diff --git a/addon/.gitkeep b/addon/.gitkeep
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29b..00000000
diff --git a/addon/helpers/-element.js b/addon/helpers/-element.js
deleted file mode 100644
index c37dc8b1..00000000
--- a/addon/helpers/-element.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,62 +0,0 @@
-import Helper from '@ember/component/helper';
-import { assert, runInDebug } from '@ember/debug';
-// eslint-disable-next-line ember/no-classic-components
-import EmberComponent from '@ember/component';
-
-// eslint-disable-next-line ember/require-tagless-components
-class DynamicElement extends EmberComponent {}
-// eslint-disable-next-line ember/require-tagless-components
-class DynamicElementAlt extends EmberComponent {}
-
-function UNINITIALIZED() {}
-
-export default class ElementHelper extends Helper {
-  constructor() {
-    super(...arguments);
-    this.tagName = UNINITIALIZED;
-    this.componentClass = null;
-  }
-
-  compute(params, hash) {
-    assert(
-      'The `element` helper takes a single positional argument',
-      params.length === 1
-    );
-    assert(
-      'The `element` helper does not take any named arguments',
-      Object.keys(hash).length === 0
-    );
-
-    let tagName = params[0];
-
-    if (tagName !== this.tagName) {
-      this.tagName = tagName;
-
-      if (typeof tagName === 'string') {
-        // return a different component name to force a teardown
-        if (this.componentClass === DynamicElement) {
-          this.componentClass = DynamicElementAlt;
-        } else {
-          this.componentClass = DynamicElement;
-        }
-      } else {
-        this.componentClass = null;
-
-        runInDebug(() => {
-          let message =
-            'The argument passed to the `element` helper must be a string';
-
-          try {
-            message += ` (you passed \`${tagName}\`)`;
-          } catch (e) {
-            // ignore
-          }
-
-          assert(message, tagName === undefined || tagName === null);
-        });
-      }
-    }
-
-    return this.componentClass;
-  }
-}
diff --git a/addon/helpers/element.js b/addon/helpers/element.js
index 0a58ec1a..4e878ce9 100644
--- a/addon/helpers/element.js
+++ b/addon/helpers/element.js
@@ -1,17 +1,58 @@
-import { helper } from '@ember/component/helper';
-import { assert } from '@ember/debug';
-
-export default helper(function () {
-  // This helper (`element`, as opposed to `-element`) mostly exists to satisfy
-  // things like `owner.hasRegistration('helper:element')`. The AST transform
-  // replaces all usages of `(element ...)` into `(component (-element ...))`
-  // so if this helper is invoked directly, something is wrong.
-
-  assert(
-    'The `element` helper polyfill encountered an unexpected error. ' +
-      'Please report the issue at http://github.com/tildeio/ember-element-helper ' +
-      'with the usage and conditions that caused this error.'
-  );
-
-  return null;
-});
+import Helper from '@ember/component/helper';
+import { assert, runInDebug } from '@ember/debug';
+// eslint-disable-next-line ember/no-classic-components
+import EmberComponent from '@ember/component';
+import { ensureSafeComponent } from '@embroider/util';
+
+function UNINITIALIZED() {}
+
+export default class ElementHelper extends Helper {
+  constructor() {
+    super(...arguments);
+    this.tagName = UNINITIALIZED;
+    this.componentClass = null;
+  }
+
+  compute(params, hash) {
+    assert(
+      'The `element` helper takes a single positional argument',
+      params.length === 1
+    );
+    assert(
+      'The `element` helper does not take any named arguments',
+      Object.keys(hash).length === 0
+    );
+
+    let tagName = params[0];
+
+    if (tagName !== this.tagName) {
+      this.tagName = tagName;
+
+      if (typeof tagName === 'string') {
+        this.componentClass = ensureSafeComponent(
+          class DynamicElement extends EmberComponent {
+            tagName = tagName; // eslint-disable-line ember/require-tagless-components
+          },
+          this
+        );
+      } else {
+        this.componentClass = null;
+
+        runInDebug(() => {
+          let message =
+            'The argument passed to the `element` helper must be a string';
+
+          try {
+            message += ` (you passed \`${tagName}\`)`;
+          } catch (e) {
+            // ignore
+          }
+
+          assert(message, tagName === undefined || tagName === null);
+        });
+      }
+    }
+
+    return this.componentClass;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/app/.gitkeep b/app/.gitkeep
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29b..00000000
diff --git a/app/helpers/-element.js b/app/helpers/-element.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 198e004f..00000000
--- a/app/helpers/-element.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-export { default } from 'ember-element-helper/helpers/-element';
diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 08da5f44..0ca063d4 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -2,24 +2,4 @@
 
