Configure Tailscale clients to use a custom control server

Last validated: Sep 21, 2026View as Markdown

The Tailscale clients let you specify a custom control server URL instead of the default https://controlplane.tailscale.com server. If you are using a self-managed deployment of Headscale as your control plane, use your Headscale instance's URL.

Add a custom control server

macOS Windows Linux iOS Android tvOS

Run the following command to authenticate to a custom control server. Replace <URL> with your custom control server URL.

tailscale login --login-server=<URL>

Remove a custom control server

macOS Windows Linux iOS Android tvOS

To log out of the custom control server, run:

tailscale logout

If you need to completely reset the locally stored Tailscale state:

Stop tailscaled.
```
sudo systemctl stop tailscaled
```

Remove the state file.

sudo rm /var/lib/tailscale/tailscaled.state

Start tailscaled.
```
sudo systemctl start tailscaled
```

Removing the tailscaled state file deletes the locally stored Tailscale state for the device. Use this procedure only when logging out doesn't reset the client as needed.