Tailscale CLI

Tailscale ships with a built-in CLI that you can use to get information about your Tailscale+WireGuard® network and troubleshoot issues.

The Tailscale CLI is available for all plans.

Using the CLI

The location of the CLI varies depending on your platform:

Linux

On Linux, the CLI is your primary interface to Tailscale. The tailscale binary is likely already in your $PATH, so commands can be run with:

tailscale <command>

macOS

On macOS, the CLI is bundled inside the Tailscale app. Run commands with:

/Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale <command>

If you frequently access the Tailscale CLI, you may find it convenient to add an alias to your .bashrc, .zshrc or shell config to make it easier.

alias tailscale="/Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale"

Windows

On Windows, the CLI can be accessed by executing the .exe from the Command Prompt.

tailscale <command>

There is no CLI support for iOS and Android.

Command Reference

up

up connects your device to Tailscale, and authenticates if needed.

tailscale up [flags]

Running tailscale up without any flags connects to Tailscale.

Common flags:

--accept-routes Accept subnet routes that other nodes advertise. Linux devices default to not accepting routes.
--advertise-exit-node Offer to be an exit node for outbound internet traffic from the Tailscale network. Defaults to not offering to be an exit node.
--advertise-routes=<ip> Expose physical subnet routes to your entire Tailscale network.
--exit-node=<ip|name> Provide a Tailscale IP or machine name to use as an exit node. To disable the use of an exit node, pass the flag with an empty argument: --exit-node=.
--exit-node-allow-lan-access Allow direct access to the local network when routing traffic via an exit node. Defaults to not allowing direct access to your LAN.
--force-reauth Force re-authentication.
--shields-up Block incoming connections from other devices on your Tailscale network. Useful for personal devices that only make outgoing connections.
--ssh Run a Tailscale SSH server, permitting access per the tailnet admin’s declared access policy, or the default policy if none is defined. Defaults to false.

For a complete list of available flags, see the tailscale up article.

down

down disconnects from Tailscale. This command is the same as the “Disconnect” option on the macOS and Windows GUI clients.

tailscale down

When disconnected, you cannot reach devices over Tailscale. To reconnect, re-run tailscale up without any flags.

Available flags:

--accept-risk=<risk> Accept risk and skip confirmation for risk type. This can be either lose-ssh or all, or an empty string to not accept risk.

bugreport

The bugreport command is available in Tailscale v1.8 or later. If you don’t see this command, consider updating your Tailscale client.

Bugreport makes it easier to report bugs to the Tailscale team by marking diagnostic logs with indicators to make triage easier.

If you encounter a connectivity issue, run tailscale bugreport on the device experiencing the issue at the time you encounter it. This command will print a random identifier into diagnostic logs, which you can share with our team.

Identifiers look like this:

$ tailscale bugreport
BUG-1b7641a16971a9cd75822c0ed8043fee70ae88cf05c52981dc220eb96a5c49a8-20210427151443Z-fbcd4fd3a4b7ad94

This command shares no personally-identifiable information, and is unused unless you share the bug identifier with our team.

Available flags:

--diagnose Prints additional verbose information about the system to the Tailscale logs after generating a bugreport identifier, which can then be viewed by our support team. Defaults to false.
--record Pause and then write another bugreport. Use this flag to create an initial bugreport identifier. During the pause, perform the action that reproduces your issue. Then, press Enter to create a second bugreport identifier. Share both bug identifiers with our team. Defaults to false.

cert

Generate certificate and key files on the host for HTTPS certificates in the network.

configure (alpha)

Configures resources that you want to include in your tailnet.

tailscale configure <sub-commands>

Common sub-commands:

kubeconfig Configure kubectl to connect to a Kubernetes cluster using Tailscale.
synology Configure Synology to enable outbound connections needed for Tailscale.

Examples:

To configure your local kubeconfig file for authentication with a Kubernetes auth proxy:

tailscale configure kubeconfig <hostname-or-fqdn>

To configure Synology to enable outbound connections:

tailscale configure synology

file

Access and make files available to Taildrop.

Available flags:

cp Copy files to a host
get Move files out of the Tailscale file inbox

funnel

Turn on or off Funnel for your tailscale serve servers. Funnel allows you to publish an HTTPS or TLS-wrapped TCP server publicly, open to the entire internet.

