diff --git a/README.asciidoc b/README.asciidoc
index 03fd29e8382..242dc1dd174 100644
--- a/README.asciidoc
+++ b/README.asciidoc
@@ -7,12 +7,6 @@ A set of Elastic's commercial plugins:
 - Watcher
 - Marvel
 
-= Testing with Elasticsearch
-Sometimes it is useful to use your local elasticsearch checkout with x-plugins. To do this, run the following commands:
-cd buildSrc
-gradle attach --name elasticsearch --path /path/to/elasticsearch/buildSrc
-cd ..
-gradle attach --name elasticsearch --path /path/to/elasticsearch
-
-This will cause building x-plugins to reflect any changes in your elasticsearch repo. For example, if you make a change to elasticsearch core, building x-plugins will first re-build elasticsearch core, and use that when building x-plugins.
-
+= Setup
+You must checkout x-plugins within an elasticsearch checkout. It must be
+called x-plugins, and must be inside the extra-plugins directory.
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 29a9ad69a78..559bf2f9c28 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -1,30 +1,14 @@
-apply plugin: 'elasticsearch.project-attachment'
-
-allprojects {
-  apply plugin: 'idea'
-  apply plugin: 'eclipse'
-}
-
-subprojects {
-  group = 'org.elasticsearch'
-  version = org.elasticsearch.gradle.VersionProperties.elasticsearch
-
-  configurations.all {
-    resolutionStrategy.cacheChangingModulesFor(0, 'seconds')
-  }
-}
-
-if (hasProperty('projectsPrefix') == false) {
-  allprojects {
-    project.ext['projectsPrefix'] = ''
-  }
-}
-
-task clean(type: GradleBuild) {
-  buildFile = 'buildSrc/build.gradle'
-  tasks = ['clean']
+if (project.name != 'x-plugins') {
+  throw new GradleException('You must checkout x-plugins to a directory named x-plugins')
+}
+if (project.projectDir.parentFile.name != 'extra-plugins') {
+  throw new GradleException('You must place the x-plugins checkout in a directory named extra-plugins')
+}
+if (project.rootProject.projectDir != project.projectDir.parentFile.parentFile) {
+  throw new GradleException('You must place the extra-plugins directory inside the root of an elasticsearch checkout')
 }
 
+/*
         <repository>
             <id>elasticsearch-releases</id>
             <url>http://maven.elasticsearch.org/releases</url>
@@ -64,22 +48,3 @@ subprojects {
   }
 }
 */
-
-// ================= Local Elasticsearch attachment ===============
-if (hasProperty('attachments') && 'elasticsearch' in attachments) {
-  subprojects {
-    configurations {
-      all {
-        resolutionStrategy {
-          dependencySubstitution {
-            substitute module("org.elasticsearch:rest-api-spec:${version}") with project(":elasticsearch:rest-api-spec")
-            substitute module("org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:${version}") with project(":elasticsearch:core")
-            substitute module("org.elasticsearch:test-framework:${version}") with project(":elasticsearch:test-framework")
-            substitute module("org.elasticsearch.distribution.zip:elasticsearch:${version}") with project(":elasticsearch:distribution:zip")
-            substitute module("org.elasticsearch.distribution.tar:elasticsearch:${version}") with project(":elasticsearch:distribution:tar")
-          }
-        }
-      }
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/buildSrc/build.gradle b/buildSrc/build.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index 892df99d63c..00000000000
--- a/buildSrc/build.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
-apply plugin: 'groovy'
-
-buildscript {
-  repositories {
-    maven {
-      name 'sonatype-snapshots'
-      url 'http://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/'
-    }
-  }
-  dependencies {
-    classpath 'org.elasticsearch.gradle:project-attachment-plugin:1.0.0-SNAPSHOT'
-  }
-}
-apply plugin: 'elasticsearch.project-attachment'
-
-repositories {
-  mavenCentral()
-  maven {
-    name 'sonatype-snapshots'
-    url "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/"
-  }
-  jcenter()
-}
-
-dependencies {
-  runtime 'org.elasticsearch.gradle:project-attachment-plugin:1.0.0-SNAPSHOT'
-  runtime 'org.elasticsearch.gradle:build-tools:3.0.0-SNAPSHOT'
-}
-
-if ('elasticsearch' in attachments) {
-  configurations {
-    all {
-      resolutionStrategy {
-        dependencySubstitution {
-          substitute module('org.elasticsearch.gradle:build-tools') with project(':elasticsearch')
-        }
-      }
-    }
-  }
-}
-
diff --git a/buildSrc/settings.gradle b/buildSrc/settings.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index 65f7417ae07..00000000000
--- a/buildSrc/settings.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-buildscript {
-  repositories {
-    maven {
-      name 'sonatype-snapshots'
-      url 'http://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/'
-    }
-  }
-  dependencies {
-    classpath 'org.elasticsearch.gradle:project-attachment-plugin:1.0.0-SNAPSHOT'
-  }
-}
-apply plugin: 'elasticsearch.project-settings-attachment'
-
diff --git a/marvel/build.gradle b/marvel/build.gradle
index 245f21fc837..df4f9675ed1 100644
--- a/marvel/build.gradle
+++ b/marvel/build.gradle
@@ -17,9 +17,9 @@ ext.versions = [
 ]
 
