diff --git a/docs/specs/index.rst b/docs/specs/index.rst
index 8abdb491..9fa17d63 100644
--- a/docs/specs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/specs/index.rst
@@ -1,14 +1,13 @@
 .. _swh-deposit-specs:
 
 Blueprint Specifications
 =========================
 
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
    :caption: Contents:
 
    blueprint.rst
    spec-loading.rst
    spec-technical.rst
-   spec-sparse-deposit.rst
    spec-meta-deposit.rst
diff --git a/docs/specs/metadata_example.xml b/docs/specs/metadata_example.xml
index 5e9ae9bc..a184c53f 100644
--- a/docs/specs/metadata_example.xml
+++ b/docs/specs/metadata_example.xml
@@ -1,33 +1,30 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
     <entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
              xmlns:codemeta="https://doi.org/10.5063/SCHEMA/CODEMETA-2.0"
              xmlns:swh="https://www.softwareheritage.org/schema/2018/deposit">
         <author>
           <name>HAL</name>
           <email>hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr</email>
         </author>
         <client>hal</client>
         <codemeta:name>The assignment problem</codemeta:name>
         <codemeta:url>https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01243573</codemeta:url>
         <codemeta:identifier>other identifier, DOI, ARK</codemeta:identifier>
         <codemeta:applicationCategory>Domain</codemeta:applicationCategory>
         <codemeta:description>description</codemeta:description>
         <codemeta:author>
             <codemeta:name> author1 </codemeta:name>
             <codemeta:affiliation> Inria </codemeta:affiliation>
             <codemeta:affiliation> UPMC </codemeta:affiliation>
         </codemeta:author>
         <codemeta:author>
             <codemeta:name> author2 </codemeta:name>
             <codemeta:affiliation> Inria </codemeta:affiliation>
             <codemeta:affiliation> UPMC </codemeta:affiliation>
         </codemeta:author>
         <swh:deposit>
           <swh:create_origin>
             <swh:origin url="http://has.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01243573" />
           </swh:create_origin>
-          <swh:bindings>
-          <swh:binding source="path/to/file.txt" destination="aaaaaaaaaaa..."/>
-        </swh:bindings>
         </swh:deposit>
     </entry>
diff --git a/docs/specs/spec-meta-deposit.rst b/docs/specs/spec-meta-deposit.rst
index 8f1cbe4c..342da790 100644
--- a/docs/specs/spec-meta-deposit.rst
+++ b/docs/specs/spec-meta-deposit.rst
@@ -1,134 +1,133 @@
 The metadata-deposit
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 Goal
 ====
 
 A client wishes to deposit only metadata about an origin or object already
 present in the Software Heritage archive.
 
 The metadata-deposit is a special deposit where no content is
 provided and the data transferred to Software Heritage is only
 the metadata about an object in the archive.
 
 Requirements
 ============
 
 1. Create a metadata-only deposit through a :ref:`POST request<API-create-deposit>`
 2. It is composed of ONLY one xml metadata file
 3. It MUST comply with :ref:`the metadata requirements<metadata-requirements>`
 4. It MUST reference an **object** or an **origin** in a deposit tag
 5. The reference SHOULD exist in the SWH archive
 6. The **object** reference MUST be a SWHID on one of the following artifact types:
    - origin
    - snapshot
    - release
    - revision
    - directory
    - content
 7. The SWHID MAY be a `core identifier`_ with or without `qualifiers`_
 8. The SWHID MUST NOT reference a fragment of code with the classifier `lines`
 
 .. _core identifier: https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/swh-model/persistent-identifiers.html#core-identifiers
 .. _qualifiers: https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/swh-model/persistent-identifiers.html#qualifiers
 
 A complete metadata example
 ===========================
 The reference element is included in the metadata xml atomEntry under the
 swh namespace:
 
