tsiam

README

tsiam - Workload Identity over Tailscale

📚 Read the docs

A Tailscale-powered workload identity service that provides JWT tokens based on the node identity in the tailnet. Think of it as a Tailscale version of Kubernetes workload identity (using Service Account Tokens), AWS IAM Roles for EC2, Azure Managed Identity.

✨ Why tsiam

tsiam lets your applications authenticate themselves based on their Tailscale network identity—no passwords, API keys, or certificates to manage. Any machine on your Tailnet can request a signed JWT token that proves its identity.

• Zero-credential authentication: Applications authenticate using their Tailscale identity, without secrets to rotate or leak
• Standard JWT tokens: Works with any system that supports JWT/OIDC verification
• Tailscale-native security: Token requests are only accepted from authenticated Tailscale nodes
• Public key verification: Expose JWKS endpoints via Tailscale Funnel so external services can verify tokens
• Flexible key storage: Store signing keys locally, in memory, or securely in Azure Key Vault

💡 Use Cases

• Grant access to cloud resources (databases, storage, APIs) based on Tailscale node identity
• Enable service-to-service authentication
• Replace static API keys with short-lived, identity-bound tokens
• Integrate Tailscale identity with existing OIDC-compatible systems
• Build zero-trust architectures where every request is authenticated

🔐 tsiam vs tsidp

Tailscale's own tsidp is an OIDC identity provider, designed for human authentication. A solution leverages tsidp so that users can log in using their Tailscale identity.

tsiam is designed for workload/machine identity: it issues short-lived JWT assertion tokens on behalf of a Tailscale node (a machine), which the workload then exchanges for credentials with cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) or other services via workload identity federation. This is comparable to AWS IAM roles, Azure Managed Identity / Workload Identity, GitHub Actions identity federation, etc. The subject is the node's Tailscale identity, not a human user.

📘 Docs

The documentation is available at https://tsiam.italypaleale.me.

• Quickstart
• Getting a token
• Configuration
• Audience Authorization
• Tailscale Funnel
• What is workload identity?

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.