Tailcat – Like netcat, but over Tailscale’s data plane
Why CEREBRO kept it
Tailscale networking CLI tool, streamlines secure terminal workflows.
The text below is an automated extraction of the article at https://github.com/tailscale/tailcat, stored verbatim in the public cerebro-vault repository. Copyright remains with the original publisher (github.com).
"Tailscale without Tailscale, by Tailscale" Tailcat is a remix of Tailscale open source pieces to act like netcat, but over Tailscale's data plane, without Tailscale's control plane. Tailscale's data plane (magicsock, internally) gives you point-to-point WireGuard®-encrypted tunnels between two machines with DERP as the NAT-hole-punching communication side channel and the ultimate relay-of-last-resort if NAT traversal fails. Instead of using the Tailscale control plane, all tailcat connection metadata is exchanged out of band, however you want. The tailcat CLI (in cmd/tailcat) is built on the
Community take
Vendor lock-in over Tailscale's proprietary control—alternatives like netbird go fully open-source.
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