fix(apple): Enforce single Firezone instance

[klochowicz]

show an alert to the user and ask to quit previous Firezone instance manually before starting a new one.

Resolves: #10295

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Project	Deployment	Preview	Comments	Updated (UTC)
firezone	Ready	Preview	Comment	Sep 10, 2025 1:40am

[klochowicz]

Fixes #10295

I don't have Intune, but works when trying to run from XCode at the same time:

[klochowicz]

note: to gracefully handle this automatically, we could dive deeper into this and listen on old instances for a message sent from a new instance, so it can quit reliably. This approach would require rolling out a new client version to all the customers, and this would probably still be needed as a fallback for when old instance would be too old to handle the message....

[thomaseizinger]

note: to gracefully handle this automatically, we could dive deeper into this and listen on old instances for a message sent from a new instance, so it can quit reliably. This approach would require rolling out a new client version to all the customers, and this would probably still be needed as a fallback for when old instance would be too old to handle the message....

That is what we do on Linux and Windows, we actually make the application visible instead of starting another instance. But the GUI there works slightly differently, also in terms of its design 😅

[jamilbk]

LGTM, just some nitpicky suggestion on language.

[jamilbk]

Reminder to update the changelog: https://github.com/firezone/firezone/blob/main/website/src/components/Changelog/Apple.tsx

[thomaseizinger]

Suggested change

	alert.messageText = "Another Firezone Instance Detected"
	alert.messageText = "Firezone is already running"

Maybe that sounds a bit better?

[klochowicz]

I'm not sure, we're already say that "Another instance is already running" just below it... and I like the uppercase & sounding serious with "detected" :)

I guess we can always iterate on it further if it's unclear to any of our users.

[thomaseizinger]

LGTM modulo not trying to terminate the old instance and an update of the PR description to match the implemented functionality.

[jamilbk]

We show a "Welcome to Firezone" dialog if the app is launched twice (in the case where it's detected properly). Can we make sure this still works?

That was added due to feedback from users since the menu bar icon won't be visible if the menu bar has many things running or the user is on a small screen.

[jamilbk]

We show a "Welcome to Firezone" dialog if the app is launched twice (in the case where it's detected properly). Can we make sure this still works?

That was added due to feedback from users since the menu bar icon won't be visible if the menu bar has many things running or the user is on a small screen.

On this note, a minor UX improvement might be to just offer a second button "Quit it and continue" which avoids the user having to use the menu bar at all.

[klochowicz]

We show a "Welcome to Firezone" dialog if the app is launched twice (in the case where it's detected properly). Can we make sure this still works?

That was added due to feedback from users since the menu bar icon won't be visible if the menu bar has many things running or the user is on a small screen.

yes, it still works. just checked locally.