<port> on Turn on Funnel for the server on the specified port. Note that we limit serving Funnel traffic to servers running with the <port> of 443,8443 and 10000.
<port> off Turn off Funnel for the server on the specified port. Note that turning off Funnel only turns off serving to the internet. It does not affect serving to your tailnet.
status [--json] Print the status of Funnel for all servers. If --json is specified, the output is in JSON format.

ip

ip returns a device’s Tailscale IP address.

tailscale ip [flags] [<hostname>]

By default, this command returns both an 100.x.y.z IPv4 address and an IPv6 address for the current device. You can return only an IPv4 or IPv6 address by passing either the -4 or -6 flags.

$ tailscale ip -4
100.121.112.23

You can also find the Tailscale IP for other devices on your network by adding the device hostname after the command. For example:

$ tailscale ip raspberrypi
100.126.153.111
fd7a:115c:a1e0:ab12:4843:cd96:627e:9975

Available flags:

-4 Only return an IPv4 address
-6 Only return an IPv6 address
-1 Only return one address, preferring IPv4

lock

Manages tailnet lock for your tailnet.

tailscale lock <sub-command> [sub-flags] <args>

Common sub-commands:

init Initializes tailnet lock.
status Outputs the state of tailnet lock.
add Adds one or more trusted signing keys to tailnet lock.
remove Removes one or more trusted signing keys from tailnet lock.
sign Signs a node key and transmits the signature to the coordination server.

Running tailnet lock with no sub-command and no arguments is equivalent to running tailscale lock status.

For a complete list of sub-commands and flags, see the tailscale lock article.

Logs this machine in to your Tailscale network. For more information about logging in, see fast-user-switching.

tailscale login [flags]

Available flags:

--accept-dns Accept DNS configuration from the admin console. Defaults to accepting DNS settings.
--accept-routes Accept subnet routes that other nodes advertise. Linux devices default to not accepting routes.
--advertise-exit-node Offer to be an exit node for outbound internet traffic from the Tailscale network. Defaults to not offering to be an exit node.
--advertise-routes=<ip> Expose physical subnet routes to your entire Tailscale network.
--advertise-tags=<tags> Give tagged permissions to this device. You must be listed in "TagOwners" to be able to apply tags.
--authkey=<key> Provide an auth key to automatically authenticate the node as your user account.
--exit-node=<ip|name> Provide a Tailscale IP or machine name to use as an exit node. To disable the use of an exit node, pass the flag with an empty argument: --exit-node=.
--exit-node-allow-lan-access Allow direct access to the local network when routing traffic via an exit node. Defaults to not allowing direct access to your LAN.
--hostname=<name> Provide a hostname to use for the device instead of the one provided by the OS. Note that this will change the machine name used in MagicDNS.
--login-server=<url> Provide the base URL of a control server instead of https://controlplane.tailscale.com. If you are using Headscale for your control server, use your Headscale instance’s URL.
--nickname=<name> Nickname for the current account.
--operator=<user> Provide a Unix username other than root to operate tailscaled.
--qr Generate a QR code for the web login URL. Defaults to not showing a QR code.
--shields-up Block incoming connections from other devices on your Tailscale network. Useful for personal devices that only make outgoing connections.
--ssh Run a Tailscale SSH server, permitting access per the tailnet admin’s declared access policy, or the default policy if none is defined. Defaults to false.
--timeout=<duration> Maximum amount of time to wait for the Tailscale service to initialize. duration can be any value parseable by time.ParseDuration(). Defaults to 0s, which blocks forever.
--unattended(Windows only) Run in unattended mode where Tailscale keeps running even after the current user logs out.

logout

Log out disconnects from Tailscale and expires the current log in. The next time you run tailscale up, you’ll need to reauthenticate your device.

tailscale logout

If you run tailscale logout on an ephemeral node, the node will be removed from your tailnet immediately.

netcheck

Netcheck provides a report on your current physical network conditions. This command is provided to help debug connection troubles.

tailscale netcheck

Netcheck will output a report like this:

Report:
* UDP: true
* IPv4: yes, <ip-address>
* IPv6: no
* MappingVariesByDestIP: false
* HairPinning: false
* PortMapping: false
* Nearest DERP: 1 (nyc)
* DERP latency:
- 1, nyc = 43.6ms
- 2, sfo = 67.4ms
- 3, sin = 202.5ms
- 4, fra = 91.9ms
- 5, syd = 218.5ms

UDP shows whether UDP traffic is enabled on the current network. If this is false, it’s unlikely Tailscale will be able to make point-to-point connections, and will instead rely on our encrypted TCP relays (DERP)
IPv4 and IPv6 show your network public IP addresses and support for both protocols.
MappingVariesByDestIP describes whether your device is behind a difficult NAT that varies the device’s IP address depending on the destination.
HairPinning describes whether your router can route connections from endpoints on your LAN back to your LAN using those endpoints’ globally-mapped IPv4 addresses/ports.
PortMapping describes a list of which three port-mapping services exist on your router. Possible values are “UPnP”, “NAT-PMP”, and “PCP”.
DERP latency and Nearest DERP describe latency from our encrypted TCP relays (DERP). The lowest latency (“nearest”) server is used for traffic.

