A bstract A search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a W or a Z boson and decaying to a pair of τ leptons is performed. A data sample of proton-proton collisions collected at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:msqrt> </mml:math> = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb −1 . The signal strength is measured relative to the expectation for the standard model Higgs boson, yielding μ = 2.5 − 1.3 + 1.4 . These results are combined with earlier CMS measurements targeting Higgs boson decays to a pair of τ leptons, performed with the same data set in the gluon fusion and vector boson fusion production modes. The combined signal strength is μ = 1.24 − 0.27 + 0.29 (1.00 − 0.23 + 0.24 expected), and the observed significance is 5.5 standard deviations (4.8 expected) for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV.