Headscale

An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server.

Port	8080
Registry	ghcr.io/daemonless/headscale
Source	https://github.com/juanfont/headscale
Website	https://headscale.net/

Version Tags

Tag	Description	Best For
latest	Built from the official upstream FreeBSD release binary.	Most users — recommended.
pkg	Installed from the FreeBSD quarterly package repository.	Alternative build.
pkg-latest	Installed from the FreeBSD latest package repository.	Alternative build.

Prerequisites

Before deploying, ensure your host environment is ready. See the Quick Start Guide for host setup instructions.

Deployment

Podman Compose

services:
  headscale:
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/headscale:latest"
    container_name: headscale
    environment:
      - PUID=1000  # User ID for the application process
      - PGID=1000  # Group ID for the application process
      - TZ=UTC  # Timezone for the container
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/headscale:/config"
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
      - "3478:3478"
    restart: unless-stopped

AppJail Director

.env:

# .env

DIRECTOR_PROJECT=headscale
PUID=1000
PGID=1000
TZ=UTC

appjail-director.yml:

# appjail-director.yml

options:
  - virtualnet: ':<random> default'
  - nat:
services:
  headscale:
    name: headscale
    options:
      - container: 'boot args:--pull'
      - expose: '8080:8080 proto:tcp'
      - expose: '3478:3478 proto:udp'
    oci:
      user: root
      environment:
        - PUID: !ENV '${PUID}'
        - PGID: !ENV '${PGID}'
        - TZ: !ENV '${TZ}'
    volumes:
      - headscale: /config
volumes:
  headscale:
    device: '/path/to/containers/headscale'

Makejail:

# Makejail

ARG tag=latest

OPTION overwrite=force
OPTION from=ghcr.io/daemonless/headscale:${tag}

Note: Exposing ports in AppJail means that your service can be reached from remote hosts. If that is not your intention, do not expose the ports and communicate with the service using the IPv4 address assigned by the virtual network.

Podman CLI

podman run -d --name headscale \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -p 3478:3478 \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  -v /path/to/containers/headscale:/config \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/headscale:latest

AppJail

appjail oci run -Pd \
  -o overwrite=force \
  -o container="args:--pull" \
  -o virtualnet=":<random> default" \
  -o nat \
  -o expose="8080:8080 proto:tcp" \
  -o expose="3478:3478 proto:udp" \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  -o fstab="/path/to/containers/headscale /config <pseudofs>" \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/headscale:latest headscale

Note: Exposing ports in AppJail means that your service can be reached from remote hosts. If that is not your intention, do not expose the ports and communicate with the service using the IPv4 address assigned by the virtual network.

Ansible

- name: Deploy headscale
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: headscale
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/headscale:latest"
    state: started
    restart_policy: always
    env:
      PUID: "1000"
      PGID: "1000"
      TZ: "UTC"
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
      - "3478:3478"
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/headscale:/config"

Access at: http://localhost:8080

Parameters

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
PUID	1000	User ID for the application process
PGID	1000	Group ID for the application process
TZ	UTC	Timezone for the container

Volumes

Path	Description
/config	Configuration directory

Ports

Port	Protocol	Description
8080	TCP	Control server (HTTP)
3478	UDP	Embedded DERP STUN (UDP)

Architectures: amd64 User: bsd (UID/GID via PUID/PGID, defaults to 1000:1000) Base: FreeBSD 15

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