tailscale-setup git:20261022.59c03a6A

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---
name: tailscale-setup
description: Walk a user or team admin through connecting Grok Bot to a Tailscale tailnet - a personal tailnet with one tag:grokbot device, or a team's company tailnet with each member's own device - granting only the MCP hosts it should reach, and adding tailnet MCP servers, including ones on internal DNS names, behind subnet routes or app connectors, on any port, or with a private CA. Use when the user asks to set up, troubleshoot, or disconnect Grok Bot's Tailscale connection.
---

# Tailscale setup for Grok Bot

Grok Bot reaches MCP servers on a tailnet in one of two ways. Find out which one fits before anything else.

| | Personal tailnet | Company tailnet |
|---|---|---|
| Who turns it on | The user | A Grok Bot team admin, once for the team |
| Device | One device for the bot, tagged `tag:grokbot` | Each member's own Grok Bot device, owned by that member and carrying the `custom:grokbot` attribute |
| Policy | Grants to `tag:grokbot` | The member's usual access, narrowed with a posture on `custom:grokbot` |
| Plugin row | **Tailscale** | **Tailscale (team)** |

If signing in on the personal row fails with a `tag:grokbot` error on a company tailnet, use the company tailnet.

## Personal tailnet

1. In the Tailscale admin console, open **Access controls** and merge these keys into the policy file instead of replacing it:

   ```hujson
   {
     "tagOwners": {
       "tag:grokbot": ["autogroup:admin"],
     },
     "grants": [
       {
         "src": ["tag:grokbot"],
         "dst": ["mcp-server.tail1234.ts.net"],
         "ip":  ["tcp:443"],
       },
     ],
   }
   ```

   List the user who will sign in (or `autogroup:admin`) in `tagOwners`. In the grant, use the user's real host names, `100.x` addresses, subnet-route CIDRs or tags, and only the ports their MCP servers listen on. If the policy still has the default allow-all rule, `tag:grokbot` can reach every device; point that out and suggest narrowing it.
2. In Grok Bot, open the **Tailscale** plugin, click **Authenticate**, sign in to Tailscale and approve the device.
3. If device approval is on, approve the device on the **Machines** page. With Tailnet Lock, sign it from a signing node (`tailscale lock sign <node-key>`); it can't reach anything until it's signed.

## Company tailnet

The team admin does this once:

1. During the beta, Tailscale enables Grok Bot device provisioning one tailnet at a time. Send Grok Bot support the tailnet ID (Tailscale admin console, **Settings → General**). Until it's enabled, members' sign-ins fail.
2. Add the Tailscale plugin to the team.
3. On cursor.com, open **Integrations → Tailscale** (or, in Grok Bot, the **Company tailnet** card on the **Tailscale** plugin). Enter the tailnet's MagicDNS suffix (like `tail1234.ts.net`) or click **Sign in to Tailscale** to fill it in, check **Members' Grok Bot devices may join this tailnet**, and click **Enable**.
4. Lock Grok Bot devices down in the policy file. A member's Grok Bot device belongs to that member, so without this it gets everything the member can reach. Default postures are OR'd, so add `custom:grokbot NOT SET` to each one (or add one default posture with just that condition if the policy has none), then grant MCP hosts with a posture that requires the attribute:

   ```hujson
   {
     "defaultSrcPosture": ["posture:Default"],
     "postures": {
       "posture:Default": ["custom:grokbot NOT SET"],
       "posture:GrokBot": ["custom:grokbot IS SET"],
     },
     "grants": [
       {
         "src":        ["group:engineering"],
         "srcPosture": ["posture:GrokBot"],
         "dst":        ["tag:mcp"],
         "ip":         ["tcp:443"],
       },
     ],
   }
   ```

   Use the groups that already reach each MCP host, so people get the same access from Grok Bot that they have today, and nobody has to request anything new.

Each member then opens the **Tailscale** plugin and clicks **Connect** on the row that names the team and tailnet. On Tailscale's screen, the tailnet shown at the top right must be the company tailnet; then click **Authorize application**. Their device joins the company tailnet as them. With device approval on, a tailnet admin approves the `grokbot-team-…` device on the **Machines** page; Tailscale doesn't notify them.

## Add MCP servers

Add each server in a chat ("add this MCP server: …") or in Settings. The URL host can be:

- a tailnet name (`*.ts.net`) or `100.x` address;
- an internal name the tailnet's DNS resolves (MagicDNS or split DNS);
- an address behind a subnet route or an app connector on the tailnet.

Any port in the URL works, and `http://` works for tailnet destinations. Grok Bot never uses exit nodes or default routes, so a host on the public internet doesn't go through the tailnet. Internal DNS names, subnet routes, app connectors, other ports and `http://` are still rolling out; if Grok Bot refuses one of them, it isn't on for the account yet.

If the server's certificate comes from a private CA, add the CA's PEM as `tls.caBundle`:

```json
{
  "internal-mcp": {
    "url": "https://mcp.corp.example.com/mcp",
    "tls": { "caBundle": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n...\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----" }
  }
}
```

The bundle has to be the real certificate text. A placeholder or a file path won't work.

## Who can use the tailnet

- **Personal tailnet:** only messages from the bot owner and linked teammates, and routines the owner schedules.
- **Company tailnet:** a member's device is used only in that member's own Grok Bot chats, Slack DMs and the routines they schedule. A member removed from the team is logged out.

## Disconnect

Click **Remove** on the Tailscale plugin page. A team admin can turn the company tailnet off with **Disable**.

## Troubleshooting

- **Checking whether a host is reachable:** use the Tailscale plugin's Check host tool, not curl from the bot computer, which only uses the personal connection. Check host runs on the personal device; to test a company-tailnet host, add it as an MCP server.
- **Cannot reach a host:** on a personal tailnet, check that a grant from `tag:grokbot` covers that host and port. On a company tailnet, check that a grant with the Grok Bot posture covers the member and that host and port. In both cases, check that the device is approved (and signed, with Tailnet Lock).
- **Name doesn't resolve:** the tailnet's DNS has to resolve it. Check MagicDNS and the split DNS settings on the **DNS** page.
- **`destination_not_routed`:** the address isn't on a subnet route or app connector the device can use.
- **Certificate error:** the server uses a private CA. Add `tls.caBundle` with the CA's PEM.
- **"Your tailnet hasn't allowed Grok Bot's Tailscale app":** Tailscale hasn't enabled the beta for that tailnet yet; send support the tailnet ID.
- **"Signed in to a different tailnet":** Tailscale hasn't enabled the beta for the company tailnet yet and the member's account is also in another tailnet, so the device joined that one and Grok Bot signed it out. Confirm with support that the tailnet is enabled, then click **Connect** again and check the tailnet at the top right of Tailscale's screen.
- **Sign-in can't apply the tag:** the signing-in user isn't an owner of `tag:grokbot` in `tagOwners`.