 dependencies {
-  licensePluginZip project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:license:plugin") // zip
-  provided project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:license:plugin", configuration: 'runtime')
-  provided project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:shield", configuration: 'runtime')
+  licensePluginZip project(path: ':x-plugins:license:plugin') // zip
+  provided project(path: ':x-plugins:license:plugin', configuration: 'runtime')
+  provided project(path: ':x-plugins:shield', configuration: 'runtime')
   testCompile 'org.elasticsearch:securemock:1.1'
 
   // mock web server
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index 666256810f7..00000000000
--- a/settings.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
-rootProject.name = 'x-plugins'
-apply plugin: 'elasticsearch.project-settings-attachment'
-
-String prefix = ''
-if (rootProject.children.isEmpty() == false) {
-  // we are attached to another project, make a fake root
-  rootProject.name = 'x-plugins and attachments'
-  rootProject.projectDir = new File(settingsDir, 'build/fake-root')
-  if (rootProject.projectDir.exists()) {
-    rootProject.projectDir.delete()
-  }
-  rootProject.projectDir.mkdirs()
-
-  // the fake root's build file just needs to know about attachments
-  File rootBuild = new File(rootProject.projectDir, 'build.gradle')
-  rootBuild.setText('apply plugin: "elasticsearch.project-attachment"', 'UTF-8')
-  String attachPrefix = org.elasticsearch.gradle.attachment.ProjectAttachmentPlugin.ATTACHMENT_PREFIX
-  settingsDir.eachFile { file ->
-    if (file.getName().startsWith(org.elasticsearch.gradle.attachment.ProjectAttachmentPlugin.ATTACHMENT_PREFIX)) {
-      new File(rootProject.projectDir, file.getName()).setText(file.getText('UTF-8'), 'UTF-8')
-    }
-  }
-
-  // add x-plugins as an attachment
-  File xpluginsAttachment = new File(rootProject.projectDir, "${attachPrefix}x-plugins")
-  xpluginsAttachment.setText(settingsDir.getPath(), 'UTF-8')
-
-  // and add x-plugins root project
-  prefix = 'x-plugins:'
-  include 'x-plugins'
-  project(':x-plugins').projectDir = settingsDir
-}
-
-String[] projects = [
-  'license:core2',
-  'license:licensor',
-  'license:plugin-api',
-  'license:plugin',
-  'license:found-plugin',
-  'shield',
-  'watcher',
-  'marvel'
-]
-if (prefix.isEmpty() == false) {
-  projects = projects.collect { "${prefix}${it}" }
-}
-include projects
-
-project(":${prefix}license:core2").projectDir = new File(project(":${prefix}license").projectDir, 'core')
-
diff --git a/shield/build.gradle b/shield/build.gradle
index b3c7d085834..c314b390739 100644
--- a/shield/build.gradle
+++ b/shield/build.gradle
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ configurations {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-  licensePluginZip project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:license:plugin") // zip
-  provided project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:license:plugin", configuration: 'runtime')
-  compile project("${projectsPrefix}:license:plugin-api")
+  licensePluginZip project(path: ':x-plugins:license:plugin') // zip
+  provided project(path: ':x-plugins:license:plugin', configuration: 'runtime')
+  compile project(':x-plugins:license:plugin-api')
   compile 'dk.brics.automaton:automaton:1.11-8'
   compile 'com.unboundid:unboundid-ldapsdk:2.3.8'
   testCompile 'org.slf4j:slf4j-log4j12:1.6.2'
diff --git a/watcher/build.gradle b/watcher/build.gradle
index 01eca7c392c..06b53faea89 100644
--- a/watcher/build.gradle
+++ b/watcher/build.gradle
@@ -17,9 +17,9 @@ ext.versions = [
 ]
 
 dependencies {
-  licensePluginZip project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:license:plugin") // zip
-  provided project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:license:plugin", configuration: 'runtime')
-  provided project(path: "${projectsPrefix}:shield", configuration: 'runtime')
+  licensePluginZip project(path: ':x-plugins:license:plugin') // zip
+  provided project(path: ':x-plugins:license:plugin', configuration: 'runtime')
+  provided project(path: ':x-plugins:shield', configuration: 'runtime')
 
   compile 'com.googlecode.owasp-java-html-sanitizer:owasp-java-html-sanitizer:r239'
   compile 'com.google.guava:guava:19.0-rc2'