diff --git a/cmd/tailscaled/tailscaled.go b/cmd/tailscaled/tailscaled.go
index 160ec1677..3ac8f8f2b 100644
--- a/cmd/tailscaled/tailscaled.go
+++ b/cmd/tailscaled/tailscaled.go
@@ -128,6 +128,8 @@ var subCommands = map[string]*func([]string) error{
 	"be-child":                &beChildFunc,
 }
 
+var beCLI func() // non-nil if CLI is linked in
+
 func main() {
 	printVersion := false
 	flag.IntVar(&args.verbose, "verbose", 0, "log verbosity level; 0 is default, 1 or higher are increasingly verbose")
@@ -143,6 +145,11 @@ func main() {
 	flag.StringVar(&args.birdSocketPath, "bird-socket", "", "path of the bird unix socket")
 	flag.BoolVar(&printVersion, "version", false, "print version information and exit")
 
+	if len(os.Args) > 0 && filepath.Base(os.Args[0]) == "tailscale" && beCLI != nil {
+		beCLI()
+		return
+	}
+
 	if len(os.Args) > 1 {
 		sub := os.Args[1]
 		if fp, ok := subCommands[sub]; ok {
diff --git a/cmd/tailscaled/with_cli.go b/cmd/tailscaled/with_cli.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..578351fe3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/tailscaled/with_cli.go
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2022 Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+//go:build ts_include_cli
+// +build ts_include_cli
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+
+	"tailscale.com/cmd/tailscale/cli"
+)
+
+func init() {
+	beCLI = func() {
+		args := os.Args[1:]
+		if err := cli.Run(args); err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, err)
+			os.Exit(1)
+		}
+	}
+}