![\"VS](\"https://tailscale.com/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fmachine-explorer.55a5c75f.png&w=3840&q=75\")
Last validated: Jan 5, 2026
\nThe Tailscale extension for Visual Studio Code lets you interact with resources in your tailnet from within the VS Code IDE.
\nYou can find the extension in the VS Code Marketplace, or open the extension in VS Code.
\nYou can interact with the machines in your tailnet from the primary sidebar in VS Code. Select the Tailscale icon, open the Tailscale Machine explorer, then select the machine that you want to access.
\n
Tailscale SSH must be enabled on a machine to connect to it. Currently, this is only available on Linux devices or macOS devices running our open source tailscale + tailscaled CLI.
\nYou can start a new terminal session or attach VS Code to a machine for remote development in one selection. Hover over the machine you'd like to connect to, then select either the ![\"VS](\"https://tailscale.com/_next/static/media/terminal.5150e7b8.svg\")
icon to start a terminal session, or the ![\"VS](\"https://tailscale.com/_next/static/media/remote-explorer.8d6cb6ae.svg\")
icon to attach the VS Code window to the machine.
If you are using the VS Code remote connection feature and your username on the remote instance is different from your local username, you'll need to specify the remote username in your local SSH configuration. Otherwise, you may encounter connection issues.
\nFollow the steps below to configure your SSH settings:
\n~/.ssh/config.my-server.example.ts.net with the copied DNS name from the first step and alice with your remote username.Host my-server.example.ts.net\r\n User alice\nBy configuring the SSH settings with the correct remote username, you should be able to successfully connect to the remote instance using VS Code.
\nTo read and edit files on a machine in your tailnet, expand the machine, then select the File explorer item. You must have enabled Tailscale SSH on the machine to use the file explorer.
\nThe first time you open the file explorer for a machine, the extension will prompt you for an SSH username to use for that machine. This username will be locally cached to use for future connections to this machine. If you'd like to change the SSH username later, right-click on the machine and select Change SSH username from the context menu.
\nYou can add new files or directories in the file explorer by right-clicking on a directory and selecting New file or New directory. To rename or delete an existing file or directory, right-click on the item and select Rename or Delete from the context menu.
\nDeleting a file or folder from the file explorer is a permanent action and cannot be undone.
\nBy default, the File explorer will open the home folder (~/) of the username you provided. You can change the root folder by right-clicking on the machine and selecting Change root directory from the context menu.
You can set up Tailscale Funnel inside of VS Code using the command palette or the Tailscale panel. You must have Funnel enabled in your tailnet access control policies to take advantage of this feature.
\nThe VS Code extension lets you expose one port on your local machine to the public internet with Funnel. To expose multiple ports, use the Funnel CLI.
\nTo use Funnel, you must enable MagicDNS and HTTPS certificates in the admin console, and add the appropriate node attribute (nodeAttrs) to your tailnet policy file.
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\nCMD + J.You can open the public URL in your default browser or copy it to your clipboard. To edit the existing Funnel configuration in this panel, change the port number and select the Update button.
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\nCMD + Shift + P.Your browser does not support the video tag.
\nWhen you start a local server from VS Code, Tailscale will ask if you'd like to share that port over the internet with Funnel.
\nIf the Machine explorer isn't working as expected, we recommend the following steps:
\nIf Funnel isn't working as expected, we recommend the following steps:
\ntailscale status in your CLI.\r\nIf you have signed in to multiple Tailscale accounts on your device, ensure that the correct account is active.tailscale is available in the environment path. You can check this by running tailscale status in your CLI; if no command is found, you may need to add the Tailscale executable to your path. Alternatively, you can set its path using the tailscale.path setting in VS Code.tailscale.path: A path to the tailscale executable. If unset, the extension will use\r\nthe environment path to resolve the tailscale executable. If set, the extension\r\nwill use the supplied path. The path should include the executable name (for example,\r\n/usr/bin/tailscale, C:\\Program Files\\tailscale\\tailscale.exe).