Different Tailscale versions across platforms is pain (Linux 1.96.4, Windows 1.96.3, macOS 1.96.5)

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
28/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
github-actions
Domain
ci-cd, release

Research direction

The issue concerns tailscale/github-action and GitHub Actions workflows, but names no repository file, test, or implementation entry point. Start by locating how the action selects and downloads Tailscale versions and how releases are coordinated; done would require a defined way for all platforms to share a usable version without platform-specific pins.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Hey folks 👋

So I'm trying to use Tailscale in my GitHub Actions workflows and I keep running into this annoying issue where each
platform has a different "latest" version. This is not great.

Right now if I check the stable releases:

I can't just pin to a single version in my CI because it'll work on some platforms and fail on others. Here's what I get
when I try to use the macOS version (1.96.5) on Windows:

Run tailscale/github-action@306e68a486fd2350f2bfc3b19fcd143891a4a2d8
with:
version: 1.96.5
...
▶️ curl https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/tailscale-setup-1.96.5-amd64.msi.sha256
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404

Yep, 404 because Windows only goes up to 1.96.3.

I ended up having to add platform-specific logic to my GitHub Action:

    - name: Set Tailscale version
      id: set-version
      shell: bash
      run: |
        case "${{ runner.os }}" in
          Linux)   echo "version=1.96.4" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT ;;
          macOS)   echo "version=1.96.5" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT ;;
          Windows) echo "version=1.96.3" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT ;;
        esac

This works but it's kinda ridiculous that I have to do this.

This affects anyone running cross-platform CI/CD, such as GitHub Actions with multiple runners, who legitimately avoid using latest for security and stability reasons. I understand that coordinating releases across platforms is challenging, but requiring users to maintain platform-specific version matrices adds unnecessary friction for those using Tailscale in automated deployments.

Couldn't you release all platforms at the same time with the same version number? This seems like the obvious solution.

Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
938
Forks
137
No merged PRs in 30d

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