diff --git a/src/Application.cpp b/src/Application.cpp
index 597c58b1..86c1b05d 100644
--- a/src/Application.cpp
+++ b/src/Application.cpp
@@ -44,10 +44,11 @@ int Application::run(const std::vector<std::string>& arguments) {
         this->startup();
 
         if (this->insightConfig.insightEnabled) {
-            this->insight.setApplicationConfig(this->applicationConfig);
-            this->insight.setEnvironmentConfig(this->environmentConfig);
-            this->insight.setInsightConfig(this->insightConfig);
-            this->insight.run();
+            this->insight = std::make_unique<Insight>(this->eventManager);
+            this->insight->setApplicationConfig(this->applicationConfig);
+            this->insight->setEnvironmentConfig(this->environmentConfig);
+            this->insight->setInsightConfig(this->insightConfig);
+            this->insight->run();
             Logger::debug("Insight closed");
             this->shutdown();
             return EXIT_SUCCESS;
diff --git a/src/Application.hpp b/src/Application.hpp
index 2862b697..12edf06f 100644
--- a/src/Application.hpp
+++ b/src/Application.hpp
@@ -73,12 +73,19 @@ namespace Bloom
          * Insight is, effectively, a small Qt application that serves a GUI to the user. It occupies the main thread,
          * as well as a single worker thread, and possibly other threads created by Qt.
          *
+         * Insight is optional - users can disable it via their project configuration.
+         *
          * When the user closes the Insight GUI, control of the main thread is returned to Application::run(). How we
          * deal with the GUI being closed at this point depends on user configuration.
          *
          * See the Insight class for more on this.
+         *
+         * Because Insight is optional, we only construct the Insight object when we need it. We can't use
+         * std::optional here because the Insight class extends QObject, which disables the copy constructor and
+         * the assignment operator. So we use an std::unique_ptr instead, which is perfectly fine for this use case,
+         * as we want to manage the lifetime of the object here.
          */
-        Insight insight = Insight(this->eventManager);
+        std::unique_ptr<Insight> insight = nullptr;
 
         /**
          * Configuration extracted from the user's project configuration file.
diff --git a/src/Insight/Insight.cpp b/src/Insight/Insight.cpp
index cea7ed84..d0b78297 100644
--- a/src/Insight/Insight.cpp
+++ b/src/Insight/Insight.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
+#include "Insight.hpp"
+
 #include <typeindex>
 #include <QTimer>
 
-#include "Insight.hpp"
 #include "InsightWorker.hpp"
 #include "src/Helpers/Paths.hpp"
 #include "src/Logger/Logger.hpp"
@@ -54,8 +55,6 @@ void Insight::startup() {
 #ifndef BLOOM_DEBUG_BUILD
     QCoreApplication::addLibraryPath(QString::fromStdString(Paths::applicationDirPath() + "/plugins"));
 #endif
-    QCoreApplication::setAttribute(Qt::AA_ShareOpenGLContexts, true);
-
     this->application.setQuitOnLastWindowClosed(true);
     qRegisterMetaType<Bloom::Targets::TargetDescriptor>();
     qRegisterMetaType<Bloom::Targets::TargetPinDescriptor>();
diff --git a/src/Insight/Insight.hpp b/src/Insight/Insight.hpp
index 169f620f..fdf958f1 100644
--- a/src/Insight/Insight.hpp
+++ b/src/Insight/Insight.hpp
@@ -52,7 +52,22 @@ namespace Bloom
         void startup();
 
     public:
-        explicit Insight(EventManager& eventManager): eventManager(eventManager) {};
+        /**
+         * Insight constructor.
+         *
+         * Note: We use the comma operator in the application() initializer to set the Qt::AA_ShareOpenGLContexts
+         * attribute, as this is required by Qt before creating a QCoreApplication instance.
+         *
+         * @param eventManager
+         */
+        explicit Insight(EventManager& eventManager):
+        eventManager(eventManager),
+        application(
+            (
+                QCoreApplication::setAttribute(Qt::AA_ShareOpenGLContexts, true),
+                QApplication(this->qtApplicationArgc, this->qtApplicationArgv.data())
+            )
+        ) {};
 
         void setApplicationConfig(const ApplicationConfig& applicationConfig) {
             this->applicationConfig = applicationConfig;