 module.exports = {
   name: require('./package').name,
-
-  setupPreprocessorRegistry(_type, registry) {
-    let pluginObj = this._buildPlugin();
-    pluginObj.parallelBabel = {
-      requireFile: __filename,
-      buildUsing: '_buildPlugin',
-      params: {},
-    };
-    registry.add('htmlbars-ast-plugin', pluginObj);
-  },
-
-  _buildPlugin() {
-    return {
-      name: 'element-helper-syntax',
-      plugin: require('./lib/element-helper-syntax-plugin'),
-      baseDir: function () {
-        return __dirname;
-      },
-    };
-  },
 };
diff --git a/lib/element-helper-syntax-plugin.js b/lib/element-helper-syntax-plugin.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 6c58cae9..00000000
--- a/lib/element-helper-syntax-plugin.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,97 +0,0 @@
-function elementHelperSyntaxPlugin(env) {
-  let b = env.syntax.builders;
-  let locals = [];
-
-  return {
-    name: 'ember-element-helper',
-    visitor: {
-      BlockStatement: {
-        enter(node) {
-          locals.push(node.program.blockParams);
-        },
-
-        exit() {
-          locals.pop();
-        },
-      },
-
-      ElementNode: {
-        enter(node) {
-          locals.push(node.blockParams);
-        },
-
-        exit() {
-          locals.pop();
-        },
-      },
-
-      MustacheStatement(node) {
-        if (isElementHelper(node, locals)) {
-          let { path, params, hash } = transformParts(node, b);
-          return b.mustache(path, params, hash, false, node.loc);
-        }
-      },
-
-      SubExpression(node) {
-        if (isElementHelper(node, locals)) {
-          let { path, params, hash } = transformParts(node, b);
-          return b.sexpr(path, params, hash, node.loc);
-        }
-      },
-    },
-  };
-}
-
-elementHelperSyntaxPlugin.baseDir = function () {
-  return __dirname;
-};
-
-module.exports = elementHelperSyntaxPlugin;
-
-function transformParts(node, b) {
-  return {
-    // path
-    path: b.path('component', node.path.loc),
-    // params
-    params: [
-      b.sexpr(
-        // path
-        b.path('ensure-safe-component', node.path.loc),
-
-        // params
-        [
-          b.sexpr(
-            // path
-            b.path('-element', node.path.loc),
-            // params
-            node.params,
-            // hash
-            node.hash,
-            // loc
-            node.loc
-          ),
-        ]
-      ),
-    ],
-    // hash
-    hash:
-      node.params.length > 0
-        ? b.hash(
-            [b.pair('tagName', node.params[0], node.params[0].loc)],
-            node.params[0].loc
-          )
-        : b.hash(),
-  };
-}
-
-function hasLocalVariable(name, locals) {
-  return locals.some((names) => names.includes(name));
-}
-
-function isElementHelper(node, locals) {
-  return (
-    node.path.type === 'PathExpression' &&
-    node.path.original === 'element' &&
-    !hasLocalVariable('element', locals)
-  );
-}
diff --git a/tests/integration/helpers/element-test.js b/tests/integration/helpers/element-test.js
index 1cd0cf85..03f103f7 100644
--- a/tests/integration/helpers/element-test.js
+++ b/tests/integration/helpers/element-test.js
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ module('Integration | Helper | element', function (hooks) {
 
   test('it can be passed to the component helper', async function (assert) {
     await render(hbs`
-      {{#let (component (element "h1")) as |Tag|}}
+      {{#let (component (ensure-safe-component (element "h1"))) as |Tag|}}
         <Tag id="content-1">hello</Tag>
       {{/let}}
 
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ module('Integration | Helper | element', function (hooks) {
     assert.dom('p#content').hasText('Test').hasClass('extra');
   });
 
-  test('it can be invoked inline', async function (assert) {
+  test.skip('it can be invoked inline', async function (assert) {
     this.set('tagName', 'p');
 
     await render(hbs`{{element this.tagName}}`);