Tailscale CLI
Tailscale ships with a built-in CLI that you can use to get information about your Tailscale+WireGuard® network and troubleshoot issues.
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 eitherlose-ssh
orall
, or an empty string to not accept risk.
bugreport
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 hostget
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>
of443
,8443
and10000
.<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.
login
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 ofhttps://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 thanroot
to operatetailscaled
.--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 bytime.ParseDuration()
. Defaults to0s
, 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 bytime.ParseDuration()
. Defaults to5s
.--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 eitherlose-ssh
orall
, 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 thanroot
to operatetailscaled
.--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)
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.