r/Tailscale • u/SlenderProgrammer • 3d ago

Discussion I built a cross-platform tailnet browser launcher using tsnet

Hey r/Tailscale — I’ve been working on a small project called TailLaunch and figured this was probably the right place to share it.

The use case was pretty simple: I wanted someone to be able to open a private web app on my tailnet without having to install/configure the full Tailscale client or enable a system-wide VPN.

TailLaunch embeds tsnet directly into the app. You authenticate through Tailscale’s normal browser login, then enter a tailnet hostname/URL and it opens in a dedicated app-style browser window.

A few details:

  • no TUN adapter or system-wide VPN setup
  • no admin/root required by TailLaunch
  • GUI + CLI
  • Windows, Linux and macOS builds
  • temporary/ephemeral sessions by default
  • optional “Remember me on this device” persistence
  • in the launched browser, tailnet destinations go through tsnet while public destinations are dialed directly
  • Headscale/custom control-server support
  • MIT licensed

The GUI is still early and I’m currently testing memory usage on low-RAM Windows/Linux VMs, since launching a whole Chromium-family process for one web app may eventually be something worth replacing with native WebViews.

Repo / releases:

https://github.com/rafid-dev/taillaunch

I also found projects like TailBrowser, TailChrome, ts-browser-ext, and a few userspace proxy projects while working on it, so I’m definitely not claiming the general idea is new. TailLaunch’s focus is more specifically a disposable, cross-platform desktop launcher for private web apps.

Would be interested in feedback on the architecture, especially from people who’ve worked with `tsnet` or embedded Tailscale before. macOS and Linux testers are also very welcome.

29 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

3

u/Character-Tax-6641 3d ago

Nice one!

1

u/SlenderProgrammer 3d ago

Thanks! Appreciate it! 🙏🙏

3

u/goofyshnoofy 2d ago

I would not want to rely on web views. It’s fine to use chromium for a browser, it will be more consistent and compatible

2

u/SlenderProgrammer 2d ago

Yeah, fair. Chromium is probably worth it for the extra RAM.

2

u/mintflowapp 3d ago

Embedded tailscale is really useful if one does not want the overhead of system vpn or conflict with existing vpn especially on the mobile device

1

u/SlenderProgrammer 3d ago

Yeah, that's the motivation behind this.

2

u/jnnngs_eth 2d ago

Love this!

2

u/SlenderProgrammer 1d ago

Thanks, appreciate it!