tailscale-tray

A lightweight Tailscale system-tray indicator for Linux Mint & Ubuntu (Cinnamon / GNOME / MATE / Xfce / X11 / Wayland).

Appears as a VPN icon in your desktop panel/taskbar with a menu for quick access to all common Tailscale operations.

Features

✅ Shows real-time connection status (Connected / Disconnected)
🔄 Connect / Disconnect with one click (via pkexec or Tailscale operator)
🚪 Pick or disable an exit node via a dropdown dialog
👤 Switch between multiple Tailscale accounts
➕ Add a new Tailscale account (opens terminal login flow)
📋 Show all devices (tailscale status)
🌐 Open the Tailscale Admin Console in browser
🔒 Singleton lock — prevents duplicate taskbar icons
🛡️ Auto-restart persistence — managed via a systemd user service and XDG autostart to always stay in the taskbar

File	Install path	Purpose
`tailscale-tray`	`~/.local/bin/tailscale-tray`	Main Python 3 app
`tailscale-tray-wrapper`	`~/.local/bin/tailscale-tray-wrapper`	Shell wrapper that restores session env vars before launching
`tailscale-tray.desktop`	`~/.local/share/applications/tailscale-tray.desktop`	Application launcher / app menu entry
`tailscale-tray.service`	`~/.config/systemd/user/tailscale-tray.service`	Systemd user service for auto-start and crash recovery

# Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Debian:
sudo apt install python3-gi gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1

git clone https://github.com/sbasu107/tailscale-tray.git
cd tailscale-tray
bash install.sh

The installer will:

Check and install any missing apt dependencies (python3-gi, gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1)
Copy the scripts to ~/.local/bin/
Register the .desktop launcher in your application menu and autostart directory
Configure and activate the persistent systemd user service (tailscale-tray.service) so it starts immediately and stays persistent across restarts

Check service status:

systemctl --user status tailscale-tray

Restart tray icon:

systemctl --user restart tailscale-tray