If any fields are blank, it means Tailscale wasn’t able to measure that network property.

All the information from tailscale netcheck is also available in the admin console, by clicking on a particular machine.

version

Prints the version of Tailscale.

tailscale version [flags]

Available flags:

--daemon Also print local node’s daemon version. Defaults to false.
--json Return a machine-readable JSON response.

ping

Ping tries to ping another device exclusively over Tailscale.

The regular ping command often works fine over Tailscale, but tailscale ping provides more details about the connection over Tailscale that can be helpful when troubleshooting connectivity.

tailscale ping <hostname-or-ip>

You can call tailscale ping using either a 100.x.y.z address or a machine name.

Available flags:

--c Maximum number of pings to send. Defaults to 10.
--icmp, --icmp=false Perform an ICMP-level ping (through WireGuard, but not the local host OS stack). Defaults to false.
--peerapi, --peerapi=false Try hitting the peer’s PeerAPI HTTP server. Defaults to false.
--tsmp, --tsmp=false Perform a TSMP-level ping (through WireGuard, but not either host’s OS stack). Defaults to false.
--timeout=<duration> Maximum amount of time to wait before giving up on a ping. duration can be any value parseable by time.ParseDuration(). Defaults to 5s.
--until-direct, --until-direct=false Stop once a direct path is established. Defaults to true.
--verbose, --verbose=false Show verbose output. Defaults to false.

serve

Serve content and local server from your Tailscale node to your tailnet.

You can also choose to enable Funnel which allows you to publish a tailscale serve server publicly, open to the entire Internet. See the tailscale funnel command for more information.

serve https:<port> <mount-point> <source> [off]
serve tcp:<port> tcp://localhost:<local-port> [off]
serve tls-terminated-tcp:<port> tcp://localhost:<local-port> [off]
serve status [--json]
server reset

Examples:

To proxy requests to a web server at 127.0.0.1:3000:
```
$ tailscale serve https / http://127.0.0.1:3000
```

To serve a single file or a directory of files:

$ tailscale serve https:443 / /home/alice/blog/index.html
$ tailscale serve https:443 /images/ /home/alice/blog/images

To serve simple static text:

$ tailscale serve https:443 / text:"Hello, world!"

To forward incoming TCP connections on port 2222 to a local TCP server on port 22 (e.g., to run OpenSSH in parallel with Tailscale SSH):
```
$ tailscale serve tcp:2222 tcp://localhost:22
```
To accept TCP TLS connections (terminated within tailscaled) proxied to a local plaintext server on port 80:
```
$ tailscale serve tls-terminated-tcp:443 tcp://localhost:80
```
To clear out the current serve configuration:
```
$ tailscale serve reset
```

For a complete list of available sub-commands and flags, see the tailscale serve article. To learn more about Tailscale Funnel, see the Tailscale Funnel article or see the tailscale funnel command docs.

set

Changes specified preferences.

Unlike tailscale up, this command does not require the complete set of desired settings. Only settings explicitly mentioned will be set. There are no default values.

tailscale set [flags]

Available flags:

--accept-dns Accept DNS configuration from the admin console.
--accept-risk=<risk> Accept risk and skip confirmation for risk type. This can be either lose-ssh or all, or an empty string to not accept risk.
--accept-routes, --accept-routes=false Accept subnet routes that other nodes advertise.
--advertise-exit-node, --advertise-exit-node=false Offer to be an exit node for internet traffic for the tailnet.
--advertise-routes=<ip> Expose physical subnet routes to your entire Tailscale network. This is a comma-separated string, such as “10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/24”), or an empty string to not advertise routes.
--exit-node <ip|name> A Tailscale IP or machine name to use as an exit node, or an empty string to not use an exit node.
--exit-node-allow-lan-access, --exit-node-allow-lan-access=false Allow direct access to the local network when routing traffic via an exit node.
--hostname=<name> Hostname to use for the device instead of the one provided by the OS. Note that this will change the machine name used in MagicDNS.
--nickname=<name> Nickname for the current account.
--operator=<user> A Unix username other than root to operate tailscaled.
--shields-up, --shields-up=false Block incoming connections from other devices on your Tailscale network. Useful for personal devices that only make outgoing connections.
--ssh, --ssh=false Run a Tailscale SSH server, permitting access per the tailnet admin’s declared access policy, or the default policy if none is defined.

ssh

Establishes a Tailscale SSH session to a Tailscale machine.

