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Tailtoss

A clean terminal UI (TUI) for Tailscale's Taildrop. Built for people who send/receive files with the open-source tailscale CLI instead of a GUI client. Pick files, choose a target device, and receive — all from the keyboard.

Send/receive files over your tailnet from the terminal — file browser, device picker. Command: tailtoss.

 🚀 Tailtoss  tailscale file transfer  › Menu
──────────────────────────────────────────────
What would you like to do?
Receive folder: /Users/you/Downloads

❯ 📤  Send files
  📥  Receive files
  ⚙️  Settings
  ❔  Help
  🚪  Quit
──────────────────────────────────────────────
↑↓ move · Enter select · Ctrl+C quit

Why Tailtoss

Taildrop is Tailscale's built-in way to move files between your own devices — no cloud, no accounts. Tailtoss exists to make it easy to actually use: a keyboard-driven terminal UI over the tailscale CLI, so you don't have to memorize tailscale file cp flags or dig up device names. Setup stays light — Node plus the tailscale CLI you already run, nothing more.

On top of the basics, it adds things neither the official CLI nor the GUI offers:

• Folder sending — folders are zipped automatically before transfer (the CLI sends only files)
• Free-form multi-select — pick any mix of files and folders in one pass
• Pre-send name checks — names the receiver would reject (leading/trailing spaces, over-long names, forbidden characters) are caught before sending, telling you which file and why, instead of the bare "transfer failed" the official tools give you

Features

• Send files — pick from the built-in file browser → choose an online device → transfer
  • Single file → sent as-is
  • Multiple files → send each separately or bundle into one zip (chosen in settings)
  • Folder → always compressed to .zip before sending
  • Target list is auto-populated via tailscale file cp --targets (online, receivable devices only)
• Receive files — save files from the staging inbox into your downloads folder
  • macOS (Homebrew tailscaled): usually saved as your user with no sudo or auth needed — but if a permission error occurs, follow the sudo command shown on screen
  • Linux and other permission-restricted setups: the required sudo command is shown on screen
  • Name collisions are auto-numbered via --conflict=rename
• Settings — downloads folder · language · multi-file transfer mode (all persisted for next run)
• Help — usage instructions available right on screen

Supported platforms

| Platform | Status | Notes | | ----------- | ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | macOS | ✅ Fully supported | Receiving usually needs no sudo (Homebrew tailscaled); if a permission error occurs, the sudo command is shown | | Linux | ✅ Supported | Receiving may need sudo to access the root-owned inbox (command is shown) | | Windows | ⚠️ Experimental | Paths/commands are handled, but testing focuses on macOS & Linux. Folder/bundle sends rely on the built-in tar.exe (Windows 10 1803+); this path is untested on real hardware |

Requirements

This tool targets the open-source tailscale / tailscaled (CLI + daemon). It drives whatever tailscale binary is on your PATH, and the primary audience runs tailscaled themselves — the Homebrew build on macOS (brew install tailscale), or a native Linux install. The tailscale CLI bundled with the official macOS GUI client has also been confirmed to work here; that path is not guaranteed, and other platforms and distributions are untested. tailscaled users are the intended target.

• Node.js 18+

• tailscale CLI (open-source build, with tailscaled running) — if missing, the app shows install guidance and exits

  • macOS: brew install tailscale, then sudo brew services start tailscale to run tailscaled as a launchd service (auto-starts at boot — no need to launch it by hand), and sudo tailscale up to log in. See Tailscaled on macOS.
  • Linux: https://tailscale.com/download/linux

• An archiver — only needed for folder transfers / bundling multiple files into a zip. Sending a single file never needs one. Either of these works, and the app picks whichever it finds:

  • zip (Info-ZIP) — bundled with macOS; on Linux sudo apt install zip, etc.
  • bsdtar — libarchive's tar, which writes .zip directly. Bundled with macOS, and with Windows 10 1803+ / 11 as tar.exe. Note that GNU tar cannot write zip, so a Linux box with only GNU tar still needs zip.

