API¶

Headscale provides a HTTP REST API which may be used to integrate a web interface, remote control Headscale or provide a base for custom integration and tooling.

The API requires a valid API key before use. To create an API key, log into your Headscale server and generate one with the default expiration of 90 days:

headscale apikeys create

Copy the output of the command and save it for later. Please note that you can not retrieve an API key again. If the API key is lost, expire the old one, and create a new one.

To list the API keys currently associated with the server:

headscale apikeys list

and to expire an API key:

headscale apikeys expire --prefix <PREFIX>

REST API¶

• API endpoint: /api/v1, e.g. https://headscale.example.com/api/v1
• Documentation: /api/v1/docs, e.g. https://headscale.example.com/api/v1/docs
• Headscale Version: /version, e.g. https://headscale.example.com/version
• Authenticate using HTTP Bearer authentication by sending the API key with the HTTP Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY> header.

Start by creating an API key and test it with the examples below. Read the API documentation provided by your Headscale server at /api/v1/docs for details.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>" \
    https://headscale.example.com/api/v1/user

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>" \
    https://headscale.example.com/api/v1/user?name=bob

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>" \
    --json '{"user": "<USER>", "authId": "<AUTH_ID>"}' \
    https://headscale.example.com/api/v1/auth/register

Join nodes with an OAuth client¶

Headscale also serves a subset of the Tailscale-compatible API at /api/v2, which accepts OAuth 2.0 client-credentials in addition to API keys. The Tailscale client can use an OAuth client secret in place of an auth key: it exchanges the secret for an access token, mints a single-use tagged auth key and registers with it. This works anywhere the client takes an auth key: tailscale up, the container image, tsnet and the tailscale/github-action. One long-lived secret joins any number of nodes.

Create an OAuth client with the auth_keys scope and the tags its nodes get. The secret is shown once:

headscale oauth-clients create --scope auth_keys --tag tag:ci

Build the auth key from the secret:

1. Swap the prefix: hskey-client-… becomes tskey-client-…. The client only runs the exchange for tskey-client-; Headscale accepts both.
2. Append ?baseURL=<your Headscale URL>.
3. Set --advertise-tags. Each tag must exist in the policy's tagOwners and be one of the OAuth client's tags, or owned by one of them.

tskey-client-<id>-<secret>?baseURL=https://headscale.example.com

Attributes¶

These are all the attributes the client understands; any other is an error. Order does not matter and an empty value means the default.

Booleans take any Go strconv.ParseBool value (true, false, 1, 0, …).

Examples¶

tailscale up, either as the auth key or via --client-secret (which also takes file:/path/to/secret):

tailscale up --login-server https://headscale.example.com --advertise-tags tag:ci \
  --auth-key 'tskey-client-<id>-<secret>?baseURL=https://headscale.example.com&ephemeral=false'

Container image:

docker run -d --name tailscale \
  -e TS_AUTHKEY='tskey-client-<id>-<secret>?baseURL=https://headscale.example.com' \
  -e TS_EXTRA_ARGS='--login-server=https://headscale.example.com --advertise-tags=tag:ci' \
  tailscale/tailscale

tsnet (TS_CLIENT_SECRET works too); import tailscale.com/feature/oauthkey:

srv := &tsnet.Server{
    ControlURL:    "https://headscale.example.com",
    AuthKey:       "tskey-client-<id>-<secret>?baseURL=https://headscale.example.com",
    AdvertiseTags: []string{"tag:ci"},
}

GitHub Action, with the whole string stored as a repository secret:

- uses: tailscale/github-action@v4
  with:
    authkey: ${{ secrets.HEADSCALE_AUTHKEY }}
    args: --login-server=https://headscale.example.com --advertise-tags=tag:ci

Use authkey even though upstream marks it deprecated: oauth-secret appends its own ?… to the secret, which corrupts baseURL.

Remote control¶

The headscale binary can control a Headscale instance from a remote machine over the HTTP API.

Prerequisite¶

• A workstation to run headscale (any supported platform, e.g. Linux).
• The Headscale server reachable over HTTP(S).
• An API key to authenticate with the Headscale server.

Setup remote control¶

1. Download the headscale binary from GitHub's release page. Make sure to use the same version as on the server.

2. Put the binary somewhere in your PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin/headscale

3. Make headscale executable: chmod +x /usr/local/bin/headscale

4. Create an API key on the Headscale server.

5. Provide the connection parameters for the remote Headscale server either via a minimal YAML configuration file or via environment variables:

   Minimal YAML configuration fileEnvironment variables

   config.yaml

   cli:
       address: <HEADSCALE_URL>
       api_key: <API_KEY>
   

   export HEADSCALE_CLI_ADDRESS="<HEADSCALE_URL>"
   export HEADSCALE_CLI_API_KEY="<API_KEY>"
   

   This instructs the headscale binary to connect to a remote instance at <HEADSCALE_URL> (e.g. https://headscale.example.com), instead of connecting to the local instance. A bare host without a scheme is assumed to be https.

6. Test the connection by listing all nodes:

   headscale nodes list
   

   You should now be able to see a list of your nodes from your workstation, and you can now control the Headscale server from your workstation.

Behind a proxy¶

The remote CLI uses the same HTTP API as everything else, so it works through the reverse proxy already in front of Headscale with no extra setup.

Troubleshooting¶

• Make sure you have the same Headscale version on your server and workstation.
• Verify that your TLS certificate is valid and trusted.
• If you don't have access to a trusted certificate (e.g. from Let's Encrypt), either:
  • Add your self-signed certificate to the trust store of your OS or
  • Disable certificate verification by either setting cli.insecure: true in the configuration file or by setting HEADSCALE_CLI_INSECURE=1 via an environment variable. We do not recommend to disable certificate validation.