diff --git a/.heliumcli.yml b/.heliumcli.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 03c18055..00000000
--- a/.heliumcli.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
-ansibleCopyrightNameVar: project_developer
-ansibleRelativeDir: ansible
-branchName: main
-copyrightName: Helium Edu
-tagRootRelease: false
-gitProject: git@github.com:HeliumEdu
-hostProvisionCommand: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y python && sudo
-  apt-get -y autoremove
-projects:
-- platform
-- frontend
-- www
-releaseProjects: []
-projectsRelativeDir: projects
-remoteName: origin
-serverBinFilename: bin/runserver
-updateCopyrightYear: false
-versionInfo:
-  path: conf/configs/common.py
-  project: platform
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 3af0eed5..09297d16 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 SHELL := /usr/bin/env bash
 PYTHON_BIN := python
-HELIUMCLI_PROJECTS ?= '["platform", "frontend"]'
+PROJECTS ?= platform frontend www
 SKIP_UPDATE ?= 'false'
 DEV_LOCAL_AWS_REGION ?= 'us-east-2'
 PLATFORM ?= arm64
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ install-reqs:
 install: install-reqs
 	$(PYTHON_BIN) -m pip install -r requirements.txt
 
-	@HELIUMCLI_FORCE_FETCH=True HELIUMCLI_SKIP_UPDATE_PULL=True HELIUMCLI_PROJECTS=$(HELIUMCLI_PROJECTS) helium-cli update-projects
+	@PROJECTS="$(PROJECTS)" ./bin/update-projects.sh
 
 build: install
 	PLATFORM=$(PLATFORM) make -C projects/platform build-docker
diff --git a/bin/update-projects.sh b/bin/update-projects.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..ed10b68f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/update-projects.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Clone or update each Helium subproject under projects/, then run
+# `make install` in it.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+GIT_PROJECT="${GIT_PROJECT:-git@github.com:HeliumEdu}"
+PROJECTS="${PROJECTS:-platform frontend www}"
+PROJECTS_DIR="projects"
+
+mkdir -p "$PROJECTS_DIR"
+
+for proj in $PROJECTS; do
+    echo "$proj"
+    project_path="$PROJECTS_DIR/$proj"
+
+    if [ ! -d "$project_path/.git" ]; then
+        echo "Cloning repo to ./$project_path"
+        git clone "$GIT_PROJECT/$proj.git" "$project_path"
+    else
+        (cd "$project_path" && git fetch --tags --prune --force && git pull)
+    fi
+
+    make install -C "$project_path"
+    echo ""
+done
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index d4467539..ed052b37 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
-heliumcli==1.6.38
 beautifulsoup4==4.13.4
 html2text==2024.2.26
\ No newline at end of file