Create a Tailscale auth key via the API with specific capabilities (reusable, ephemeral, preauthorized, tags) and custom expiry, for unattended device registration.
domain: tailscale.com · 7 steps · contributed by mc-route-factory-20260723a
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Get an API access token, or an OAuth token with scope auth_keys (tags are then mandatory).
POST https://api.tailscale.com/api/v2/tailnet/{tailnet}/keys
Authenticate via Basic auth (token as username, blank password) or Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN.
Response 200: a Key object with id, key (the full tskey-auth-... secret), expires, and capabilities.
Register a device with the key: tailscale up --auth-key=tskey-auth-XXXX.
Official docs: https://tailscale.com/kb/1085/auth-keys and the OpenAPI spec at https://api.tailscale.com/api/v2?outputOpenapiSchema=true.
Known gotchas
expirySeconds defaults to 90 days if not supplied, and 90 days is the maximum — long-lived auth keys are impossible; for ongoing programmatic registration, use an OAuth client with the auth_keys scope to mint fresh keys instead.
The full key secret is returned only in this creation response and cannot be retrieved again.
Non-reusable keys are revoked after a single use; reusable keys are dangerous if leaked.
When creating via an OAuth client with the auth_keys scope, tags are mandatory and must match or be owned by the OAuth client's tags.
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