I’m going to answer my own question.  Going to Channels → Support Portal → and then changing user permissions for submitting new tickets and view solutions to Logged in Users has apparently forced the Home Page to sign on my users.  Working beautifully.  Hope this helps someone else as I couldn’t find it documented anywhere.

I think you sould also set “Allow users to Sign Up from the customer portal” to “No”.
 

To enable automatic SSO login, implement middleware to check authentication before rendering the home page. If the user isn’t logged in, redirect to the SSO provider and return upon success. For a seamless experience, use silent authentication if supported by the SSO provider to log in without user interaction.

That’s a great tip, @kenyon.giles — adjusting permissions under Channels → Support Portal really helps streamline the login flow.

I’d also add that enabling a silent authentication check can make the process even smoother if your SSO provider supports it. This allows users to be signed in automatically without needing to click the login link at all.

If you want to explore more about optimizing user authentication and session handling, you can for a helpful reference on improving system access flows and user experience.

Freshservice cannot automatically trigger AAD SSO before showing the Home Page; users must click Login to start SSO. The workaround is to provide a direct SSO login URL or a landing page that redirects users to SSO.