diff --git a/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/guide_state_routes.ts b/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/guide_state_routes.ts
index 2d6a58d1e1684..e70ee5649984b 100644
--- a/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/guide_state_routes.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/guide_state_routes.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import { IRouter, SavedObjectsClient } from '@kbn/core/server';
 import { API_BASE_PATH } from '../../common';
 import { findAllGuides } from '../helpers';
+import { guideStateSavedObjectsType } from '../saved_objects';
 
 export const registerGetGuideStateRoute = (router: IRouter) => {
   // Fetch all guides state
@@ -19,7 +20,9 @@ export const registerGetGuideStateRoute = (router: IRouter) => {
     },
     async (context, request, response) => {
       const coreContext = await context.core;
-      const soClient = coreContext.savedObjects.client as SavedObjectsClient;
+      const soClient = coreContext.savedObjects.getClient({
+        includedHiddenTypes: [guideStateSavedObjectsType],
+      }) as SavedObjectsClient;
 
       const existingGuides = await findAllGuides(soClient);
 
diff --git a/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/plugin_state_routes.ts b/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/plugin_state_routes.ts
index 33d52ea7ce255..997303c095098 100644
--- a/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/plugin_state_routes.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/routes/plugin_state_routes.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import { IRouter, SavedObjectsClient } from '@kbn/core/server';
 import { schema } from '@kbn/config-schema';
 import { GuideState } from '@kbn/guided-onboarding';
+import { guideStateSavedObjectsType, pluginStateSavedObjectsType } from '../saved_objects';
 import { getPluginState, updatePluginStatus } from '../helpers/plugin_state_utils';
 import { API_BASE_PATH } from '../../common';
 import { updateGuideState } from '../helpers';
@@ -21,7 +22,9 @@ export const registerGetPluginStateRoute = (router: IRouter) => {
     },
     async (context, request, response) => {
       const coreContext = await context.core;
-      const savedObjectsClient = coreContext.savedObjects.client as SavedObjectsClient;
+      const savedObjectsClient = coreContext.savedObjects.getClient({
+        includedHiddenTypes: [pluginStateSavedObjectsType, guideStateSavedObjectsType],
+      }) as SavedObjectsClient;
       const pluginState = await getPluginState(savedObjectsClient);
       return response.ok({
         body: {
@@ -59,7 +62,9 @@ export const registerPutPluginStateRoute = (router: IRouter) => {
       const { status, guide } = request.body as { status?: string; guide?: GuideState };
 
       const coreContext = await context.core;
-      const savedObjectsClient = coreContext.savedObjects.client as SavedObjectsClient;
+      const savedObjectsClient = coreContext.savedObjects.getClient({
+        includedHiddenTypes: [pluginStateSavedObjectsType, guideStateSavedObjectsType],
+      }) as SavedObjectsClient;
 
       if (status) {
         await updatePluginStatus(savedObjectsClient, status);
diff --git a/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/saved_objects/guided_setup.ts b/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/saved_objects/guided_setup.ts
index 206388eb64b6f..5ae902d5c6b19 100644
--- a/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/saved_objects/guided_setup.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/guided_onboarding/server/saved_objects/guided_setup.ts
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ export const guideStateSavedObjectsType = 'guided-onboarding-guide-state';
 
 export const guideStateSavedObjects: SavedObjectsType = {
   name: guideStateSavedObjectsType,
-  hidden: false,
+  // hidden SO can't be changed by the SO client except when explicitly declared
+  hidden: true,
   // make it available in all spaces for now https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/144227
   namespaceType: 'agnostic',
   mappings: {
@@ -33,7 +34,8 @@ export const pluginStateSavedObjectsId = 'guided-onboarding-plugin-state-id';
 
 export const pluginStateSavedObjects: SavedObjectsType = {
   name: pluginStateSavedObjectsType,
-  hidden: false,
+  // hidden SO can't be changed by the SO client except when explicitly declared
+  hidden: true,
   // make it available in all spaces for now https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/144227
   namespaceType: 'agnostic',
   mappings: {