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tailtop

Remote desktop for your tailnet, built for your phone.

Tailtop gives the computers on your tailnet a phone interface: apps, files, and streamed windows when you need them.

Install for macOS

$ curl -fsSL tailtop.app/install.sh | sh
Download Android Client ↓

Your desktop wasn't designed for a 6-inch screen.

Traditional remote desktop apps give you the same desktop from farther away. Tailtop replaces common desktop interactions with interfaces designed for your phone, and streams the real window when you open a desktop app.

No hunting for windows. No tiny Dock. No pinching around a desktop just to open an app.

Dock
Search & launch any macOS app
Finder
Browse & download files
Mission Control
Swap between open windows
Desktop Screen
View one app at a time

Your apps. One screen at a time.

Open an application from Tailtop and its real window opens on your computer. Tailtop resizes the window for your phone where possible and streams it directly to the screen.

Tap to click. Drag to move. Two fingers to scroll. A cursor you place with your finger, and a key row with ⌘, ctrl, and arrows when the keyboard is up.

Swipe between running apps instead of managing overlapping desktop windows.

Your files are already there.

Browse the real filesystem on your computer without remotely operating Finder. Navigate folders, rename, move, download, and preview files from a phone-first file browser.

Need the desktop app? Choose Open on computer and Tailtop launches the appropriate application and takes you directly to its window.

These are the actual files on your computer, not copies synchronized into a Tailtop cloud service. There isn't one.

The networking part is already solved.

Tailtop doesn't expose your computer to the public internet or run its own remote-access network. Your devices connect over Tailscale.

Phone
Tailtop client
ours, or yours
Computer
Tailtop Host
macOS today
port forwarding public IP Tailtop relay service Tailtop account

$ install tailscale
$ install tailtop
→ connect to your computer

Small on purpose. Open on purpose.

Tailtop is a documented protocol, a host, and a client. Communication happens directly between your devices, over your tailnet.

clientsandroid · byo

Anything that speaks the protocol. The Android client ships today.

  • app launcher
  • remote app interface
  • Files
  • touch and keyboard input
protocolprotobuf

The contract. Platform-neutral, versioned, and documented. Anyone can implement it.

  • app discovery + launch
  • window streams
  • input events
  • filesystem operations
tailtop-hostrust

A lightweight service on your computer. It does what clients ask.

  • application discovery
  • window capture
  • mouse and keyboard input
  • filesystem access

The protocol is versioned protobuf. If our client isn't your client, build your own. The Android app is just the first one.

Read the protocol docs → tailtop.proto

Built in the open.

Tailtop is open source. The client, host, and protocol are available on GitHub.

See how it works, build it yourself, write a client for your platform, report a bug, or help make remote computers better on small screens.

View source on GitHub →
zsh
$ git clone github.com/sofriendly/tailtop
Cloning into 'tailtop'... done.
$ cd tailtop && cargo build --release
Compiling tailtop-host v0.1.1
Finished release [optimized] in 41.3s
$

Your computers are already on your tailnet.
Give them a phone interface.

$ curl -fsSL tailtop.app/install.sh | sh
Download Android Client ↓

signed android apk · updates checked inside Tailtop