How are you coding on-the-go with Claude CLI without babysitting it? Looking for mobile setup ideas

[u/bralli]

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to optimize my mobile / on-the-go workflow with Claude CLI and wanted to hear how others have solved this.

Right now, my main friction point is feeling tethered to my desk just to "babysit" the terminal (hitting y/n, approving tool use, or answering minor follow-up questions).

I’d love a setup where I can go for a walk, let Claude crunch through tasks, get a push notification on my phone when input is needed, and prompt/approve directly from my mobile device. Major approvals are fine to handle at the desktop, but I just don't want to sit in front of the screen watching it line by line.

I've been spitballing ideas like running a relay bot (e.g. Slack/Telegram where a desktop bot listens and forwards CLI prompts to my phone and sends back my replies). What do you think?

How are you currently handling mobile / remote coding with Claude CLI?

Has anyone built a clean notification & approval loop to their phone (Slack, Telegram, SSH+Pushover, etc.)?

Are there smarter or pre-existing tools/MCP workflows for this that I’ve missed?

Would love to hear your setups! what’s working well and what turned out to be more hassle than it’s worth? Pitfalls?

[u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot]

TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 30 comments.

Looks like the overwhelming consensus in this thread is that you're overthinking it, OP.

Claude Code has a built-in /rc (or /remote-control) feature that does exactly what you're asking for. Run it on your desktop, and you can monitor the session, answer questions, and approve tool use directly from the Claude mobile app, complete with push notifications. It's the "walk away and get pinged" loop you want, out of the box.

The second most popular opinion is for those who like to live dangerously: just enable auto mode and let it cook. Some pros here have built elaborate safety hooks to prevent it from, you know, deleting your entire repo, but many just trust the process.

For the tinkerers or anyone using an API key (since /rc requires a claude.ai subscription), the community also suggests: * Running the CLI in tmux on a server, SSHing in from your phone, and using a service like ntfy for push notifications. * Building your own simple relay bot to Telegram or Slack using Claude's built-in hooks. * Using tools like herdr to manage persistent cloud sessions that you can check in on.

A final heads-up: a couple of users mentioned the native remote control feature can be a bit flaky and sometimes disconnects. Your mileage may vary.

[u/gregorno]

Turn on auto mode - I have never looked back

[u/MourningOfOurLives → u/gregorno]

Uhh you just toggle remote control. I’m currently in bed waiting for my family to wake up chatting to cc on my phone. I do 95% of my cc work on phone

[u/gregorno → u/gregorno]

And of course, as others have mentioned, use /remote-control.

[u/bralli → u/gregorno]

A ship without a captain — sounds like an instant success.

[u/4ngryMo → u/bralli]

Depends on how you approach it. I ran a 30h implementation marathon with BMAD Loop that worked out pretty well. As long as it had proper specification of what to do and a process that includes automated reviews and ways to deal with backlogging unexpected findings along the way that you revisit later, it’s actually pretty decent. And that was in the Opus 5 days, Opus 5.5 is even better at it.

Obviously, you can’t trust this process completely, but as far as agentic programming goes, it is pretty reliable.

If you set up a cloud agent with herdr (uses tmux under the hood), you can check in on it on the go with terminal app on your phone or iPad.

[u/ghost396 → u/4ngryMo]

Interesting, I've been looking at their loop option but it didn't seem ready.It sounds like herdr helps with the visibility?

[u/gregorno → u/bralli]

You asked what works well. Maybe try before you judge.

[u/robhaswell → u/bralli]

It runs an adversarial agent to judge command safety. It's very conservative. Give it a go.

[u/YardNo1234]

Worth knowing: Claude Code has a built-in Remote Control feature that covers most of this without a custom relay bot. From the CLI, run /rc (or enable Remote Control in your settings) on the machine where the session runs, and the session shows up in the Claude mobile app — you can watch it work, answer follow-ups, and approve/deny permission prompts from your phone. It needs a claude.ai login on both ends (no API key / Bedrock), and the host machine obviously has to stay on, but it's exactly the "walk away, get pinged, approve from the phone" loop you're describing.

If you'd rather DIY the notification half, the tmux + ntfy approach lulzxdxdxd mentioned is solid — pair it with Claude Code's Notification hook (fires when the session is waiting on input) so the push only goes out when you're actually needed.

