rule " + ruleName + ":"
-        + ruleDocMap.get(ruleName).getCommandLineDocumentation() + "\n";
-  }
-}
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/BUILD b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/BUILD
index 6553b780975531..d676f94a16c83e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/BUILD
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/BUILD
@@ -1281,7 +1281,6 @@ java_library(
         ":shared-base-rules",
         ":unix",
         ":util",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/docgen:docgen_javalib",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/actions",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/actions:localhost_capacity",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/buildeventstream",
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/runtime/commands/HelpCommand.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/runtime/commands/HelpCommand.java
index 16dccf55eb8e22..8aa762dfadbff6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/runtime/commands/HelpCommand.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/runtime/commands/HelpCommand.java
@@ -23,12 +23,10 @@
 import com.google.common.collect.Iterables;
 import com.google.common.escape.Escaper;
 import com.google.common.html.HtmlEscapers;
-import com.google.devtools.build.docgen.BlazeRuleHelpPrinter;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.BlazeVersionInfo;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.ConfiguredRuleClassProvider;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.NoBuildEvent;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.events.Event;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.packages.RuleClass;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.runtime.BlazeCommand;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.runtime.BlazeCommandResult;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.runtime.BlazeCommandUtils;
@@ -166,18 +164,8 @@ public BlazeCommandResult exec(CommandEnvironment env, OptionsParsingResult opti
 
     BlazeCommand command = runtime.getCommandMap().get(helpSubject);
     if (command == null) {
-      ConfiguredRuleClassProvider provider = runtime.getRuleClassProvider();
-      RuleClass ruleClass = provider.getRuleClassMap().get(helpSubject);
-      if (ruleClass != null && ruleClass.isDocumented()) {
-        // There is a rule with a corresponding name
-        outErr.printOut(
-            BlazeRuleHelpPrinter.getRuleDoc(helpSubject, runtime.getProductName(), provider));
-        return BlazeCommandResult.exitCode(ExitCode.SUCCESS);
-      } else {
-        env.getReporter().handle(Event.error(
-            null, "'" + helpSubject + "' is neither a command nor a build rule"));
+      env.getReporter().handle(Event.error(null, "'" + helpSubject + "' is not a known command"));
         return BlazeCommandResult.exitCode(ExitCode.COMMAND_LINE_ERROR);
-      }
     }
     emitBlazeVersionInfo(outErr, productName);
     outErr.printOut(