# Operating Tailscale Agent Hosts

> Private remote coding-agent hosts over Tailscale. Use when configuring unattended Linux workers, persistent remote agents, or private access to development services.

- Skill: `spences10/operating-tailscale-agent-hosts` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 5 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add spences10/operating-tailscale-agent-hosts`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/spences10/operating-tailscale-agent-hosts/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: spences10 (https://skillmd.com/u/spences10)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/spences10/operating-tailscale-agent-hosts

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# 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](references/setup.md) to establish unattended private access.
3. Follow [agent-operations.md](references/agent-operations.md) for tmux, worktrees, authentication, and delivery.
4. Use [troubleshooting.md](references/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.