CLI Commands

Complete reference for tailscale-manager commands.

Usage

tailscale-manager [command] [options]

Running without arguments opens the interactive menu.

Commands

Two independent kinds of "update"

• update / auto-update act on the Tailscale binary (the VPN program this tool installs).
• self-update acts on this manager (scripts, libraries, init/cron scripts, and enabled LuCI files).

They are completely independent: updating Tailscale never touches the manager, and self-update never touches Tailscale.

Core (Tailscale binary)

Command	Description
install	Interactive Tailscale installation
update [--yes]	Update the Tailscale binary to the latest version (--yes skips the prompt)
rollback	Roll back the Tailscale binary to the previous version
uninstall [--yes]	Remove Tailscale and all related files (--yes skips the prompt)
status	Show current installation and service status

Diagnostics & Troubleshooting

Command	Description
logs [n] [--maskinfo]	Show the last n lines of the manager, service, and system logs at once (default 200). --maskinfo hides addresses, MagicDNS names, emails, and optional custom regex matches
diagnostics [--maskinfo]	Print a full troubleshooting report (versions, platform, install/runtime state, dependency checks, UCI config, and recent logs) ready to paste into an issue (alias: doctor)

tailscale-manager diagnostics        # run this before opening an issue
tailscale-manager diagnostics --maskinfo
tailscale-manager logs 500           # show the last 500 log lines
tailscale-manager logs 500 --maskinfo='my-router-name'

Installation Variants

Command	Description
install --yes	Non-interactive installation (for LuCI/automation)
install-version <ver>	Install a specific Tailscale version
download-only	Download binary without installing

Install Options

install --yes and install-version accept these flags:

Flag	Values	Description
--source	official / small	Download source
--storage	persistent / ram	Storage mode (install --yes only)
--auto-update	0 / 1	Enable daily Tailscale auto-update cron (install --yes only)
--bin-dir	absolute path	Custom binary directory for persistent mode (see Storage Modes)
--luci	0 / 1	Install the optional LuCI web UI (install --yes only; default: 0)

Examples:

tailscale-manager install --yes --source small --bin-dir /mnt/sda1/tailscale
tailscale-manager install --yes --source small --luci 1
tailscale-manager install-version 1.78.0 --bin-dir /mnt/sda1/tailscale

Version Management

Command	Description
list-small-versions [n]	List available Small binary versions (default: 10)
list-official-versions [n]	List available Official versions (default: 20)

Network Configuration

Command	Description
setup-subnet-routing	Configure tailscale0 interface and firewall zone
net-mode [auto|tun|userspace|status]	Get or set networking mode

Tailscale auto-update

Command	Description
auto-update [enable|disable|status]	Manage the daily Tailscale binary auto-update cron job

(on/off/1/0 are still accepted as aliases for enable/disable.)

LuCI Web UI

Command	Description
luci install	Install the optional LuCI web UI
luci remove	Remove only the LuCI web UI files
luci status	Show LuCI state: installed, available, or disabled

The LuCI UI is disabled by default on first install. Low-memory routers can run out of memory when LuCI calls tailscale status --json through rpcd.

Manager self-update

Command	Description
self-update [--yes]	Reinstall this manager (script, libraries, init/cron scripts, and enabled LuCI files) to the latest version in one step. Leaves the Tailscale binary unchanged.

Other

Command	Description
help	Show help message
--version, -v	Print the manager version and exit

Service Commands

Tailscale integrates with OpenWrt's procd init system:

/etc/init.d/tailscale start     # Start the service
/etc/init.d/tailscale stop      # Stop the service
/etc/init.d/tailscale restart   # Restart the service
/etc/init.d/tailscale enable    # Enable at boot
/etc/init.d/tailscale disable   # Disable at boot

Tailscale Native Commands

After installation, the standard Tailscale CLI is available:

tailscale status                               # Check connection status
tailscale up                                   # Connect to Tailscale network
tailscale down                                 # Disconnect
tailscale set --advertise-routes=192.168.1.0/24 # Advertise subnet
tailscale up --advertise-exit-node             # Advertise as exit node