How to run Claude Code from your phone (2026)

There are four ways to run Claude Code from your phone: Anthropic's Remote Control, which links the Claude app or claude.ai/code to a session on your computer; a community app like Happy; SSH plus tmux; or a harness like Shuriken, which adds every agent, every computer and a queue. In all four, the agent still runs on your computer.

That last point matters more than it sounds. Your phone is the remote, not the engine. The computer has to be on, awake and online.

Option 1: Anthropic's Remote Control#

Remote Control "connects claude.ai/code or the Claude app for iOS and Android to a Claude Code session running on your machine" (Claude Code docs). Claude keeps running locally, so your files, MCP servers and project config stay where they are.

What you need#

• A Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. "API keys are not supported." On Team and Enterprise, an Owner has to switch it on in the admin settings first.
• Claude Code signed in with your claude.ai account (/login).
• The Claude app on your phone, or any browser.

How to start it#

Three ways, from the docs:

1. /remote-control (or /rc) inside a session you already have. Claude Code posts a link and a QR code.
2. claude --remote-control to start a normal interactive session that's also reachable from your phone.
3. claude remote-control for server mode. It waits for connections, and you can start new sessions from the phone. Add --spawn worktree and each one gets its own git worktree. The default capacity is 32 sessions.

On the phone, scan the QR code, or open the Claude app, tap Code and pick the session from the list.

What it does well#

It's built in, it's free with your plan, and the conversation stays in sync between terminal and phone, subagents and workflows included. Attach a photo from your phone and Claude sees it. Permission prompts and questions stay open until you answer them from any connected device. With Push when actions required turned on in /config, the Claude app can send you a push notification for permission prompts and questions.

What to know#

• Claude Code only. If you also run Codex or Gemini CLI, they're not in that list. Codex has its own remote control in the ChatGPT app: Codex remote control from your phone.
• The local process must keep running. Close the terminal or quit the app that runs it, and the session goes offline until you bring it back. If your laptop sleeps, "Claude Code reconnects automatically when your machine comes back online", but nothing happens while it sleeps.
• One remote session per interactive process, unless you use server mode.
• In server mode, if the computer stays awake but loses the network for about 10 minutes, the server exits and you start it again.

We compare it with community apps in Remote Control vs Happy Coder vs Shuriken, and with the remote features of Codex, Copilot CLI and OpenCode in remote control for coding agents compared. When a session won't connect or keeps dropping, the error message names the cause; Claude Code Remote Control not working pairs each message with its fix.

Option 2: community apps#

The best-known is Happy (often called Happy Coder). Its README describes it as "open-source (MIT)" and says it "reuses the subscriptions you already pay for", with an "end-to-end encrypted mobile app" for iOS, Android and the web (GitHub). You install a CLI on your computer (npm install -g happy) and start Claude Code or Codex through it, with happy claude or happy codex, so you can continue from your phone (Happy).

It's a good fit if you want an open-source phone app today, and it supports Codex as well as Claude. As with Remote Control, your computer runs the agent and has to stay on.

Option 3: SSH, Tailscale and tmux#

The do-it-yourself route. It works with any agent and costs nothing, and it's also the least comfortable on a phone keyboard.

1. Put your phone and computer on one private network. Tailscale is the usual pick: it lets you "create your own private Tailscale network" between your devices (Tailscale docs). Install it on both.
2. Turn on SSH on the computer. On a Mac: System Settings › General › Sharing › Remote Login.
3. Run the agent inside tmux. "tmux - and any programs running inside it - may be detached from the terminal where it is running", leaving the session running in the background (tmux wiki). Start with tmux new -s agents, run claude, and detach with Ctrl-b d.
4. From the phone, open an SSH app, connect to the computer's Tailscale address and run tmux attach -t agents.

The trade-offs are real. A terminal on a 6-inch screen is cramped. There's no notification when the agent needs you, unless you build one. And dictating a long prompt into a terminal app is its own sport. But it's private, it's yours, and it works with every CLI ever written.

Option 4: Shuriken on your phone#

We kept starting a big refactor, going to lunch, and spending lunch wondering whether the agent was stuck on a question. So the phone got the same app as the desktop.

Today: the web app#

Open app.shuriken.sh in your phone's browser and sign in. Add it to the home screen (Safari: Share › Add to Home Screen; Chrome: ⋮ › Add to Home screen) and it opens full screen from its own icon. Browsers never count as linked devices on any plan.

From there you get:

• Every chat, on every computer and server you've added. Not one session: all of them, across projects. You can see which are running and which need you.
• Every agent. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and the rest of the 67 agents Shuriken runs. Whatever runs on your computer, your phone follows.
• Answers and approvals. Reply to a question or approve a plan from the chat, after a look at what changed.
• The queue. Type the next message while the agent works. It waits its turn, and you can edit, reorder or remove rows.
• Changes. Read the diff in the chat's branch before you say go.
• Voice. Say the reply instead of typing it, with a live transcript.

The built-in browser with Design mode, Open in (your editor or terminal) and the keep-awake controls stay on the desktop, because they only make sense on the machine itself.

What travels between your devices is end-to-end encrypted. Our cloud relays it and can't read it. The agents, your code and your chat history stay on your computers.

Planned for November 2026: native iOS and Android apps#

We're building native iPhone and Android apps from scratch, and they're planned for November 2026. Until then, the web app is the way to use Shuriken on a phone. Why we went native: We're building native iOS and Android apps.

Keep the computer awake#

Same rule as every option above: if the computer sleeps, the agent stops. Shuriken's Cocaine mode keeps a Mac running with the lid closed. The free ways, and what each one risks, are in the lid-closed guide.

Which one should you pick?#

• Only Claude Code, one or two sessions, a Pro or Max plan: Remote Control. It's already there.
• Claude and Codex, open source, a phone app today: have a look at Happy.
• Any CLI, total control, you like terminals: SSH, Tailscale and tmux.
• Many agents on several computers, plus a queue, voice and account switching when limits hit: Shuriken.

They mix, too. Whatever you use day to day, SSH and tmux make a good backup for when nothing else is reachable. On a tablet with a keyboard, mosh and Stage Manager change the picture: the iPad setup is in Claude Code on an iPad. Installing Claude Code on an Android phone itself takes Ubuntu inside Termux, and steering a computer from the phone is steadier: Claude Code on Android with Termux.

For notifications when an agent finishes or needs you, see Get Claude Code notifications on your phone. To talk to a session through a Telegram or Discord bot, or iMessage on a Mac, Claude Code has channels: Claude Code on Telegram, Discord or iMessage. And if you'd like your whole setup in your pocket, download Shuriken and open app.shuriken.sh on your phone.