You can often use the regular ssh command or another SSH client to make an SSH session to a Tailscale machine. However, when your local node is in userspace-networking mode and can’t make a direct connection, use tailscale ssh. This sets up an SSH ProxyCommand to connect via the local tailscaled daemon. You can also use tailscale ssh when your local node is in kernel mode.

The tailscale ssh command automatically checks the destination server’s SSH host key against the node’s SSH host key as advertised via the Tailscale coordination server.

tailscale ssh <args>

<args> is one of the following forms:

host The destination server. An interactive session will prompt you for the user name to use for the session.
user@host The user name for the session and the destination server.

For both forms, host can be the destination server’s MagicDNS name (even if --accept-dns=false was set on the local node) or the destination server’s Tailscale IP address.

tailscale ssh is not available on sandboxed macOS builds—use the regular ssh client instead.

status

Status shows the status of your connections to other Tailscale devices.

tailscale status

This command returns a table of information like so:

1           2         3           4         5
100.1.2.3   device-a  apenwarr@   linux     active; direct <ip-port>, tx 1116 rx 1124
100.4.5.6   device-b  crawshaw@   macOS     active; relay <relay-server>, tx 1351 rx 4262
100.7.8.9   device-c  danderson@  windows   idle; tx 1214 rx 50
100.0.1.2   device-d  ross@       iOS       —

From left-to-right, these columns represent:

Column 1 is a Tailscale IP, which you can use to connect to the device.
Column 2 is the machine name of the device. If you use MagicDNS, you can also use this name to connect.
Column 3 is the email address for the owner of the device.
Column 4 is the device OS.
Column 5 shows the current connection status.

Connection status (column 5) is shown using three terms:

active means traffic is currently being sent/received from this device. You’ll also see either (a) “direct” for peer-to-peer connections, along with the IP address used to connect or (b) “relay” for connections using a relay server along with a city code (nyc, fra, tok, syd) for the respective location.
idle means traffic is not currently being sent/received from this device.
– means no traffic has ever been sent/received from this device.

active and idle connection statuses will also include tx/rx values indicating the number of bytes sent (tx) and received (rx) from this device.

You can filter this list down to only active connections by running tailscale status --active.

Running tailscale status with the --json flag will return a machine-readable JSON response.

tailscale status --json

Combine this with jq to automate data collection about your network. For example, the following command will count and sort which relay servers your Tailscale peers are connected to.

tailscale status --json | jq -r '.Peer[].Relay | select(.!="")' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr

switch

Switches to a different Tailscale account. For more information about switching accounts, see fast-user-switching.

tailscale switch <account> [flags]

Examples:

To switch to the alice@example.com account:
```
tailscale switch alice@example.com
```
To switch to the account that has the nickname “work”:
```
tailscale switch work
```

Available flags:

--list Lists available accounts.

update (alpha)

The update command is available in Tailscale v1.36 or later for Windows and Ubuntu/Debian Linux. If you don’t see this command and you are running Windows or Ubuntu/Debian Linux, consider updating your Tailscale client.

Update the Tailscale client version to the latest version, or to a different version.

tailscale update [flags]

Available flags:

--dry-run Show what update would do, without performing the update and without prompting to start the update.
--track The track to check for updates, either “stable” or “unstable”. If not specified, the update uses the track currently in effect for the client.
--version An explicit version to use for the update or downgrade. You cannot specify both --track and --version.
--yes Perform the update without interactive prompts. Defaults to false.

If you downgrade to a version that does not have the tailscale update functionality, you won’t be able to run tailscale update to return to the prior version. You would need to perform an update without using the Tailscale CLI.

To determine the current version on a client, run tailscale version.

Examples:

Update to the latest version within your current track (stable or unstable, depending on what you’re running):

tailscale update

Update to the latest version within your current track without using interactive prompts:

tailscale update --yes

Update to Tailscale v1.34:

tailscale update --version=1.34.0

Update to the latest unstable version:

tailscale update --track=unstable

web

Spins up a webserver for controlling the tailscaled daemon, where the CLI or a native app is not practical, e.g., on NAS devices.

Tailscale CLI

Linux

macOS

Windows

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