diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy
index e04d0966c412d..c391757099097 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.gradle.plugin
 
 import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.ShadowPlugin
-import nebula.plugin.publishing.maven.MavenScmPlugin
 import org.elasticsearch.gradle.BuildPlugin
 import org.elasticsearch.gradle.NoticeTask
 import org.elasticsearch.gradle.Version
@@ -33,11 +32,9 @@ import org.gradle.api.Project
 import org.gradle.api.Task
 import org.gradle.api.publish.maven.MavenPublication
 import org.gradle.api.publish.maven.plugins.MavenPublishPlugin
-import org.gradle.api.publish.maven.tasks.GenerateMavenPom
 import org.gradle.api.tasks.Copy
 import org.gradle.api.tasks.SourceSet
 import org.gradle.api.tasks.bundling.Zip
-import org.gradle.jvm.tasks.Jar
 
 import java.util.regex.Matcher
 import java.util.regex.Pattern
@@ -131,25 +128,10 @@ class PluginBuildPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
     }
 
     private void configurePublishing(Project project, PluginPropertiesExtension extension) {
-        // Only configure publishing if applied externally
-        if (extension.hasClientJar) {
-            project.plugins.apply(MavenScmPlugin.class)
-            // Only change Jar tasks, we don't want a -client zip so we can't change archivesBaseName
-            project.tasks.withType(Jar) {
-                baseName = baseName + "-client"
-            }
-            // always configure publishing for client jars
-            project.plugins.apply(MavenScmPlugin.class)
-            project.publishing.publications.nebula(MavenPublication).artifactId(extension.name + "-client")
-            project.tasks.withType(GenerateMavenPom.class) { GenerateMavenPom generatePOMTask ->
-                generatePOMTask.ext.pomFileName = "${project.archivesBaseName}-client-${project.versions.elasticsearch}.pom"
-            }
-        } else {
-            if (project.plugins.hasPlugin(MavenPublishPlugin)) {
-                project.publishing.publications.nebula(MavenPublication).artifactId(extension.name)
-            }
-
+        if (project.plugins.hasPlugin(MavenPublishPlugin)) {
+            project.publishing.publications.nebula(MavenPublication).artifactId(extension.name)
         }
+
     }
 
     private static void configureDependencies(Project project) {
@@ -260,8 +242,6 @@ class PluginBuildPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
         project.artifacts.add('zip', bundle)
     }
 
-    /** Adds a task to move jar and associated files to a "-client" name. */
-
     static final Pattern GIT_PATTERN = Pattern.compile(/git@([^:]+):([^\.]+)\.git/)
 
     /** Find the reponame. */
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesExtension.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesExtension.groovy
index c250d7695a832..953aa257496ec 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesExtension.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesExtension.groovy
@@ -47,10 +47,6 @@ class PluginPropertiesExtension {
     @Input
     boolean hasNativeController = false
 
-    /** Indicates whether the plugin jar should be made available for the transport client. */
-    @Input
-    boolean hasClientJar = false
-
     /** True if the plugin requires the elasticsearch keystore to exist, false otherwise. */
     @Input
     boolean requiresKeystore = false
diff --git a/modules/aggs-matrix-stats/build.gradle b/modules/aggs-matrix-stats/build.gradle
index d3af124b8af71..b3060fa178621 100644
--- a/modules/aggs-matrix-stats/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/aggs-matrix-stats/build.gradle
@@ -20,5 +20,4 @@
 esplugin {
     description 'Adds aggregations whose input are a list of numeric fields and output includes a matrix.'
     classname 'org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.matrix.MatrixAggregationPlugin'
-    hasClientJar = true
 }
diff --git a/modules/lang-mustache/build.gradle b/modules/lang-mustache/build.gradle
index 2a46bd9ed2efa..f493a85ab67d4 100644
--- a/modules/lang-mustache/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/lang-mustache/build.gradle
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
 esplugin {
   description 'Mustache scripting integration for Elasticsearch'
   classname 'org.elasticsearch.script.mustache.MustachePlugin'
-  hasClientJar = true // For the template apis and query
 }
 
 dependencies {
diff --git a/modules/parent-join/build.gradle b/modules/parent-join/build.gradle
index 67bcc9d54e8e7..756a65a371a9b 100644
--- a/modules/parent-join/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/parent-join/build.gradle
@@ -20,5 +20,4 @@
 esplugin {
   description 'This module adds the support parent-child queries and aggregations'
   classname 'org.elasticsearch.join.ParentJoinPlugin'
-  hasClientJar = true
 }
diff --git a/modules/percolator/build.gradle b/modules/percolator/build.gradle
index 0826c91676dea..1296491748c35 100644
--- a/modules/percolator/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/percolator/build.gradle
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
 esplugin {
     description 'Percolator module adds capability to index queries and query these queries by specifying documents'
     classname 'org.elasticsearch.percolator.PercolatorPlugin'
-    hasClientJar = true
 }
 
 dependencies {
diff --git a/modules/rank-eval/build.gradle b/modules/rank-eval/build.gradle
index a0fe3bef0a617..3e8e40ae89c40 100644
--- a/modules/rank-eval/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/rank-eval/build.gradle
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
 esplugin {
   description 'The Rank Eval module adds APIs to evaluate ranking quality.'
   classname 'org.elasticsearch.index.rankeval.RankEvalPlugin'
-  hasClientJar = true
 }
 
 testClusters.integTest {
diff --git a/modules/reindex/build.gradle b/modules/reindex/build.gradle
index da184deedaa11..f716594ad26e3 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/reindex/build.gradle
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ apply plugin: 'elasticsearch.test-with-dependencies'
 esplugin {
   description 'The Reindex module adds APIs to reindex from one index to another or update documents in place.'
   classname 'org.elasticsearch.index.reindex.ReindexPlugin'
-  hasClientJar = true
 }
 
 testClusters.integTest {
diff --git a/modules/transport-netty4/build.gradle b/modules/transport-netty4/build.gradle
index d64e0aff7749d..b155b076eb157 100644
--- a/modules/transport-netty4/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/transport-netty4/build.gradle
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
 esplugin {
     description 'Netty 4 based transport implementation'
     classname 'org.elasticsearch.transport.Netty4Plugin'
-    hasClientJar = true
 }
 
 compileTestJava.options.compilerArgs << "-Xlint:-cast,-rawtypes,-unchecked"
diff --git a/plugins/analysis-icu/build.gradle b/plugins/analysis-icu/build.gradle
index 90132e2c58fcd..f818959e706de 100644
--- a/plugins/analysis-icu/build.gradle
+++ b/plugins/analysis-icu/build.gradle
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ import de.thetaphi.forbiddenapis.gradle.CheckForbiddenApis
 esplugin {
   description 'The ICU Analysis plugin integrates Lucene ICU module into elasticsearch, adding ICU relates analysis components.'
   classname 'org.elasticsearch.plugin.analysis.icu.AnalysisICUPlugin'
-  hasClientJar = true
 }
 
 tasks.withType(CheckForbiddenApis) {
diff --git a/plugins/transport-nio/build.gradle b/plugins/transport-nio/build.gradle
index 7800ff6951a89..4256ece979fa8 100644
--- a/plugins/transport-nio/build.gradle
+++ b/plugins/transport-nio/build.gradle
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ apply plugin: "nebula.maven-scm"
 esplugin {
     description 'The nio transport.'
     classname 'org.elasticsearch.transport.nio.NioTransportPlugin'
-    hasClientJar = true
 }
 
 dependencies {