diff --git a/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror.py b/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror.py
index 7b4dc53..2a023dd 100755
--- a/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror.py
+++ b/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror.py
@@ -34,8 +34,6 @@ from zephyr_mirror_backend import parse_args
 
 (options, args) = parse_args()
 
-sys.path[:0] = [os.path.join(options.root_path, 'api')]
-
 from types import FrameType
 from typing import Any
 
@@ -57,6 +55,7 @@ if options.sync_subscriptions:
     sys.exit(0)
 
 if options.forward_class_messages and not options.noshard:
+    # Needed to get access to zephyr.lib.parallel
     sys.path.append("/home/zulip/zulip")
     if options.on_startup_command is not None:
         subprocess.call([options.on_startup_command])
diff --git a/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror_backend.py b/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror_backend.py
index 22d0830..cfae3b6 100755
--- a/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror_backend.py
+++ b/zulip/integrations/zephyr/zephyr_mirror_backend.py
@@ -1028,9 +1028,6 @@ def parse_args():
     parser.add_option('--user',
                       default=os.environ["USER"],
                       help=optparse.SUPPRESS_HELP)
-    parser.add_option('--root-path',
-                      default="/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/t/a/tabbott/for_friends",
-                      help=optparse.SUPPRESS_HELP)
     parser.add_option('--stamp-path',
                       default="/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/t/a/tabbott/for_friends",
                       help=optparse.SUPPRESS_HELP)
@@ -1090,14 +1087,6 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     logger = open_logger()
     configure_logger(logger, "parent")
 
-    # The 'api' directory needs to go first, so that 'import zulip' won't pick
-    # up some other directory named 'humbug'.
-    pyzephyr_lib_path = "python-zephyr/build/lib.linux-%s-%s/" % (os.uname()[4], sys.version[0:3])
-    sys.path[:0] = [os.path.join(options.root_path, 'api'),
-                    options.root_path,
-                    os.path.join(options.root_path, "python-zephyr"),
-                    os.path.join(options.root_path, pyzephyr_lib_path)]
-
     # In case this is an automated restart of the mirroring script,
     # and we have lost AFS tokens, first try reading the API key from
     # the environment so that we can skip doing a filesystem read.