Tailscale Connection Hint

Chrome extension that shows helpful troubleshooting when .local domains (Tailscale MagicDNS) fail to resolve.

Features

• Intercepts DNS resolution failures for .local domains
• Shows live connectivity monitoring with two graphs:
  • Your Service: The URL you were trying to reach
  • kcprr (infrastructure): Verifies Tailscale connectivity
• Auto-redirects when connection is restored
• Distinguishes between "Tailscale down" vs "Service unavailable"
• Copy-able latency stats on click
• Links to #infra-assist and Tailscale docs

Permissions Justification

Permission	Justification
webNavigation	Required to intercept onErrorOccurred events for DNS failures
tabs	Required to redirect the tab to our hint page
<all_urls> (host)	Required because .local domains can be any URL pattern; we only act on *.local hostnames

Installation (Development)

1. Go to chrome://extensions/
2. Enable "Developer mode"
3. Click "Load unpacked"
4. Select this directory

Files

• manifest.json - Extension manifest (Manifest V3)
• background.js - Service worker that intercepts DNS errors
• tailscale-hint.html - The helpful error page
• hint.js - Connectivity monitoring and UI logic
• icons/ - Extension icons

Author

@nova ([email protected])