January 27, 2026
Tailnet or failnet?
A first look at Aperture by Tailscale (private alpha)
Aperture alpha: Tailscale’s AI gate sparks hype, doubt, and cake
TLDR: Tailscale unveiled Aperture, an alpha tool to manage and watch workplace AI coding bots without juggling API keys. Commenters split between calling it hype and mission drift vs. useful for big-company security, with pricing and focus becoming the real battleground—important as AI floods everyday engineering.
Tailscale just teased Aperture, a private alpha “AI gateway” that lets companies monitor and control coding bots without handing out fragile API keys. It plugs into your existing Tailscale identity (your company’s private network), works with common tools like VS Code and CLIs, and funnels usage stats into one place—yes, even exporting logs to S3 for security dashboards. Think: a single door for AI at work that shows who used what, when, and how many tokens (the AI’s “meter”). Tailscale says it’s the lowest-friction way to make AI safe at work.
The community? Spicy. One paying customer cried “mission drift,” pointing to thousands of open issues and calling this a “build anything AI” moment. Another engineer flexed that they could DIY this in a weekend, while budget hawks warned it only makes sense if priced lower than hiring “a couple devs.” Meanwhile, someone immediately derailed into a networking how-to, and a joker asked if there’d be cake—because yes, it’s the internet. The vibe: hype train vs. hold my beer. Big-org folks cheered the compliance angle and identity-based access, while indie devs shrugged at yet another AI wrapper. Tailscale hinted at extensibility and a partner (Oso) for extra visibility, but the crowd wants proof this won’t distract from core networking—and a price that doesn’t bite.
Key Points
- •Tailscale launched Aperture in alpha as an AI gateway for secure, visible use of coding agents across organizations.
- •Aperture leverages Tailscale identity to eliminate distributing API keys to developer machines, CI/CD, and other environments.
- •It supports CLI and VS Code-based tools (e.g., Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI) and major LLM providers and endpoints.
- •Admins add a single API key and endpoint per provider; Aperture associates user and machine identities with usage and forwards traffic.
- •Aperture aggregates usage for adoption and security monitoring, attaches identities to logs/sessions/MCP calls, and exports to S3 for SIEM.