Tailscale

You run a dedicated MCP server that exposes Tailscale’s management surface to MCP clients like Raycast and Claude Desktop. This server lets you interact with devices, ACLs, keys, and DNS settings directly from your MCP-enabled tools, giving you quick, programmatic control without toggling dashboards.

How to use

Connect MCP clients to the server to manage your Tailnet resources from your preferred tooling. In Raycast, add the MCP server as a new HTTP (Streamable) source with the following settings: Name: Tailscale, Type: HTTP (Streamable), URL: http://localhost:8000/mcp. After saving, the client should show a green status indicating a healthy connection.

For Claude Desktop, you have two connection options. The recommended option uses HTTP (Streamable) and works well with Docker environments. Ensure the server is running (see install steps) and add this MCP configuration in Claude’s local config at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tailscale": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

How to use

If you prefer the local stdio approach for Claude Desktop, you can connect Claude to an MCP server that runs locally. The exact command to start the server is shown in the installation steps, and Claude will use the local stdio stream when configured accordingly.

Notes for setup in Raycast and Claude

Raycast: configure an HTTP (Streamable) MCP source using the URL above and ensure the server is running before enabling the connection.

Claude Desktop: choose between HTTP (recommended for Docker) or stdio (local). The HTTP option points Claude to http://localhost:8000/mcp. If you use the stdio option, follow the local start instructions in the installation section.