Tailscale Browser Registration Flow

Register and log in to Tailscale via browser automation (OAuth/GitHub).

Registration (new account)

1. Navigate to https://tailscale.com/register in the browser.

2. Click the GitHub (or other SSO) login button.

3. If the GitHub Authorize button is disabled:

   • Wait for the consent checkboxes to load.
   • Use JavaScript to force-enable the button:

   const btn = document.querySelector('button[data-testid="authorize-app"]')
             || document.querySelector('button[type="submit"]');
   btn.disabled = false;
   btn.click();
   

4. On the Tailscale device confirmation page, click "Connect".

   • If the button doesn't respond to clicks, press Enter key or trigger via CDP:

   // Find the connect/submit button and dispatch click event
   const btn = document.querySelector('button[type="submit"]');
   btn.dispatchEvent(new MouseEvent('click', { bubbles: true }));
   

Known gotchas

• OAuth popup blocking — the GitHub login may open in a popup that gets blocked. Check if a tab was created separately.
• Disabled authorize button — the OAuth consent page sometimes renders the button in a disabled state; force-enable with JS.
• Device name — defaults to hostname (e.g. chihmin-desktop); confirm before connecting.
• Auth key alternative — if browser flow fails, generate an auth key from https://tailscale.com/machine/<device>/authkey in the admin console and use tailscale up --authkey=<key>.

Auth key method (fallback)

# Generate key from admin console, then:
tailscale up --authkey=<your-auth-key>

This bypasses browser OAuth entirely and is the most reliable method for headless servers.