Tailnet MCP bridge

Name: Tailnet MCP bridge
Author: zedong-peng

by zedong-pengversion 0.3.0i★ –iRuns on your computer

Registry nameio.github.zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp

Install

Overview

Description from the maker (original English)

Reach an MCP server inside your Tailscale tailnet from an agent's sandbox, over stdio.

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

These three are never merged into one score: opinions, measurements and popularity are different things.

User voiceiNo reviews yetReviews open together with accounts in a later step
Our basic checksi1 of 1 passedChecked from public information; code not scanned yet
UsageiNot measured yet★ –

What you can do with it

We have not written a plain-language summary for this one yet. Below are the facts we read from the registry.

Connection: Runs on your computer
Transport: stdio
Category: Developer tools
You need to fill in: TS_AUTHKEY

Install

Pick the AI app you use, then copy the settings.

Before you install

Basic checks: 1 of 1 passed
Runs on your computer with your user’s permissions (files, network, apps).
You fill in yourself: TS_AUTHKEY

Values marked secret are keys to your account. Never share them or paste them into a chat.

You need

DockerDocker installed

Which app do you use?

ClaudeClaude CodeCursorVS CodeChatGPT

Pick your app above. We remember it, so next time the button says “Install in …”.

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config, and paste this into claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tailnet": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "TS_AUTHKEY",
        "ghcr.io/zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp:v0.3.0",
        "-url",
        "your-value",
        "-hostname",
        "tailnet-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TS_AUTHKEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Run this in your terminal

claude mcp add tailnet --env TS_AUTHKEY=your-value -- docker run -i --rm -e TS_AUTHKEY ghcr.io/zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp:v0.3.0 -url your-value -hostname tailnet-mcp

Fill in the empty values before running it.

This one needs values on its command line, so copy the settings and fill them in.

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tailnet": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "TS_AUTHKEY",
        "ghcr.io/zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp:v0.3.0",
        "-url",
        "your-value",
        "-hostname",
        "tailnet-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TS_AUTHKEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

This one needs values on its command line, so copy the settings and fill them in.

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .vscode/mcp.json in your project

{
  "servers": {
    "tailnet": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "TS_AUTHKEY",
        "ghcr.io/zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp:v0.3.0",
        "-url",
        "your-value",
        "-hostname",
        "tailnet-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TS_AUTHKEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

This one runs on your computer, and ChatGPT can only connect to servers on the internet. Pick another app.

Your choice stays on this device in a cookie; no account needed.

Values you fill in

TS_AUTHKEY secret env
Tagged, pre-authorized auth key; only needed the first time

These settings are generated from the maker’s registry entry. If the README says otherwise, follow the README.

What it can do

Runs on your computer; the tool list appears in your AI app after you install it.

Basic checksi

We check information anyone can see; we have not read the code. Checks that do not apply are left out of the count. · Checked Nov 8, 2026

✓ Pass
Maker matches the repo
The registry name was verified with the GitHub account zedong-peng, which owns the repo
… Not checked yet
Still maintained
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
… Not checked yet
Has a licence
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
– Not applicable
Endpoint responds
This one runs on your computer; there is no internet endpoint
– Not applicable
Sign-in with OAuth
Runs on your computer and uses local settings instead
… Not checked yet
No hidden instructions in tool descriptions
Runs on your computer; we can only read tool lists from internet endpoints

Compared with others in Developer toolsi

More stars than 0% of the other 4923 servers in this category
Published to the registry more recently than 88% of the other 4923 servers in this category
Basic checks equal to or better than 100% of the other 4923 servers in this category

Compared with every active server in this category in the registry. Stars count only when the publisher owns the repo.

Common questions

Is Tailnet MCP bridge safe?

It passed 1 of 1 applicable basic checks. We have not read the code. Before adding a key or token, see what access the server asks for and use a key with only the permissions you need.

What keys or codes does it need?

You need to fill in: TS_AUTHKEY

Does it run on my computer or in the cloud?

It runs on your computer. Your AI app starts it when needed, and data does not pass through the maker’s servers (unless it calls an online service itself).

Is it still maintained?

The GitHub repo last changed –, and the latest version (0.3.0) reached the registry 4 days ago.

Which apps can use it?

Apps that support MCP, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code. You also need Docker on your computer.

What can I use instead?

In the same category: GitHub, Desktop Commander, Cloudflare MCP

Alternatives

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Reading a card:★ GitHub starsiThree pillars: reviews · checks · usageiUpdated = latest version published to the registryi

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README from the maker

Open the README

Copied from the maker’s repo as written. PopNx MCP has not reviewed or endorsed it. HTML, images and scripts are removed. Links lead off this site.

tailnet-mcp

A stdio MCP server that forwards everything to a Streamable HTTP MCP server inside your tailnet.

