Citrix Workspace Manager (cwm)

A macOS CLI tool to safely park and unpark Citrix Workspace without requiring a reboot.

The Problem

Simply killing Citrix Workspace processes leaves macOS in a broken state:

• XPC/Mach port registrations go stale
• AuthManager fails to reconnect ("Unable to connect to the citrix AuthManager service")
• KeepAlive plists respawn killed processes immediately
• A reboot becomes the only reliable recovery

The Solution

cwm uses launchctl bootout/bootstrap to cleanly unload and reload all Citrix services in the correct dependency order — no reboot required.

Stop (Park)

Unloads services edge-to-hub: quits the app gracefully, boots out user LaunchAgents (peripherals first, ReceiverHelper hub last), then system LaunchDaemons, then cleans up stragglers.

Start (Unpark)

Reloads services hub-to-edge: bootstraps system LaunchDaemons first, then user LaunchAgents (ReceiverHelper hub first), kickstarts AuthManager (which lacks RunAtLoad), then launches the app.

Requirements

• macOS (tested on macOS 15.7.1 Sequoia)
• Citrix Workspace installed at /Applications/Citrix Workspace.app
• sudo access (required for system LaunchDaemons)

Installation

Via Homebrew (recommended)

brew tap 5L-Labs/citrix-cli
brew install citrix-workspace-manager

Manual

git clone https://github.com/5L-Labs/osx-citrix-manager-cli.git
cd osx-citrix-manager-cli
chmod +x scripts/cwm.sh

Usage

# Check current Citrix status
cwm status

# Stop (park) all Citrix services
sudo cwm stop

# Start (unpark) all Citrix services
sudo cwm start

# Preview what would happen without making changes
sudo cwm --dry-run stop

# Verbose output for debugging
sudo cwm --verbose start

Commands

Command	Description
start	Bootstrap all Citrix services and launch the app
stop	Gracefully quit the app and unload all services
status	Show current state of all Citrix components

Options

Flag	Description
--verbose	Show detailed output for each operation
--dry-run	Preview actions without executing (implies --verbose)
-h, --help	Show usage help

Managed Components

LaunchAgents (user-level)

Label	Role
com.citrix.ReceiverHelper	Central hub — 15 XPC/Mach services
com.citrix.ServiceRecords	Beacons & service records
com.citrix.AuthManager_Mac	Authentication XPC service
com.citrix.safariadapter	Safari browser integration
com.citrix.WebLauncher	ICA file launch handler
com.citrix.UninstallMonitor	WatchPaths on app bundle
com.citrix.devicetrust.launchagent	deviceTRUST posture

LaunchDaemons (system-level)

Label	Role
com.citrix.CtxWorkspaceHelperDaemon	Root helper daemon
com.citrix.ctxworkspaceupdater	Auto-updater
com.citrix.ctxusbd	USB device redirection
com.citrix.ReceiverUninstallHelper	Uninstall support

Design Principles

• Idempotent: safe to run multiple times; "not loaded" / "not found" are non-fatal
• UID-aware: correctly detects the console user UID, even when run via sudo
• Dependency-ordered: services are stopped edge-to-hub and started hub-to-edge
• Unknown service detection: warns if new com.citrix.* services appear after a Citrix update

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.