diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 942669c41ff154c91e88c937739b0f604f21d545..641ac583b53413909899772b04bdd92b273671cb 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@
 -   repo: https://github.com/reyoung/mirrors-yapf.git
     sha: v0.13.2
     hooks:
-    -   id: yapf
+    - id: yapf
+      files: (.*\.(py|bzl)|BUILD|.*\.BUILD)$  # Bazel BUILD files follow Python syntax.
 -   repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
     sha: 7539d8bd1a00a3c1bfd34cdb606d3a6372e83469
     hooks:
diff --git a/WORKSPACE b/WORKSPACE
index 38e1628d11c20b5b09bf4e68ad89dad8aa71bdc0..d6ae2af8eb678a2e399220abefe825ab3975ff69 100644
--- a/WORKSPACE
+++ b/WORKSPACE
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
-# External dependency to grpc-enabled Google-styleprotobuf bulding
-# rules.  This method comes from
-# https://github.com/pubref/rules_protobuf#usage.
-git_repository(
-    name = "org_pubref_rules_protobuf",
-    remote = "https://github.com/pubref/rules_protobuf",
-    tag = "v0.7.1",
+# External dependency to Google protobuf.
+http_archive(
+    name = "protobuf",
+    url = "http://github.com/google/protobuf/archive/v3.1.0.tar.gz",
+    sha256 = "0a0ae63cbffc274efb573bdde9a253e3f32e458c41261df51c5dbc5ad541e8f7",
+    strip_prefix = "protobuf-3.1.0",
 )
 
 # External dependency to gtest 1.7.0.  This method comes from
@@ -16,7 +15,3 @@ new_http_archive(
     build_file = "third_party/gtest.BUILD",
     strip_prefix = "googletest-release-1.7.0",
 )
-
-
-load("@org_pubref_rules_protobuf//cpp:rules.bzl", "cpp_proto_repositories")
-cpp_proto_repositories()
diff --git a/third_party/protobuf_test/BUILD b/third_party/protobuf_test/BUILD
index 6208b870829db4470c4b247836de22c1a5e56a2d..46f769da5f5004ef2c5f6ecee43bc8965c1d811d 100644
--- a/third_party/protobuf_test/BUILD
+++ b/third_party/protobuf_test/BUILD
@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 licenses(["notice"])  # Apache 2.0
 
-load("@org_pubref_rules_protobuf//cpp:rules.bzl", "cpp_proto_library")
+load("@protobuf//:protobuf.bzl", "cc_proto_library")
 
-cpp_proto_library(
+cc_proto_library(
     name = "example_proto",
-    protos = [
-        "example.proto"
-    ],
-    with_grpc = True,
+    srcs = ["example.proto"],
+    protoc = "@protobuf//:protoc",
+    default_runtime = "@protobuf//:protobuf",
 )
 
 cc_library(