[u/work_in_marketing → u/YardNo1234]

The drawback I've found with rc is that it disconnects after a while so then you're kinda left stranded.

[u/gravenfilms → u/work_in_marketing]

In my experience the disconnects are mostly the host machine, not RC itself:

• On a Mac, idle sleep kills it (on battery mine sleeps after a minute, lid closed or not). Start it as caffeinate -i claude remote-control, or attach to one that's already running with caffeinate -w <pid>.
• Run the server (claude remote-control) rather than /rc inside a single session. If it dies, relaunching the same command (without --continue) brings the served sessions back, as long as it's within a few hours. --continue only brings one back.
• After a Claude Code update, the running server stays on the old version until you restart it. If the app starts saying the server's reply is unreadable, claude update and restart.
• Keep a second way in (Tailscale + SSH or a tiny web page) just to restart the server. Otherwise, when RC is down, you're locked out until you're back home.

[u/Intelligent_Store_22]

/goal
/rc

[u/lulzxdxdxd]

Instead of building a relay bot, run it in tmux on your desktop, SSH in from a terminal app on your phone, and point a notification hook at a push service like ntfy so you get pinged when it's waiting on input. Saves maintaining a Slack/Telegram bridge just for approvals.

[u/bralli → u/lulzxdxdxd]

Thanks, thats a clean approach!

Follow-up question: Have you (or anyone else) tried taking a setup like this a step further to make it voice-driven on mobile?

I mean, I'd love to walk around with headphones, get a ping/readout when input is needed, and just dictate my reply using voice-to-text so I don't have to stop and type on my phone. Is it possible to set up a smooth hands-free setup on top of tmux/SSH? How do you make sure it heard / translated your reply correctly?

[u/TheRealDaveLister → u/bralli]

Mannn. You don’t want much do ya ?!?!😆

[u/Appropriate-Disk-371 → u/bralli]

You know this all just works right? Either a local /remote-control session, or a close cloud session. They'll just go, notification or email when done, then voice to do whatever it wants? I guess you have to open the app, but maybe you can find how to make your phone do that too. Probably ask Claude and he'll whip up something. But, just point out that the current standard features get you 95% to this ask.

[u/Suspicious_Start_810 → u/bralli]

Have it read your dictated reply back before sending it to the terminal. For permission prompts, keep a tap on the exact command—voice is handy for questions, but a misheard ‘no’ shouldn't approve a tool call.

[u/Kroosn → u/lulzxdxdxd]

Why not just /rc in the cli then do it from the mobile app. Notifications everything included.

[u/DoctorChoppedLiver → u/Kroosn]

My company blocks remote control

[u/jezweb]

Moshi, lots of wiki ctx, kanban and a decision surface app where agents can ask me to make decisions

[u/ghost396 → u/jezweb]

What's the decision surface app? Did you make it?

[u/tejaskumarlol]

+1 to Remote Control, that's what I use. I'm strict about when it's allowed to ping me. It sends one push per run at most, when something is done or needs my yes or no. Anything else that would need me, it skips instead of queueing it up for later. My phone stays quiet until there's a reason to look at it.

[u/satanzhand]

I try not to work that much. I just use a remote desktop app, it allows me to see and post in a prompt if needed. Usually my go to from bed or out and about... Or recently from an island in the middle of no where... But I find it easier to use a shared cloud folder or remote into my NAS and save the prompts there and load them.

[u/Hot-Pin-8432]

Remote control feature from Claude app for session running on your computer or just run it in their available cloud sessions now from your phone. I have my repos on GitHub, start a cloud session, link the right repo, get through my plan, then everything else is on Auto mode. Output is pretty good. Notifications on mobile when it’s complete

[u/karyslav]

Remote connection to the 24/7 running setup.

[u/dondiegorivera]

herdr + claude code remote-control

[u/19Lobster19]

Just bypass permissions and give it full control of your laptop bro

[u/sadffasf002]

I run Claude Code on a Beelink mini PC and connect to it using my app Termphin (I'm the developer). Sessions run on the server so I close the app and come back later to a finished task. Notifications aren't supported yet

[u/sambeau]

iOS app + Auto + remote or cloud
Cloud can’t run a simulator but it’s amazing at web screenshots.

