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Remote Access with Tailscale

If you're running Heaper on a home server or local machine, you can use Tailscale to securely access it from anywhere — without exposing ports to the internet or setting up a reverse proxy.

What is Tailscale?

Tailscale creates a private mesh network (VPN) between your devices using WireGuard. Once installed, all your devices can reach each other via stable IP addresses, regardless of where they are.

Setup

1. Install Tailscale on your server

Install Tailscale on the machine running your Heaper Docker container:

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale up

For other platforms, see Tailscale's install guide.

2. Note the Tailscale IP

After connecting, find your server's Tailscale IP:

tailscale ip -4
# Example output: 100.64.0.1

3. Install Tailscale on your client devices

Install Tailscale on every device you want to access Heaper from (phone, laptop, etc.) and sign in with the same account.

4. Connect to Heaper

From any device on your Tailnet, open:

http://100.64.0.1:3010

Replace 100.64.0.1 with your server's Tailscale IP and 3010 with whatever port you mapped in your Docker config.

5. Add the server in Heaper

In the Heaper app, go to Settings → Heaps → Pull Heap and enter your server's Tailscale IP and port (e.g. 100.64.0.1:3010).

Optional: Use MagicDNS

Tailscale's MagicDNS gives your devices readable hostnames. Instead of an IP, you can access Heaper at something like:

http://my-server:3010

Enable MagicDNS in your Tailscale admin console.

Optional: HTTPS with Tailscale

Tailscale can provision TLS certificates for your devices:

sudo tailscale cert my-server.tailnet-name.ts.net

This gives you a valid HTTPS certificate without needing a public domain or reverse proxy. Configure your reverse proxy (Caddy, nginx) to use the generated certificate files.

Advantages over Port Forwarding

  • No ports exposed to the public internet
  • End-to-end encrypted (WireGuard)
  • Works behind NAT and firewalls
  • No dynamic DNS or domain required
  • Free for personal use (up to 100 devices)