Aleksandr Bogomiakov
ed28e86748
Every first network previously proposed 10.13.37.0/24. Independently created networks therefore collided when a device joined more than one of them. Use the existing stable NetworkId-derived /24 in 10/8 for every new network, independent of activation order or peer availability. Legacy and explicit signed ranges outrank the derived default; remaining range disagreements still use author-id ordering. The derivation, identity labels, handshake and signed record encoding stay unchanged. There is no creator, timestamp or vote. Reserve ranges before starting network actors and serialise start, stop and switching through the agent lifecycle lock. Refuse equal or nested overlaps without changing a network's subnet locally. A late authenticated range that collides suspends only its network before updating plugins or the interface. Coalesced watch notifications let the agent clean up outside the network actor and reconsider suspended networks when ranges change. An explicit switch stops every blocker before activating the chosen network. Suspended networks retain their startup request and resume whenever their ranges become free, including switching from a wide range to a narrow one. A manual stop cancels that request even for an already suspended network. Persist preference order and enabling together in an SQLite transaction so the user's selection survives restart; no database schema migration is needed. CLI status and network listing show blocker names, ids, ranges and the start command. Network start switches explicitly and reports suspended networks; joining an overlapping network reports it as configured but inactive. The tray adds conflict details, an amber icon, Switch to this network and Keep stopped actions. Local IPC wire version is 19 for the extended reports, so restart the agent and tray together. Release versions and peer wire formats are unchanged. Update the user documentation and compatibility tests. Validation on Linux through nix develop: - cargo fmt --all -- --check - cargo clippy --locked --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings - cargo test --locked --workspace --all-targets with TSUNAGI_CONTROL_SOCKET removed from the test environment: 486 passed, 2 pre-existing ignored tests - final focused range_conflicts integration suite after making discovery fixtures deterministic: 6 passed Earlier validation attempts caught outdated diagnostic assertions, a new test helper scope error, and the inherited system control socket override. Those were corrected before the successful runs. Plain cargo was unavailable in the host shell, so validation used the Nix development toolchain. macOS, Windows, privileged host TUN operations and manual tray interaction were not exercised.
9.1 KiB
tsunagi
A mesh VPN with no server.
Pick a network name, share a secret, and your machines are on one private network.
laptop$ tsng join -n home
joined `home`
secret tsn1u7c…
server$ tsng join -n home -s tsn1u7c…
server$ tsng id hostname server
laptop$ ssh server.home
No account, no coordination server, no admin console, no keys to approve. Anyone who knows the name and the secret is in. Nobody else can find the network, let alone enter it.
Why
Tailscale, Headscale and ZeroTier are great, but each needs a control server: theirs, or one you have to run and keep alive. tsunagi doesn't. Machines find each other through the public BitTorrent DHT, connect directly (hole punching, with relay fallback), and keep the network state among themselves.
| Tailscale | Headscale | ZeroTier | tsunagi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control server | hosted by vendor | you run it | hosted or self-run | none |
| Account / sign-in | yes | yes | yes | no |
| To join a network | sign in, get approved | pre-auth key | network ID, approval | name + secret |
| Direct connections | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Exit nodes | yes | yes | via routes | yes |
Features
- Two things to know: a network name and a secret. A secret is generated for you when you make a network.
- Direct, encrypted links between members (WireGuard cryptography), with relay fallback behind strict NATs.
- Names for machines:
server.homejust works, even whileserveris switched off. A name belongs to whoever claimed it first; a later device with the same name keeps working by address and is told so. - Exit nodes: send all your internet traffic through any member that offers one.
- Multi-hop: members that can't reach each other directly are routed through a member that can, over whatever kind of link each hop has. A member reached that way is online, and shown as relayed; traffic moves to a direct link by itself the moment one comes up.
- LAN games: UDP broadcasts are relayed, so "LAN" lobbies show up across the mesh.
- Several networks at once on one device.
- Tray app for Windows, macOS and Linux; a command line for everything.