  If neither is found the app warns on the menu (it does not block) and Settings › Check for archiver re-detects after you install one — no restart needed.

npm package dependencies (ink, react, execa, etc.) are handled by npm install. The required runtime tool (tailscale) is checked automatically at startup.

Installation

Install from npm:

npm install -g tailtoss

Then run it from any directory:

tailtoss

To update later, run npm install -g tailtoss@latest.

From source (for development)

git clone https://github.com/dooee/tailtoss.git
cd tailtoss
npm install          # install dependencies
npm run build        # compile to dist/
npm install -g .     # register the global `tailtoss` command

npm link works too and gives you the exact same global tailtoss — only the linking differs: npm install -g . installs a copied snapshot of the build, while npm link symlinks this working directory. So if you plan to edit the source, prefer npm link: after npm run build your changes show up in tailtoss with no reinstall.

Usage

Run tailtoss → move through the menu with the arrow keys, select with Enter.

📤 Send files

File browser controls:

| Key | Action | | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | ↑ ↓ | Move between items | | → | Enter folder | | ← | Parent folder | | Space | Select / deselect (multiple allowed) | | Enter | Start transfer (if nothing is selected, sends the item under the cursor) | | . | Toggle hidden files | | Esc | Cancel |

Transfer rules:

• Single file → sent as-is
• Multiple files → send each separately or bundle into one zip, per settings
• Folder → always compressed to zip before sending

Then pick the target device from the list and it's sent.

📥 Receive files

Choosing Receive files pulls files from the inbox into your downloads folder.

In a headless tailscaled setup, incoming files do not pop up automatically like the GUI app. Run Receive when you want them. If a permission error occurs (Linux, or occasionally macOS depending on your setup), the required sudo command is shown on screen.

⚙️ Settings

• Change downloads folder — navigate the folder browser, then Enter to select that folder
• Language — English / Korean
• Multi-file transfer mode — send each separately / bundle into one zip

Settings are saved to the paths below and persist across runs.

| Platform | Config file | | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/tailtoss/config.json | | Linux | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tailtoss/config.json (default ~/.config/...) | | Windows | %APPDATA%\tailtoss\config.json |

Development

npm run dev      # run the source directly with tsx
npm run build    # compile to dist/ + set executable bit
npm run start    # run the build output

Project structure

src/
├── cli.tsx            # entry point (shebang) · renders after checking the tailscale dependency
├── app.tsx            # screen routing + language context
├── config.ts          # settings load/save (per-platform paths)
├── i18n.ts            # UI strings · help · context
├── tailscale.ts       # listTargets / sendPaths / receive · CLI detection
├── zip.ts             # zip compression (Info-ZIP or bsdtar) for folders / multiple items
└── components/
    ├── Frame.tsx          # shared frame (title bar + horizontal rule + help)
    ├── MainMenu.tsx
    ├── FileBrowser.tsx    # arrow-key navigation + multi-select (files/folder modes)
    ├── TargetPicker.tsx   # pick a target from the --targets list
    ├── Send.tsx · Receive.tsx · Settings.tsx · Help.tsx

Troubleshooting

• tailscale CLI not found — install tailscale and confirm tailscale status works. It's auto-detected from /opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin, /usr/bin, and PATH.
• Receive fails on Linux (permissions) — run the sudo tailscale file get ... command shown on screen.
• No archiver found on folder/bundle transfers — install zip (or use a system with
  bsdtar), then re-detect via Settings › Check for archiver. Sending a single file
  works without any archiver.
• When using nvm — the global install lives in the current Node version's bin, so after nvm use re-run npm link (or npm install -g .) on that version.

Notes

Tailscale is an open-source, WireGuard-based mesh VPN that links your devices into a private network (a tailnet). Taildrop is its built-in device-to-device file transfer feature.

Tailtoss is an independent, unofficial front-end — not affiliated with or endorsed by Tailscale Inc. It isn't a full CLI wrapper: it drives only the Taildrop file-transfer commands (tailscale file cp / file get) behind a TUI, leaving the rest of the CLI alone. It shells out to a tailscale binary you install yourself, so without it the app cannot run — and it says so at startup.

License

MIT