Autostart

Autostart

app.Autostart registers your application to launch automatically when the user logs in. It picks the right native mechanism per platform and resolves symlinked install paths (Homebrew, Scoop) so registrations don’t break when the binary is upgraded.

Registration takes effect on the next login, not immediately.

Quick Start

import "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/pkg/application"

// Register to launch at login
if err := app.Autostart.Enable(); err != nil {
    app.Logger.Error("autostart enable failed", "error", err)
}

// Stop launching at login
if err := app.Autostart.Disable(); err != nil {
    app.Logger.Error("autostart disable failed", "error", err)
}

// Check status
enabled, err := app.Autostart.IsEnabled()

API

Enable

Registers the application to launch at login with default options.

func (m *AutostartManager) Enable() error

Calling Enable repeatedly is safe — the registration is overwritten each time, so it’s correct to call on every startup if you’ve persisted the user’s preference.

EnableWithOptions

Registers with custom options.

func (m *AutostartManager) EnableWithOptions(opts AutostartOptions) error

AutostartOptions:

Disable

Removes the autostart registration. Returns nil if the application wasn’t registered — disable is idempotent.

func (m *AutostartManager) Disable() error

IsEnabled

Reports whether a registration exists. Fast — doesn’t validate the registered path.

func (m *AutostartManager) IsEnabled() (bool, error)

Status

Returns full registration state.

func (m *AutostartManager) Status() (AutostartStatus, error)

AutostartStatus:

Platform Behaviour

Type=Application
Hidden=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Exec=<executable> <arguments>

if err := app.Autostart.Enable(); err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, application.ErrAutostartNotSupported) {
        // hide the toggle in the UI
        return
    }
    // real failure — surface it
}

Identifier

If Options.Identifier is empty, a default is derived from your app’s name:

Identifiers must match ^[A-Za-z0-9._-]+$ and be no longer than 200 characters. Reverse-DNS form is recommended for macOS (it matches how launchd Labels are conventionally written).

When AutostartOptions.Identifier is overridden, the same identifier is reused as the registry value name on Windows and the .desktop filename on Linux, so a single string identifies the registration cross-platform.

Stale Detection

Disable() and Status() locate the registration by matching the registered executable path against os.Executable() (resolved through any symlinks), not by looking up the identifier. This means:

• Changing the identifier between releases is safe. The old registration is still discoverable by Status() and cleaned up by Disable() — as long as the executable path is the same.
• A second copy of the app at a different path won’t clobber the first’s registration. Each binary location is tracked independently.
• Symlinked installs (Homebrew, Scoop) are stable. filepath.EvalSymlinks is applied to os.Executable() before matching, so a Homebrew upgrade that swaps the target doesn’t strand the entry.

What this does not cover: if the user moves or renames the binary to an unrelated path, the old registration becomes orphaned (it points at the now-missing file). Apps that ship from a stable install path don’t need to worry about this; apps shipped as portable single-file binaries should call Disable() before moving themselves, or always launch through a stable symlink.

Example

package main

import (
    "errors"

    "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/pkg/application"
)

func main() {
    app := application.New(application.Options{
        Name: "My App",
    })

    // Restore the user's preference on startup
    if userPrefersAutostart() {
        if err := app.Autostart.Enable(); err != nil {
            if !errors.Is(err, application.ErrAutostartNotSupported) {
                app.Logger.Error("autostart", "error", err)
            }
        }
    }

    app.Run()
}

A complete runnable example with status / enable / disable buttons is in examples/autostart/.