diff --git a/src/ui/public/metadata.js b/src/ui/public/metadata.js
index 4f8103221e109..0b3897bb28e16 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/metadata.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/metadata.js
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
-import $ from 'jquery';
 import _ from 'lodash';
+// singleton for immutable copy of window.__KBN__
 
-const state = $('kbn-initial-state').attr('data');
-const kbn = window.__KBN__ = JSON.parse(state);
+if (!_.has(window, '__KBN__')) {
+  throw new Error('window.__KBN__ must be set for metadata');
+}
 
+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 45f42d1086a07..646b9bd329a45 100644
--- a/src/ui/views/chrome.jade
+++ b/src/ui/views/chrome.jade
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
--
-  var appName = 'kibana';
+- var j = function (o) { return JSON.stringify(o); }
+- var appName = 'kibana';
 
 block vars
 
@@ -12,5 +12,5 @@ html(lang='en')
     title Kibana
     block head
   body(kbn-chrome, id='#{appName}-body')
-    kbn-initial-state(data=JSON.stringify(kibanaPayload))
+    script window.__KBN__ = !{j(kibanaPayload)};
     block content