Tailscale releases Tailcat, a netcat-like tool for encrypted peer-to-peer connections over its data plane

Tailcat is an open-source Tailscale project that works like netcat but uses Tailscale’s data plane without relying on its control plane. One side creates a listener and shares a short token out of band, while the connection uses WireGuard encryption and DERP for NAT traversal or relay fallback.

Tailcat shows Tailscale modularizing its networking stack so developers can reuse its peer-to-peer transport without adopting the full service. This points to growing demand for control-plane-light secure connectivity tools that can be embedded into custom workflows, demos, and developer infrastructure.