Standalone installer downloads x86_64-only macOS binary and fails on Apple Silicon without Rosetta #11318

[REQUIRED] Environment info

firebase-tools: 15.34.0 (installer reports this as the latest npm version and downloads https://firebase.tools/bin/macos/v15.34.0)

Platform: macOS 27.0.1 (build 26A434), Apple M1 Pro (arm64)

Rosetta 2 is not installed:

$ arch -x86_64 /usr/bin/true
arch: posix_spawnp: /usr/bin/true: Bad CPU type in executable

firebase --version is unavailable because the installer fails before the downloaded binary can run.

[REQUIRED] Test case

On an Apple Silicon Mac without Rosetta 2:

curl -sL https://firebase.tools | bash

[REQUIRED] Steps to reproduce

1. Use an arm64 Mac where Rosetta 2 is not installed.
2. Run curl -sL https://firebase.tools | bash (or curl -sL https://firebase.tools | upgrade=true bash to repair).
3. Observe that the installer replaces /usr/local/bin/firebase and then fails to execute it.

[REQUIRED] Expected behavior

The installer should either install a binary that runs on the host architecture, or fail with an actionable message (for example, install Rosetta or use npm install -g firebase-tools) before overwriting an existing firebase binary.

[REQUIRED] Actual behavior

$ curl -sL https://firebase.tools | upgrade=true bash
-- Checking for existing firebase-tools...
bash: line 177: /usr/local/bin/firebase: Bad CPU type in executable
-- Your machine has a corrupted firebase-tools binary, attempting upgrade...
-- Checking your machine type...
-- Downloading binary from https://firebase.tools/bin/macos/v15.34.0
######################################################################## 100.0%
-- Setting permissions on binary... /usr/local/bin/firebase
bash: line 287: /usr/local/bin/firebase: Bad CPU type in executable
Something went wrong, firebase has not been installed.
Please file a bug with your system information on Github.
https://github.com/firebase/firebase-tools/
-- All done!

After the failed install, /usr/local/bin/firebase is left in place and still unusable:

$ file /usr/local/bin/firebase
/usr/local/bin/firebase: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

The downloaded release asset is also x86_64-only:

$ curl -sL -r 0-4095 https://firebase.tools/bin/macos/v15.34.0 | file -
Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

The v15.34.0 release only publishes a single macOS asset, firebase-tools-macos, so there is no arm64 alternative.

Root cause

The install script detects only the OS (uname -s → macos) and never checks the CPU architecture (uname -m) or Rosetta availability. The macOS standalone binary is x86_64-only, so it cannot run on Apple Silicon without Rosetta. The existing-install probe then reports the binary as "corrupted" even though it is a valid x86_64 executable, and the upgrade path overwrites the existing install with the same non-runnable binary.

The failure message does not mention Rosetta or npm install -g firebase-tools, making this difficult to diagnose.

This appears to be the same underlying issue as the closed reports #9511 and #10333, which were closed after installing Rosetta. The problem still reproduces with the latest release on systems where Rosetta is intentionally absent.

Suggested fixes

• Publish a universal or arm64 macOS standalone binary, and select it in the installer based on uname -m.
• If no arm64 binary is available, detect Apple Silicon without Rosetta and exit with an actionable message rather than downloading and overwriting the existing binary.
• At minimum, update the failure output/docs to mention the Rosetta requirement (softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license) and the npm fallback.

Workarounds

• Install Rosetta 2, then rerun the installer.
• Install via npm instead: npm install -g firebase-tools