Hosted agents (Grok, cloud coding agents, sandboxed assistants) usually take MCP servers two ways. By URL: the vendor's servers connect, so your server has to be on the public internet. By command: the agent starts a process on its own computer, but that computer is not in your tailnet and you can't run tailscaled there (no root, no TUN). tailnet-mcp is the command: it embeds a Tailscale node (tsnet), joins your tailnet as a tagged device and bridges stdio to the server. Your server stays behind tailscale serve, never on the internet.

agent ──stdio──▶ tailnet-mcp (tag:agent) ══tailnet══▶ tailscale serve ──▶ MCP server on 127.0.0.1

Install

Download a static binary for linux or darwin, amd64 or arm64, from Releases and check it against SHA256SUMS. Or build it yourself:

CGO_ENABLED=0 go install github.com/zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp@latest

Or run the image ghcr.io/zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp with a volume on /home/nonroot/.local/state/tailnet-mcp. It is also listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.zedong-peng/tailnet-mcp.

Use

Publish the server to the tailnet only, on a path nobody can guess:

   tailscale serve --bg --https=8443 --set-path=/$(openssl rand -hex 16) http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp

Mint a one-time, pre-authorized auth key with a tag for the agent (admin console, or the API), and log in once from the agent's computer:

   TS_AUTHKEY=tskey-auth-... tailnet-mcp -hostname my-agent -url https://server.tailnet.ts.net:8443/<path> -check

-check connects, prints the server's tools on stderr and exits. The node key is kept in -state (default ~/.local/state/tailnet-mcp/ ); keep it on persistent storage. Tagged nodes don't expire, so the key is not needed again.

   tailnet-mcp -hostname my-agent -url https://server.tailnet.ts.net:8443/<path>

Each process is its own tailnet node. For a second server, run a second process with a different -hostname.

Lock it down

The agent reads untrusted input (web pages, mail), so assume it can be talked into anything its tools allow. Three layers, none of which rely on the agent behaving:

Network. Give the tag one grant to the ports it needs and nothing else:

  "grants": [

{"src": ["tag:my-agent"], "dst": ["server"], "ip": ["tcp:8443"]}, ], "tests": [ {"src": "tag:my-agent", "accept": ["server:8443"], "deny": ["server:22", "server:443"]}, ],

Grants that allow everything ("src": ["autogroup:member"], "dst": ["*"]) don't cover tagged devices, so that one grant is all the tag gets.

Path. tailscale serve --set-path answers only on the secret path; any other path on the port is a 404. Other devices in the tailnet can't use the server by guessing the port.

Server. Enforce permissions where the data lives, not in the agent: a mail server that can only save drafts, a password vault account that is a view-only member of one shared collection. examples/private-tools sets up both.

Behaviour

Before the first request it pings the server's node until it answers. Right after a restart the server may still hold a stale path to the node, and the first dial would time out.
Only requests that never reached the server are retried, so a tool call is never sent twice.
When the server restarts and forgets the session (404, or a 400 about the session), the bridge replays initialize and resends the request. The client doesn't notice.
A failed request comes back as a JSON-RPC error with the reason, so the client never waits for an answer that won't come.
On EOF it ends the session with DELETE. Logs go to stderr; stdout carries only MCP frames. -v adds tsnet's own logs.

Not supported: the optional GET stream that lets a server send messages outside a response. Servers answer each request in its own response, as almost all tool servers do.

Compared with

`mcp-remote` and other stdio-to-HTTP bridges need a network path to the server. In an agent's sandbox that means a public URL.
`tailscale up` in the sandbox needs root and a TUN device. If someone logs in as a user instead of with a tagged key, the sandbox gets that user's access to the whole tailnet.
[Tailscale Aperture](https://tailscale.com/docs/aperture/mcp-server) is a gateway on the server side: it aggregates HTTP MCP servers and grants tools per user. It doesn't get a sandboxed agent into the tailnet, so the two fit together.

Build and test

go test -race ./...

CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -trimpath -ldflags="-s -w" .

Tagging v* publishes the four binaries, the image and the registry entry.

Tailnet MCP bridge

Overview

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

What you can do with it

Install

Before you install

Values you fill in

What it can do

Basic checksi

Maker matches the repo

Still maintained

Has a licence

Endpoint responds

Sign-in with OAuth

No hidden instructions in tool descriptions

Compared with others in Developer toolsi

Common questions

Alternatives

GitHub

Desktop Commander

Cloudflare MCP

README from the maker

tailnet-mcp

Install

Use

Lock it down

Behaviour

Compared with

Build and test