dsh-tailscale-surface

A DeepSeek Harness plugin that makes a tailscale serve surface in front of the web GUI a first-class fact of the daemon: correct URL narration everywhere, working remote Settings, and a same-origin home for auxiliary plugin UIs.

Why

dsh web binds loopback (the GUI is effectively an RCE surface — the CLI deliberately refuses 0.0.0.0). Reaching it remotely through an SSH tunnel works but is clumsy, and everything the runtime narrates about itself (DSH_WEB_URL, the surface prompt, the URL line) points at 127.0.0.1 — an origin a remote browser cannot resolve, so every user-facing link minted from it is dead.

Fronting the daemon with tailscale serve fixes the transport (tailnet HTTPS + verified identity) but stock DSH then 403s the whole privileged RPC plane (Settings, credentials, model discovery, agent presets) for remote users, because those methods are pinned to loopback-Host callers and the proxy preserves the client's Host.

What it does

1. Discovers the serve rule proxying this daemon (tailscale status / serve status via the subprocess service) and exports the canonical external URL:
   • DSH_TS_URL shell variable (agent shells, tools);
   • a system-prompt section that orients every model step to the external origin and forbids emitting loopback/LAN URLs to the user;
   • a GET /__ts/status route with the full health snapshot.
2. Relays the 15 privileged /api methods for verified operator logins. tailscale serve injects Tailscale-User-Login with the tailnet-verified login and overwrites any client-supplied value (verified empirically), so the header is unforgeable evidence of who is calling. The relay takes over those exact paths before the stock fence and dispatches them in-process via the apiProxy service — same call the real route makes, exact wire envelope. Direct local connections (no proxy headers) keep today's behavior.
   • This also closes, for these methods, a Host-spoofing path: serve forwards a client-supplied Host verbatim, so the stock loopback pinning is bypassable behind any Host-preserving proxy.
3. exposePath(prefix, handler) (service tailscaleSurface): plugins register auxiliary HTTP/WS surfaces on the main origin instead of binding fresh ports the remote browser can never reach.

Install

# 1. copy the package into the profile module space
cp -r . ~/.dsh/profiles/node_modules/dsh-tailscale-surface

# 2. add the row to ~/.dsh/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml

- insert:
    - id: tailscale-surface
      name: dsh-tailscale-surface
      config:
        operatorLogins:
          - you@example.com        # your tailnet login (tailscale whois / serve headers)
        servePort: 8443            # the tailscale serve HTTPS port
        surfaceContext: true       # prompt section + DSH_TS_URL

1. Publish the surface (once, as the tailscale operator — sudo tailscale set --operator=$USER to manage without sudo):

tailscale serve --bg --https=8443 http://127.0.0.1:3080
dsh web --host 127.0.0.1 --port 3080 \
  --trusted-host <your-node>.<tailnet>.ts.net:8443 <your-node>.<tailnet>.ts.net

1. Restart the daemon between sessions, then verify:

curl https://<your-node>.<tailnet>.ts.net:8443/__ts/status

Configuration

key	default	meaning
operatorLogins	[]	tailnet logins treated as operator-equivalent for privileged methods (relay inactive when empty)
servePort	8443	serve HTTPS port used when self-healing a missing rule (ensureRule)
surfaceContext	true	register the prompt section + DSH_TS_URL

Security notes

• The relay trusts Tailscale-User-Login only because the daemon binds loopback, making tailscaled the only reachable client. Any non-loopbind deployment must not reuse this design.
• Non-privileged RPCs (sessions, prompts, bash) remain reachable by anyone who can reach the serve port — restrict the port in your tailnet ACL to your own devices/users.
• Never put funnel in front of this GUI.

Compatibility

Developed and verified against dsh 0.1.0-rc.7 and tailscale 1.102.2. The privileged method list is pinned to that version's PRIVILEGED_METHODS; check it when upgrading dsh.

License

MIT