Tailscale Serve

Manage multiple paths with tailscale serve, serving files, directories, or ports simultaneously without conflicts and control via background mode.

Security Scan

The skill is an instruction-only helper for the tailscale serve CLI and its requirements and instructions are consistent with that purpose.

Purpose & Capability

The SKILL.md contains only tailscale serve CLI usage (serving directories, files, and ports). There are no unexpected binaries, env vars, installs, or unrelated capabilities requested — this matches the skill name.

Instruction Scope

Instructions are narrowly scoped to running tailscale serve commands and checking status. They implicitly assume the tailscale binary is present and the user is authenticated to a Tailscale account; running these commands will expose local files/services to your Tailscale network, so users should avoid serving sensitive paths.

Install Mechanism

No install spec — instruction-only. Nothing is written to disk by the skill itself.

Credentials

The skill declares no environment variables or credentials (proportional). However, it implicitly relies on an authenticated Tailscale daemon/account (not declared), which is expected for tailscale serve but worth noting.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and there is no install or persistent configuration created by the skill itself. The skill does not request system-wide privileges or modify other skills.

Assessment

This skill is a straightforward cheat-sheet for tailscale serve. Before using it: ensure you have the tailscale binary installed and are logged into your Tailscale account; review the exact paths you plan to serve (avoid ~/ or / or any directories containing secrets); run tailscale serve status first to avoid unintentional overrides; understand that serving a path exposes that content to devices on your Tailscale network; the skill will not install tailscale or manage authentication for you. If you want to test safely, create a small temporary directory with non-sensitive files and try serving that first.

Tailscale Serve Skill

Manage multiple paths with tailscale serve without conflicts.

Key Commands

Check what's currently served

tailscale serve status

Serve a directory or file at a specific path

# Directory
tailscale serve --bg --set-path /slides /path/to/directory

# Single file
tailscale serve --bg --set-path /presentation /path/to/file.html

# Port (for running services)
tailscale serve --bg --set-path /api http://localhost:8080

Serve from a port at root (replaces everything)

tailscale serve --bg 8888

Remove a specific path

tailscale serve --https=443 /slides off

Reset all serving

tailscale serve reset

Important Notes

• Path conflicts: Serving at / will override all other paths
• Background mode: Use --bg to keep it running
• Multiple paths: You can serve multiple things simultaneously with different paths
• Status first: Always check tailscale serve status before adding new paths

Common Patterns

Serve presentation alongside control UI

# If control UI is at /, serve presentation at a subpath
tailscale serve --bg --set-path /slides ~/clawd/personal-agents-presentation.html

# Access at: https://[hostname].ts.net/slides

Serve multiple directories

tailscale serve --bg --set-path /docs ~/documents
tailscale serve --bg --set-path /slides ~/presentations
tailscale serve --bg --set-path /files ~/files

Serve a local dev server

tailscale serve --bg --set-path /app http://localhost:3000

Workflow

1. Check current status: tailscale serve status
2. Choose an unused path (e.g., /slides, /docs, /api)
3. Serve with --set-path /your-path /source
4. Verify with tailscale serve status again
5. Share the full URL: https://[hostname].ts.net/your-path

Troubleshooting

"Can't access my served content"

• Check tailscale serve status - is it at the path you expect?
• Did something else overwrite the root /?

"Want to replace everything with a port"

tailscale serve reset
tailscale serve --bg 8888

"Want to add to existing setup"

# Don't use reset! Just add with --set-path
tailscale serve --bg --set-path /newpath /source