Install tsnet-serve with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• tsnet-serve

Project history

The README presents tsnet-serve as a lightweight reverse proxy for a tailnet: users give it a hostname, backend URL, and auth key, and the app joins the tailnet as a machine with Tailscale connectivity, TLS, and the same reverse proxy behavior as `tailscale serve`.

The project belongs to the wave of tsnet tooling around Tailscale's Go library. Tailscale's official docs describe tsnet as a way to embed Tailscale inside a Go program so the program can make direct tailnet connections and appear like a separate device. tsnet-serve packaged that pattern as a CLI/container app for people who wanted a private service endpoint without writing Go.

Development was explicitly wound down in July 2025. The repository was archived by its owner on July 5, 2025, and the linked winding-down issue says maintainers were switching to `tsnsrv` because it had the desired features and a complete Nix module.

Adoption history

Official release pages show a short but active release period, with versions such as v1.1.2 through v1.3.2 carrying Funnel fixes, path allow/deny features, request logging, Tailscale dependency bumps, Go toolchain updates, and GoReleaser-based binary releases.

The README documents several distribution surfaces: prebuilt GitHub releases, OCI container images on GitHub Container Registry at `ghcr.io/shayne/tsnet-serve`, and Homebrew. That made the tool easy to use in homelab and package-manager workflows where a container or single binary could turn a local backend into a tailnet service.

How it is used

The primary usage model was `tsnet-serve -hostname ... -backend ...`, optionally setting listen port, Funnel mode, allow/deny path regular expressions, a state directory, and a custom control URL for Headscale. Environment variables such as `TSNS_HOSTNAME`, `TSNS_BACKEND`, `TSNS_LISTEN_PORT`, and `TSNS_FUNNEL` mirrored the flags.

For containers, the README shows a persistent state volume, hostname/backend variables, optional Funnel and control URL variables, and `TS_AUTHKEY` for initial registration. Without an auth key, the app prints a registration link.

Why package nerds care

tsnet-serve matters in the package-nerd niche because it turned Tailscale's embedded-networking library into a one-command appliance: install the formula or run the container, provide a backend, and get a tailnet hostname and certificate.

Its archival is also useful metadata. The project documents a real migration path from a small package-manager-friendly CLI to a successor (`tsnsrv`) once the surrounding Tailscale Serve/Funnel and tsnet tooling matured.

Timeline

• 2024-07-31: v1.1.2 release fixed Funnel mode and insecure HTTPS backend support.
• 2024-08-29: v1.1.4 release moved to GoReleaser and bumped the Tailscale dependency.
• 2025-04-19: v1.2.1 release moved the default state directory and added X-Forwarded headers in Funnel mode.
• 2025-06-22: v1.3.0 added allow/deny paths and request logs; v1.3.2 followed with a Tailscale bump and signal-handling fix.
• 2025-07-05: Winding-down issue opened and repository archived, with maintainers pointing users to `tsnsrv`.

Related projects

• The README links directly to Tailscale Funnel and to `tsnsrv` as the recommended successor. Tailscale's own docs for tsnet, Tailscale Serve, and Funnel explain the platform features that tsnet-serve wrapped.

Sources

• https://github.com/shayne/tsnet-serve#readme
• https://github.com/shayne/tsnet-serve/issues/10
• https://github.com/shayne/tsnet-serve/releases
• https://tailscale.com/docs/features/tailscale-funnel
• https://tailscale.com/docs/features/tsnet
• https://tailscale.com/docs/reference/tailscale-cli/serve