diff --git a/src/ui/public/metadata.js b/src/ui/public/metadata.js
index 0b3897bb28e16..af93aeb616ed8 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/metadata.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/metadata.js
@@ -1,11 +1,9 @@
+import $ from 'jquery';
 import _ from 'lodash';
-// singleton for immutable copy of window.__KBN__
 
-if (!_.has(window, '__KBN__')) {
-  throw new Error('window.__KBN__ must be set for metadata');
-}
+const state = $('[kbn-initial-state]').attr('kbn-initial-state');
+const kbn = window.__KBN__ = JSON.parse(state);
 
-const kbn = _.cloneDeep(window.__KBN__ || {});
 export default deepFreeze(kbn);
 
 function deepFreeze(object) {
diff --git a/src/ui/views/chrome.jade b/src/ui/views/chrome.jade
index 357258de1b435..6091b440a54a4 100644
--- a/src/ui/views/chrome.jade
+++ b/src/ui/views/chrome.jade
@@ -1,12 +1,6 @@
 -
   var appName = 'kibana';
 
-  function encoded (data) {
-    var scriptend = /\<\s*\/\s*script\s*>/ig;
-    var concatend = '</" + "script>';
-    return JSON.stringify(data).replace(scriptend, concatend);
-  }
-
 block vars
 
 doctype html
@@ -18,5 +12,5 @@ html(lang='en')
     title Kibana
     block head
   body(kbn-chrome, id='#{appName}-body')
-    script window.__KBN__ = !{encoded(kibanaPayload)};
+    meta(kbn-initial-state=JSON.stringify(kibanaPayload))
     block content