headscale
An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale coordination server.
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Note: Always select the same GitHub tag as the released version you use to ensure you have the correct example configuration and documentation. The main branch might contain unreleased changes.
Overview
Tailscale is a modern VPN built on top of Wireguard. It works like an overlay network between the computers of your networks - using all kinds of NAT traversal sorcery.
Everything in Tailscale is Open Source, except the GUI clients for proprietary OS (Windows and macOS/iOS), and the 'coordination/control server'.
The control server works as an exchange point of Wireguard public keys for the nodes in the Tailscale network. It also assigns the IP addresses of the clients, creates the boundaries between each user, enables sharing machines between users, and exposes the advertised routes of your nodes.
headscale implements this coordination server.
Support
If you like headscale and find it useful, there is sponsorship and donation buttons available in the repo.
If you would like to sponsor features, bugs or prioritisation, reach out to one of the maintainers.
Status
- Base functionality (nodes can communicate with each other)
- Node registration through the web flow
- Network changes are relayed to the nodes
- Namespaces support (~tailnets in Tailscale.com naming)
- Routing (advertise & accept, including exit nodes)
- Node registration via pre-auth keys (including reusable keys, and ephemeral node support)
- JSON-formatted output
- ACLs
- Taildrop (File Sharing)
- Support for alternative IP ranges in the tailnets (default Tailscale's 100.64.0.0/10)
- DNS (passing DNS servers to nodes)
- Single-Sign-On (via Open ID Connect)
- Share nodes between namespaces
- MagicDNS (see
docs/)
Client OS support
| OS | Supports headscale |
|---|---|
| Linux | Yes |
| OpenBSD | Yes |
| macOS | Yes (see /apple on your headscale for more information) |
| Windows | Yes docs |
| Android | You need to compile the client yourself |
| iOS | Not yet |
Roadmap 🤷
Suggestions/PRs welcomed!
Running headscale
Please have a look at the documentation under docs/.
Disclaimer
- We have nothing to do with Tailscale, or Tailscale Inc.
- The purpose of Headscale is maintaining a working, self-hosted Tailscale control panel.
Contributing
To contribute to Headscale you would need the lastest version of Go and Buf(Protobuf generator).
Code style
To ensure we have some consistency with a growing number of contributions, this project has adopted linting and style/formatting rules:
The Go code is linted with golangci-lint and
formatted with golines (width 88) and
gofumpt.
Please configure your editor to run the tools while developing and make sure to
run make lint and make fmt before committing any code.
The Proto code is linted with buf and
formatted with clang-format.
The rest (Markdown, YAML, etc) is formatted with prettier.
Check out the .golangci.yaml and Makefile to see the specific configuration.
Install development tools
- Go
- Buf
- Protobuf tools:
make install-protobuf-plugins
Testing and building
Some parts of the project require the generation of Go code from Protobuf (if changes are made in proto/) and it must be (re-)generated with:
make generate
Note: Please check in changes from gen/ in a separate commit to make it easier to review.
To run the tests:
make test
To build the program:
make build