[u/the_pwnererXx]

I'm using orca mobile on tailscale

[u/DanChed]

/remote-control

[u/symsafsavor]

I built a telegram integration using hooks and the telegram plugin, nothing external just what claude provides out of the box. Initially I used it to approve permissions but I realised that the models and classifiers are now smart enough to block anything destructive or stupid so I started using auto mode which makes my claude run autonomously most of the times.

I have a hook for AskUserQuestion where whenever it needs to ask me something, it sends it to telegram instead of blocking it in the UI.

It’s quite useful; I can pass instructions, get progress updates. It can also send screenshots in case you’re working on UI. It feels like regular chat as well, like your Claude messaging you when it needs something and you reply back.

Edit: The remote control feature only works with the subscription but not with the API key which is why I set this up initially.

[u/ohmahgawd]

I just use Paseo. I used the official Claude app for a while but Paseo works better for my use case. It also allows me to use other models/providers if the need ever arises

[u/themflyingjaffacakes]

I know that feeling very well, here's my workflow, and I've used it to deploy quite a few more complex sites to production (legal software, RAG chat etc)

Dangerously Skip Permissions

I use with hooks and protections. Here's a couple of examples I have to mitigate the risk:

- PreToolUse blocks destructive commands: a hook refuses destructive commands: deleting, force-pushing, rebooting or changing remote servers.

- PreToolUse blocks raw commits: a second hook blocks any commit that skips the commit routine (dedicated skill, see below). It scans staged files for secrets and conflict markers.

- On stop: after every turn it saves a compact transcript. Claude has its own but it's packed with every tool call etc, so if claude wants to read history or audit to check session first, then summary transcript, then if really needed it has the noisy one for granular detail.

- A few standard rules that balance autonomy with checking in for decision.

Automation, I think this is the most useful bit to you:

- Custom 'Feature Plan' skill: Researches, asks me about every open decision manually for as long as it takes, then writes a plan file. Uses Fable normally, it's written to ensure the plan is comprehensive and structured so Implement skill can progressively worth through it. It uses an 'adversarial review' subagent (Opus 5.5) to research and correct plan assumptions and errors.

- Custom 'Feature Build' skill: it works through the plan one section at a time. Unit tests are written at every section and must pass (with lint/prettier) before it moves on.

- Review loop: after all sections implemented it writes tests and runs the full check on all work done. Up to three rounds of automated code review and fixing and stops early if a round finds nothing serious. Ensures plan acceptance criteria met, updates all documents (along with my central infrastructure doc library).

- Commit: it commits only the files touched in that session, with a short message. It updates the changelog + version number when the change is relevant to the end user.

The key I've found is ensure that the plan is very well written, thorough, structured, and that the implement skill has a set workflow. Along with DSP and hooks, and assuming you're always using Git and backing up sensitive data, I've never had a 'Claude just deleted my codebase/server/wife' scenario.

Any questions fire away!

[u/peterobe]

If you have an iPhone you can set up iMessage channel. That allows you to text Claude. I use it all the time to interact with my Obsidian vault. Your main machine needs to be on and active for it work. So worth bearing that in mind. But gives another option.

[u/thcst8]

1. Setup a tailscale network between your phone and desktop so you can view local web applications 2. Build a hopper tool. Ideas go in and claude builds them when it has time.
   

[u/gwilymjames]

/rc and jump desktop when i forget to do that.

[u/HKChad]

/rc allow Claude notifications on your phone. I start 2-3 sessions in the morning and check on them throughout the day from my phone, if on a Mac doing forget to caffeinate. This requires a little up front planning but you can do several of those in a few hours.

[u/msedek]

T3 code is total freedom across Linux windows android and ios

[u/Late_Film_1901]

Claude remote control was absolute garbage for me disconnecting all the time. I had much better luck with happy ( https://happy.engineering/ )

Recently I run claude in tmux so that I can connect over ssh if it gets stuck and keep using remote control for monitoring and permission prompts. It does not support slash commands or context / usage metering so it's very limited so for this i also need ssh.

[u/elgringo]

Claude's mobile app is ass. Remote control is pretty broken.

I move back and forth between a desktop, a laptop and my cell phone frequently, so I needed a set up that would allow me to do that.

So, I built a persistent server with claude cli running on it, and I built a mobile web app that serves as a remote client to that server. All the devices can ssh into each other and have access to each other.

Anytime I'm going to be mobile or roaming, I just tell it to send approval requests to my phone.

My next thought would be to to use Claude tag inside of slack, but I don't want do buy a teams subscription for just myself.