 .. code:: xml
 
   <?xml version="1.0"?>
   <entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
            xmlns:codemeta="https://doi.org/10.5063/SCHEMA/CODEMETA-2.0"
            xmlns:swh="https://www.softwareheritage.org/schema/2018/deposit">
       <author>
         <name>HAL</name>
         <email>hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr</email>
       </author>
       <codemeta:name>The assignment problem</codemeta:name>
       <codemeta:url>https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01243573</codemeta:url>
       <codemeta:identifier>other identifier, DOI, ARK</codemeta:identifier>
       <codemeta:applicationCategory>Domain</codemeta:applicationCategory>
       <codemeta:description>description</codemeta:description>
       <codemeta:author>
         <codemeta:name> author1 </codemeta:name>
         <codemeta:affiliation> Inria </codemeta:affiliation>
         <codemeta:affiliation> UPMC </codemeta:affiliation>
       </codemeta:author>
       <codemeta:author>
         <codemeta:name> author2 </codemeta:name>
         <codemeta:affiliation> Inria </codemeta:affiliation>
         <codemeta:affiliation> UPMC </codemeta:affiliation>
       </codemeta:author>
       <swh:deposit>
         <swh:reference>
           <swh:origin url='https://github.com/user/repo'/>
         </swh:reference>
       </swh:deposit>
   </entry>
 
 References
 ==========
 
 The metadata reference can be either on:
 - an origin
 - a graph object (core SWHID with or without qualifiers)
 
 Origins
 -------
 
 The metadata may be on an origin, identified by the origin's URL:
 
 .. code:: xml
 
   <swh:deposit>
     <swh:reference>
       <swh:origin url="https://github.com/user/repo" />
     </swh:reference>
   </swh:deposit>
 
 Graph objects
 -------------
 
 It may also reference an object in the `SWH graph <data-model>`: contents,
 directories, revisions, releases, and snapshots:
 
 .. code:: xml
 
   <swh:deposit>
     <swh:reference>
       <swh:object swhid="swh:1:dir:31b5c8cc985d190b5a7ef4878128ebfdc2358f49" />
     </swh:reference>
   </swh:deposit>
 
 .. code:: xml
 
   <swh:deposit>
     <swh:reference>
       <swh:object swhid="swh:1:dir:31b5c8cc985d190b5a7ef4878128ebfdc2358f49;origin=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01243573;visit=swh:1:snp:4fc1e36fca86b2070204bedd51106014a614f321;anchor=swh:1:rev:9c5de20cfb54682370a398fcc733e829903c8cba;path=/moranegg-AffectationRO-df7f68b/" />
     </swh:reference>
   </swh:deposit>
 
 
 The value of the ``swhid`` attribute must be a `SWHID <persistent-identifiers>`,
 with any context qualifiers in this list:
 
 * ``origin``
 * ``visit``
 * ``anchor``
 * ``path``
 
 and they should be provided whenever relevant, especially ``origin``.
 
 Other qualifiers are not allowed (for example, ``line`` isn't because SWH
 cannot store metadata at a finer level than entire contents).
 
