Device subscription lifecycle#

Notifications are enabled separately on each browser or installed PWA.

Turn notifications on#

flowchart LR Start["Select Turn on"] --> Permission["Request permission"] Permission --> Worker["Register service worker"] Worker --> Subscribe["Create browser subscription"] Subscribe --> Save["Save under current user"] Save --> On["Device is on"]

The browser subscription contains:

an HTTPS endpoint owned by the browser's push provider;
a P-256 public key used to encrypt messages for the device; and
an authentication secret.

Remote validates all three values before storing the subscription. One user may store up to 20 device subscriptions.

UI states#

State	Meaning
Loading	Remote is checking the server and browser
Blocked	Push is unsupported, server-side push is disabled, or permission was denied
Off	This browser has no subscription owned by the current account
On	The server confirms this exact endpoint belongs to the current account

On every authenticated app startup, Remote compares the browser's exact endpoint with the current user's stored endpoints. An endpoint left by another account is invalidated locally before it can be treated as enabled.

Turn notifications off#

Remote performs these steps in order:

Read the browser's current subscription.
Delete its endpoint from the current user's server record.
Ask the browser to unsubscribe the endpoint.

Deleting server state first avoids leaving an unreachable endpoint in the store when a later API request fails.

Signing out performs the same server and browser cleanup before clearing the session. As a second boundary, the service worker verifies its exact endpoint against the current session before displaying every incoming push. A logged-out or different account cannot display the previous user's notification.

VAPID key changes#

When the public VAPID key changes, an old subscription cannot be reused for delivery. The next enable action removes the old browser subscription, creates one with the new key, and saves the replacement on the server.

Account and user cleanup#

A browser subscription belongs to the whole origin, while Remote stores it under one user. Exact endpoint ownership, startup reconciliation, and logout cleanup keep those identities aligned in a shared browser.

Removing a user deletes all of their push subscriptions and removes them from every project access list before deleting the user record.