breadcrumbs

A profile-aware Wi-Fi state machine for Linux with Tailscale exit-node management and a self-healing watch daemon.

breadcrumbs sits on top of NetworkManager (nmcli) and manages your Wi-Fi based on location profiles. Switch between home, work, school, or any other context with a single command — it handles scanning, connecting, DNS pinning, and Tailscale setup automatically.

Features

• Profile-based connection management — define ordered network priority lists per location
• Bootstrap + Tailscale gating — connect to an interim network first, bring up Tailscale, then move to the target network
• Self-healing watch daemon — monitors for drops, auto-recovers, reacts within seconds via nmcli monitor
• Auto-detection — scans visible SSIDs and guesses your location from config-defined markers
• Credential handling — a saved network's password is only needed the first time breadcrumbs connects to it. Once that connect succeeds, NetworkManager durably owns the credential (a new connection profile, or an updated PSK on an existing one), so breadcrumbs clears its own local copy and stops writing it to disk. Both config files are 0600 (owner-only); saved networks live in a separate networks.toml from settings/profiles (see Configuration). Note: on that first connect, the PSK is still passed to nmcli as a command argument, so it's briefly visible to other local users via /proc/<pid>/cmdline for the lifetime of that nmcli child — a known limitation (see the note in src/nm.rs); a nmcli --ask/D-Bus secret-agent path that avoids argv exposure entirely is not yet wired up. In practice this window now only exists once per network, not on every connect.
• Desktop notifications via notify-send (optional)
• systemd user service generation via breadcrumbs install-service

Requirements

• Linux with NetworkManager (nmcli in $PATH)
• Rust toolchain (to build from source)
• tailscale (optional — only needed if any profile sets tailscale = true)
• notify-send (optional — for desktop notifications)
• curl (optional — used for connectivity checks, falls back to ping)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/breadway/breadcrumbs
cd breadcrumbs
cargo build --release
# Copy to somewhere on your PATH:
cp target/release/breadcrumbs ~/.local/bin/

Configuration

On first run, breadcrumbs creates ~/.config/breadcrumbs/breadcrumbs.toml (settings + profiles) and ~/.config/breadcrumbs/networks.toml (saved networks) with default profiles. Copy breadcrumbs.example.toml as a starting point for the former:

cp breadcrumbs.example.toml ~/.config/breadcrumbs/breadcrumbs.toml
breadcrumbs edit   # opens breadcrumbs.toml in $EDITOR

...then add your real networks with breadcrumbs add/scan rather than hand-editing networks.toml (see networks.example.toml if you want to see its shape or write it by hand anyway).

Config paths respect $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and $XDG_STATE_HOME.

Config structure

Settings and location profiles live in breadcrumbs.toml — the file people actually hand-edit or dotfile:

[settings]
dns = "1.1.1.1"          # DNS server pinned on every connection
nmcli_wait = 8           # seconds to wait for nmcli connect
exit_node = "myhostname" # default Tailscale exit node
default_profile = "away"
watch_interval = 12      # seconds between health checks (minimum 4)
connectivity_url = "http://connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/generate_204"
ping_host = "1.1.1.1"

[profiles.home]
networks = ["MyHomeNetwork"]  # priority-ordered SSIDs
tailscale = false
include_all_known = false
detect_ssids = ["MyHomeNetwork"]  # used by `breadcrumbs detect`

[profiles.work]
bootstrap = "GuestWifi"   # connect here first before requiring Tailscale
networks = ["CorpWifi"]
tailscale = true
exit_node = "jump-host"   # per-profile override
detect_ssids = ["CorpWifi", "Corp-5G"]

Saved networks (SSID + optional local password) live separately, in networks.toml, managed via add/scan/forget:

[[networks]]
ssid = "MyHomeNetwork"
password = "hunter2"  # optional — see "Credential handling" below
hidden = false

password is only needed the first time breadcrumbs connects to a network. Once NetworkManager durably saves the credential, breadcrumbs clears its local copy and omits the key on the next save — an existing config with password = "..." still loads fine either way, no migration step needed. A config with [[networks]] still written inline in breadcrumbs.toml (from before this split) also still loads: it's read once, then migrated into networks.toml automatically on the next save.

Profiles

Each profile defines:

Key	Description
networks	Ordered list of SSIDs to try. First available wins.
tailscale	If true, Tailscale must be healthy before moving to a target network.
bootstrap	SSID to connect to first (e.g. guest Wi-Fi that allows Tailscale traffic).
exit_node	Tailscale exit node for this profile (overrides settings.exit_node).
include_all_known	After the priority list, also try every other known network.
detect_ssids	Any visible SSID in this list marks this profile as a candidate for breadcrumbs detect.

Usage

breadcrumbs [--profile <name>] <command>

Command	Description
status	Show current Wi-Fi / Tailscale health (default)
init	Run the full connect sequence for the active profile
watch [--no-initial]	Self-healing daemon: monitors and auto-recovers drops
profile get	Print the active profile
profile set <name>	Switch profile (and apply it, unless --no-apply)
profile list	List all profiles
detect [--apply]	Guess profile from visible networks; optionally apply it
add <ssid> [password]	Add or update a saved network
forget <ssid>	Remove a network from config and NetworkManager
scan [--to <profile>]	Interactive scan, pick, connect and save
list [--show-passwords]	Show config: settings, networks, profiles
edit	Open config in $EDITOR, validate on exit
doctor [--full]	Quick connectivity and Tailscale diagnostics
cd [--shell]	Print (or cd into) the config directory
install-service [--no-enable]	Install and optionally enable systemd user unit

Examples

# Check current state
breadcrumbs

# Switch to the "work" profile and connect
breadcrumbs profile set work

# Run as a daemon in the foreground (use install-service for persistent use)
breadcrumbs watch

# Override profile for one run without persisting
breadcrumbs --profile home init

# Add a new network and attach it to a profile
breadcrumbs add "CoffeeShop5G" --to away

# Detect and switch profile based on visible networks
breadcrumbs detect --apply

# Install and start the systemd watcher service
breadcrumbs install-service

Watch daemon

breadcrumbs watch is the recommended way to run breadcrumbs for daily use. It:

1. Polls health every watch_interval seconds (adaptive backoff on repeated failures)
2. Reacts immediately to link-state changes via nmcli monitor
3. Runs flow::run (the connect state machine) on any detected drop
4. Handles profile changes live — re-reads config and state on every tick

Install as a systemd user service:

breadcrumbs install-service
# or manually:
systemctl --user enable --now breadcrumbs.service

Tailscale integration

For profiles with tailscale = true:

1. Connects to the bootstrap SSID (if configured)
2. Ensures the Tailscale daemon is running; opens a browser login if needed
3. Sets the configured exit node with tailscale set --exit-node=<node>
4. Only moves to the target network once Tailscale is healthy

If Tailscale needs interactive login, the auth URL is opened automatically and the watch daemon stays on the bootstrap network until authentication completes.

License

MIT