Authentik with Tailscale Integration

This project sets up a Authentik instance with Tailscale VPN integration using Docker Compose. It creates a secure, private network connection for your Authentik instance using Tailscale.

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose installed on your system
A Tailscale account and auth key (get one from https://login.tailscale.com/admin/authkeys)
Basic understanding of Docker and networking concepts

Project Structure

ts-authentik/
├── .env
├── docker-compose.yml
├── tailscale/
│   ├── tailscale-data/     # Persistent Tailscale state
│   └── config/             # Tailscale configuration files
├── authentik/
│   ├── media/              # Authentik Files
│   └── templates/          # Authentik Files
├── postgres/
│   └── data/               # Postgres data
├── redis/
│   └── data/               # Redis persistent state
└── authentik-worker/
    └── certs/              # Authetik Worker files

Setup Instructions

Clone the Repository

git clone https://gitea.damconsulting.llc/DAM/ts-authentik
cd ts-authentik

Create Required Directories

mkdir -p tailscale/tailscale-data authentik/media authentik/templates postgres/data redis/data authentik-worker/certs

Configure Tailscale
- Replace {{YOUR_TAILSCALE_AUTHKEY}} in the docker-compose.yml with your actual Tailscale auth key
- Optionally, update the file in tailscale/config/serve.json if you need specific Tailscale serve configurations
  - CAUTION: Changing "${TS_CERT_DOMAIN}:443": false to true will expose the service to the internet
Configure Authentik
- Authentik uses an environment variable file, or .env, that is passed in the compose to handle much of the configuration options. They then turn this to yaml 🤦‍♂️. Maybe one day when we fork all of these projects we can standardize the config format for all services to be yaml from the start. Because of this and to stay consistent with the original documentation the database username and password as well as other fields commonly found in the compose are set in the .env. The following directions are for generating the .env file from linux cli. This method is recomended to ensure a strong AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY although you could just create your own manually.
```
# You can also use openssl instead: `openssl rand -base64 36`
sudo apt-get install -y pwgen
# Because of a PostgreSQL limitation, only passwords up to 99 chars are supported
# See https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/09512C4F-8CB9-4021-B455-EF4C4F0D55A0@amazon.com
echo "PG_PASS=$(pwgen -s 40 1)" >> .env
echo "AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY=$(pwgen -s 50 1)" >> .env
# Skip if you don't want to enable error reporting
echo "AUTHENTIK_ERROR_REPORTING__ENABLED=true" >> .env
```
- OPTIONAL See docs for additional configuration options
- A note about the docker-compose values.
  - POSTGRES_PASSWORD: This variable holds the password for the PostgreSQL database. The ${PG_PASS:?database password required} syntax means that if this variable is not set, the system will throw an error and prompt the user to set it.
  - POSTGRES_USER: This variable holds the username for the PostgreSQL database. The ${PG_USER:-authentik} syntax means that if this variable is not set, it will default to the value authentik.
  - POSTGRES_DB: This variable holds the name of the PostgreSQL database. The ${PG_DB:-authentik} syntax means that if this variable is not set, it will default to the value authentik.
Start the Services
```
docker compose up -d
```
Wait for Certificate to propagate [~2m]
Login with the inital flow url
- After starting the services your service should be available via tailnet at https://authentik.{{YOUR_TAILNET_DOMAIN}}.ts.net/if/flow/initial-setup/ ie https://authentik.tail12345.ts.net/if/flow/initial-setup/

Services

authentik-ts (Tailscale)

Runs Tailscale VPN client
Image: tailscale/tailscale:latest
Container name: authentik-ts
Hostname: authentik
Requires NET_ADMIN and SYS_MODULE capabilities
Persists state in ./tailscale/tailscale-data
Uses configuration from ./tailscale/config

authentik

Depends on authentik-ts service

authentik-worker

Depends on authentik-ts service

authentik-redis

Depends on authentik-ts service

authentik-postgres

Depends on authentik-ts service

Usage

After starting the services your service should be available via tailnet at https://authentik.{{YOUR_TAILNET_DOMAIN}}.ts.net ie https://authentik.tail12345.ts.net/
To manually get the Tailscale IP/hostname of your container:
```
docker logs authentik-ts
```
Look for the Tailscale IP address in the logs.

Optional Features

Uncomment and adjust the ports mapping if you need direct access (without Tailscale):
```
ports:
- 9000:9000
```
Stopping the Services
```
docker compose down
```

Troubleshooting

Check container logs:

docker logs authentik-ts
docker logs authentik

Ensure your Tailscale auth key is valid and not expired
Verify the configuration files have proper permissions
Make sure required directories exist before starting

Notes

The Authentik service uses the Tailscale service's network stack via network_mode: service:authentik-ts
Direct port mapping is disabled by default as Tailscale handles the networking
Services restart automatically unless explicitly stopped
For more information:
- Tailscale documentation: https://tailscale.com/kb/
- Authentik documentation: https://docs.goauthentik.io/docs/
- Authentik repository: https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik