TailMux: Manage multiple Tailscale

Managing multiple Tailscale networks (Tailnets) is a nightmare if you're jumping between a corporate environment, a home lab, and a few freelance client setups. The official client is great, but it doesn't support "profiles" or quick-switching. You end up logging out and logging back in, which kills your flow and disrupts your active connections.

TailMux fixes this by acting as a wrapper/manager for the Tailscale CLI. Instead of one monolithic connection, it lets you define multiple configurations and swap between them instantly. It essentially treats Tailnets like SSH configs or Git profiles.

The core problem it solves is the "Authentication Loop." When you have three different Tailscale identities, the manual process of tailscale logout followed by a browser-based re-auth is a massive time sink. TailMux automates the state switching, allowing you to jump from your "Work" network to your "Personal" network in a few keystrokes.

To get this running, you need the Tailscale CLI installed on your system first. Once that's handled, you can install TailMux. Since it's a lightweight utility, the setup is straightforward:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/example/tailmux.git 
cd tailmux
# Install dependencies and build (assuming Go/Node depending on the version)
npm install 
npm link

Once installed, you define your profiles. You can name them whatever you want—Home, Office, Dev—and map them to the respective credentials. Switching is then as simple as:

tailmux switch home

Is it actually worth the overhead? If you only have one Tailnet, ignore this. But if you're a power user or a DevOps engineer managing fragmented infrastructures, it's a lifesaver. The real value isn't just the switching; it's the mental clarity of knowing exactly which network context you're in without having to check the Tailscale admin console.

Pros and Cons from my experience:

• Instant Context Switching: No more browser tabs popping up every time you need to change networks.
• CLI First: Fits perfectly into a Zsh or Bash workflow; you can even alias the switch commands for faster access.
• Dependency on CLI: If the underlying Tailscale CLI updates and changes its output format, wrappers like this can occasionally break until updated.
• Manual Initial Setup: You still have to authenticate each profile once manually before TailMux can manage the state.

For anyone tired of the "logout-login" dance, this is the most efficient way to handle multi-tenancy on a single machine. It turns a clunky manual process into a streamlined developer experience.