operating-tailscale-agent-hosts

name	operating-tailscale-agent-hosts
description	Private remote coding-agent hosts over Tailscale. Use when configuring unattended Linux workers, persistent remote agents, or private access to development services.
metadata	{"last_updated":"2026-07-18","verified_against":"Tailscale SSH on Linux with systemd, NetworkManager, and tmux"}

Operating Tailscale Agent Hosts

Turn an existing Linux machine into a private, persistent coding-agent worker without exposing SSH or development ports to the public internet.

Core Rules

• Treat Tailscale as the private network path; still configure a service to accept SSH, desktop, or HTTP traffic.
• Prefer Tailscale SSH and narrowly scoped access rules over public SSH or router port forwarding.
• Keep privileged operations and OAuth approval user-driven; never request passwords or expose tokens in logs.
• Verify unattended boot instead of assuming it: networking, Tailscale, sleep policy, encrypted-disk prompts, and services are separate concerns.
• Use tmux for persistence and git worktrees for concurrent mutating agents.
• Bind dev servers to localhost and expose them with Tailscale Serve when possible.
• Transfer configuration selectively; exclude credentials, histories, caches, databases, host keys, and machine-specific trust records by default.

Workflow

1. Run scripts/readiness-check.sh on the proposed host.
2. Follow setup.md to establish unattended private access.
3. Follow agent-operations.md for tmux, worktrees, authentication, and delivery.
4. Use troubleshooting.md when access only works after login, OAuth fails, or remote services are unreachable.

Security Boundary

Disabling Tailscale SSH check mode removes periodic browser re-authentication; it does not remove tailnet identity or encryption. Only use an accept rule when source identity, destination device, and destination user are narrowly restricted. Never broaden the default self/root rule merely for convenience.