The official image requires you to write and mount a complete "config.yaml" before the container will even start. This image auto-generates the config from environment variables on first start, prints a pre-auth key to the logs so you can connect a device immediately, and includes an "hs_manage" helper for common admin tasks. It's also Alpine-based (~20–30 MB vs ~85 MB for the official Debian image).

It has the same Headscale binary underneath, just with a different out-of-the-box experience consistent with my other Docker images for WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IPsec VPN.