# tailscale/tailscale-rs

Rust implementation of Tailscale (preview, experimental)

Repository: https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale-rs
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tailscale-rs
Language: Rust
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-09-03T01:14:40+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 81/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 100, release rhythm 98, longevity 10
- inputs: {"age_days": 150, "days_push": 0, "days_rel": 19, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: young
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1128, forks 56 (observed 2026-09-03T02:15:18.399003+00:00)

## What it is
A work-in-progress Rust implementation of Tailscale, providing a library for building tailnet-connected applications with bindings to C, Elixir, and Python. It is explicitly experimental, unaudited, and not intended for production use.

## Use cases
- embed tailscale connectivity into a rust application
- send udp packets between tailnet peers programmatically
- build a mesh vpn client in rust
- connect devices to a tailnet without the tailscale daemon
- use tailscale networking from python or elixir via bindings
- prototype peer-to-peer networking over a tailnet

## When to choose
- you want to embed tailnet connectivity directly in a rust, python, elixir, or C application
- you are experimenting with mesh networking and want to contribute to or follow an official rust implementation
- you need programmatic tailnet sockets rather than a system-level VPN

## When to avoid
- you need a production VPN or secure networking - the cryptography is unaudited and the project warns it is unstable and insecure
- you need high throughput - all traffic currently goes through DERP relays with no NAT holepunching
- you need compatibility guarantees - APIs may break at any time
- you just want to use tailscale normally - use the official tailscale client instead

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: experimental
- function: networking, security, cryptography, sdk
- domain: networking, security, privacy, developer-tools
- platform: rust, cross-platform, python, elixir, c
- tags: vpn, mesh-networking, wireguard, tailscale, zero-config-networking, ffi-bindings, tailnet

## Member repositories
- tailscale/tailscale-rs (main) score 81

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-09-03T02:15:18.399003+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:47:17.826976+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale-rs (fetched 2026-09-03T02:15:18.399003+00:00, sha 45a9f9a7cc7e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.