Install
Grab a build from the latest release.
| Platform | How |
|---|---|
| Windows | Run tsunagi-setup-<version>-x86_64.exe. Installs the service, the tray and tsng. |
| macOS | brew tap house-of-vanity/tap && brew install --cask tsunagi-guiCLI only: brew install tsunagi |
| Debian / Ubuntu | sudo apt install ./tsunagi-gui_<version>_amd64.deb (tsunagi_… for no tray) |
| Arch | sudo pacman -U tsunagi-gui-<version>-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst |
| NixOS | Flake and module below |
| Any other Linux | Unpack the tarball, then sudo ./install.sh && sudo systemctl enable --now tsunagi |
Linux packages run the agent as an unprivileged service user. Add yourself to
the tsunagi group (sudo usermod -aG tsunagi $USER, then log in again) to
use tsng and the tray without sudo.
Quick start
tsng join -n home # first machine: makes the network and prints a secret
tsng join -n home -s tsn1… # every other machine
tsng status # who is online, over which path
Every new network gets a stable pseudorandom /24 in 10.0.0.0/8, derived
from its network id. Its members agree on that range even when starting offline,
and each gets a name like <host>.home. Existing signed ranges are preserved.
If two configured networks have overlapping ranges, the agent runs only one.
tsng status, tsng network and the tray show which network blocks the
other. tsng network start <name-or-id> or the tray’s “Switch to this network”
button suspends the conflicting networks. They resume automatically when the
selected network stops; the selection survives restarting the agent. Explicitly
stopping a suspended network cancels its automatic resume.
Machines are called tsunagi-<id> until you rename them: tsng id hostname laptop.
Exit nodes
tsng network exit-node home on # on the machine that should be the exit
tsng exit-node # on another one: who offers an exit
tsng exit-node laptop # send everything through it
tsng exit-node off
The tray does the same with a checkbox. An exit node sees everything you send through it, so use only members you trust. Details and per-OS notes.
Platforms
| Platform | Build | CLI tsng |
Tray | Exit node: offer / use | Packages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux x86_64 | release | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ / ✔ | .deb, .pkg.tar.zst, tarball, Nix |
| Linux aarch64 | release | ✔ | –¹ | ✔ / ✔ | .deb, .pkg.tar.zst, tarball, Nix |
| Linux armv7 | release | ✔ | –¹ | ✔ / ✔ | .deb, .pkg.tar.zst, tarball |
| macOS, Apple silicon | release | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ / ✔² | Homebrew, tarball |
| macOS, Intel | from source | ✔³ | ✔³ | ✔ / ✔²³ | – |
| Windows x86_64 | release | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ / ✔² | installer, zip |
¹ Not in the release; builds from source (and through Nix). ² Newer and less battle-tested than on Linux. ³ Builds from source, not covered by CI.
The Linux CLI is a single static binary: it runs on any distribution.
NixOS
The repository is a flake with a package and a module.
# flake.nix
{
inputs.tsunagi.url = "github:house-of-vanity/tsunagi";
outputs = { nixpkgs, tsunagi, ... }: {
nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
modules = [
tsunagi.nixosModules.default
{
services.tsunagi = {
enable = true;
tray.enable = true; # optional, for desktops
users = [ "alice" ]; # may use tsng and the tray without sudo
};
}
];
};
};
}
Just trying it: nix run github:house-of-vanity/tsunagi#tsunagi-cli -- --help.
packages.<system>.tsunagi (with the tray) and tsunagi-cli are also exported,
along with overlays.default.
Build from source
Rust 1.91 or newer.
cargo build --release --bin tsng # the agent and CLI
cargo build --release --bin tsunagi-tray # the tray (Linux needs GTK 3 and libayatana-appindicator)
Windows needs Wintun next to tsng.exe.
Per-platform notes: Linux, Arch,
macOS, Windows.
How it works
- Your name and secret derive a network identity. Members publish signed contact records to the public Mainline DHT under it, and find each other there.
- Every connection proves knowledge of the secret before it's accepted. Traffic between members is end-to-end encrypted, relays included.
- Addresses and names are claimed with each device's own key and replicated between members. There is no one in charge, so nothing to be taken down.
The secret is the only key, so make it a good one (the generated ones are). The threat model says what this does and doesn't protect against.
Documentation
Architecture · Protocol · WireGuard data plane · Routing · Exit nodes · Threat model · Contributing
Licence
WTFPL: do what the fuck you want to.