A lightweight, open-source graphical interface for managing Tailscale VPN connections.
Connect, disconnect, authenticate, manage exit nodes, and check status — without touching a terminal.
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Features · Install · Requirements · Screenshots · Contributing
Tailscale is an excellent mesh VPN — but on Linux and Windows, there's no official GUI. You manage it from the terminal: tailscale up, tailscale status, tailscale set --exit-node=.... For engineers, that's fine. For everyone else on your team — the people who just need to connect to the VPN and get to work — it's a barrier.
tMUG puts Tailscale in the system tray with a simple point-and-click interface:
- Connect / disconnect with one click
- Authenticate through the browser when your session expires
- Switch exit nodes from a dropdown instead of memorizing hostnames
- See connection status at a glance (connected, disconnected, needs auth)
- System tray integration — runs quietly in the background
| Platform | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Production-ready | GTK-based, tested on Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 38+, Rocky 9/10 |
| Windows | Built, needs testing | Compiled and functional, not yet validated across Windows versions |
| macOS | Not started | Planned for a future release |
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/DEC-LLC/tMUG.git
cd tMUG
# Install dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt-get install python3 python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1
# Install dependencies (Fedora/Rocky)
sudo dnf install python3 python3-gobject gtk3 libayatana-appindicator-gtk3
# Run
python3 tmug.py# Download the latest release from the Releases page
# Run tMUG.exe
# Tailscale must already be installed
- Tailscale must be installed and configured (
tailscaleCLI available in PATH) - Python 3.8+
- GTK 3 (Linux) or bundled runtime (Windows)
- System tray support (most Linux desktop environments, Windows taskbar)
tMUG is a thin GUI wrapper around the tailscale CLI. It doesn't modify Tailscale's configuration directly — it calls tailscale status, tailscale up, tailscale down, and tailscale set the same way you would from a terminal. The difference is you do it from a tray icon instead of a command prompt.
┌─────────────────┐
│ System Tray │
│ Icon + Menu │
└────────┬────────┘
│ calls
┌────────▼────────┐
│ tailscale CLI │
│ (already on │
│ your system) │
└─────────────────┘
No daemon. No background service. No network traffic beyond what Tailscale itself sends. tMUG is just the button.
- Linux has no official GUI — Tailscale provides CLI only on Linux
- Windows app is full-featured but heavy — tMUG is lighter if you just need connect/disconnect/status
- tMUG is open source — audit it, modify it, integrate it into your own tooling
Coming soon
Contributions welcome — especially Windows testing and macOS port work. Please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.
Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE for details.
DEC-LLC (Diwan Enterprise Consulting LLC) dec-llc.biz · info@decllc.biz