 
 Loading procedure
 =================
 
 In this case, the metadata-deposit will be injected as a metadata entry of
 the relevant object, with the information about the contributor of the deposit.
-Contrary to the complete and sparse deposit, there will be no object creation.
diff --git a/docs/specs/spec-sparse-deposit.rst b/docs/specs/spec-sparse-deposit.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index c8fbcc8a..00000000
--- a/docs/specs/spec-sparse-deposit.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,100 +0,0 @@
-The sparse-deposit
-==================
-
-Goal
-----
-A client wishes to transfer a tarball for which part of the content is
-already in the SWH archive.
-
-Requirements
-------------
-To do so, a list of paths with targets must be provided in the metadata and
-the paths to the missing directories/content should not be included
-in the tarball. The list will be referred to
-as the manifest list using the entry name 'bindings' in the metadata.
-
-+----------------------+-------------------------------------+
-| path                 | swh-id                              |
-+======================+=====================================+
-| path/to/file.txt     |  swh:1:cnt:aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... |
-+----------------------+-------------------------------------+
-| path/to/dir/         |  swh:1:dir:aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... |
-+----------------------+-------------------------------------+
-
-Note: the *name* of the file or the directory is given by the path and is not
-part of the identified object.
-
-TODO: see if a trailing "/" is mandatory for implementation.
-
-A concrete example
-------------------
-The manifest list is included in the metadata xml atomEntry under the
-swh namespace:
-
-TODO: publish schema at https://www.softwareheritage.org/schema/2018/deposit
-
-.. code:: xml
-
-  <?xml version="1.0"?>
-    <entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
-             xmlns:codemeta="https://doi.org/10.5063/SCHEMA/CODEMETA-2.0"
-             xmlns:swh="https://www.softwareheritage.org/schema/2018/deposit">
-        <author>
-          <name>HAL</name>it mandatory to have a trailing "/",
-          <email>hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr</email>
-        </author>
-        <codemeta:name>The assignment problem</codemeta:name>
-        <codemeta:url>https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01243573</codemeta:url>
-        <codemeta:identifier>other identifier, DOI, ARK</codemeta:identifier>
-        <codemeta:applicationCategory>Domain</codemeta:applicationCategory>
-        <codemeta:description>description</codemeta:description>
-        <codemeta:author>
-            <codemeta:name> author1 </codemeta:name>
-            <codemeta:affiliation> Inria </codemeta:affiliation>
-            <codemeta:affiliation> UPMC </codemeta:affiliation>
-        </codemeta:author>
-        <codemeta:author>
-            <codemeta:name> author2 </codemeta:name>
-            <codemeta:affiliation> Inria </codemeta:affiliation>
-            <codemeta:affiliation> UPMC </codemeta:affiliation>
-        </codemeta:author>
-        <swh:deposit>
-          <swh:bindings>
-          <swh:binding source="path/to/file.txt" destination="swh:1:cnt:aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"/>
-          <swh:binding source="path/to/second_file.txt destination="swh:1:cnt:bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb"/>
-          <swh:binding source="path/to/dir/destination="swh:1:dir:ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd"/>
-
-        </swh:bindings>
-        </swh:deposit>
-    </entry>
-
-
-Deposit verification
---------------------
-
-After checking the integrity of the deposit content and
-metadata, the following checks should be added:
-
-1. validate the manifest list structure with a correct swh-id for each path  (syntax check on the swh-id format)
-2. verify that the path name corresponds to the object type
-3. locate the identifiers in the SWH archive
-
-Each failing check should return a different error with the deposit
-and result in a 'rejected' deposit.
-
-Loading procedure
-------------------
-The injection procedure should include:
-
-- load the tarball new data
-- create new objects using the path name and create links from the path to the
-  SWH object using the identifier
-- calculate identifier of the new objects at each level
-- return final swh-id of the new revision
-
-Invariant: the same content should yield the same swh-id,
-that's why a complete deposit with all the content and
-a sparse-deposit with the correct links will result
-with the same root directory swh-id.
-The same is expected with the revision swh-id if the metadata provided is
-identical.
diff --git a/docs/specs/swh.xsd b/docs/specs/swh.xsd
index 119d83d1..2a7d4292 100644
--- a/docs/specs/swh.xsd
+++ b/docs/specs/swh.xsd
@@ -1,65 +1,51 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
 <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
             targetNamespace="https://www.softwareheritage.org/schema/2018/deposit"
             xmlns:swh="https://www.softwareheritage.org/schema/2018/deposit"
             elementFormDefault="qualified"
             >
   <xsd:element name="deposit">
     <xsd:complexType>
       <xsd:choice>
         <!-- code deposit on a new origin -->
         <xsd:element name="create_origin" >
           <xsd:complexType>
             <xsd:element ref="swh:origin" />
           </xsd:complexType>
         </xsd:element>
 
         <!-- code deposit on an origin already created by a previous deposit -->
         <xsd:element name="add_to_origin" >
           <xsd:complexType>
             <xsd:element ref="swh:origin" />
           </xsd:complexType>
         </xsd:element>
 
         <!-- metadata-only deposit -->
         <xsd:element name="reference">
           <xsd:complexType>
             <xsd:choice>
               <xsd:element ref="swh:origin" />
               <xsd:element ref="swh:object" />
             </xsd:choice>
           </xsd:complexType>
         </xsd:element>
 
-        <!-- sparse deposit -->
-        <xsd:element name="bindings">
-          <xsd:complexType>
-            <xsd:sequence>
-              <xsd:element name="binding" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
-                <xsd:complexType>
-                    <xsd:attribute type="xsd:string" name="source"/>
-                    <xsd:attribute type="xsd:string" name="destination"/>
-                </xsd:complexType>
-              </xsd:element>
-            </xsd:sequence>
-          </xsd:complexType>
-        </xsd:element>
-
       </xsd:choice>
     </xsd:complexType>
   </xsd:element>
 
   <!-- references a SWHID -->
   <xsd:element name="object">
     <xsd:complexType>
     <xsd:attribute type="xsd:string" name="swhid"/>
     </xsd:complexType>
   </xsd:element>
 
   <!-- references an origin by URL -->
   <xsd:element name="origin">
     <xsd:complexType>
     <xsd:attribute type="xsd:string" name="url"/>
     </xsd:complexType>
   </xsd:element>
 </xsd:schema>