Using Claude Code from your phone

1 November 2026

You can't run Claude Code on a phone, but you can drive a session that runs somewhere else. There are four common ways: an SSH app such as Termius attached to a tmux session, Anthropic's Remote Control in the Claude app, a separate control app such as T3 Code, or a remote desktop with a phone view such as Zydra. They differ in what you see. An SSH app shows the raw terminal, Remote Control shows the conversation, and Zydra shows the agent's windows, including the browser it is testing in.

Option 1: an SSH app and tmux

This is the do-it-yourself route, and it costs nothing if you already have a server. Run Claude Code inside tmux on the server:

tmux new -s agent
claude

On the phone, install an SSH client, connect to the server and run tmux attach -t agent. Termius is a popular one for iOS and Android, and its free Starter plan includes SSH and port forwarding. Put the server on Tailscale and you can reach it without opening SSH to the internet; Tailscale's Personal plan is free for up to 6 users.

Mobile networks drop connections a lot. mosh helps: it logs in over SSH, then keeps the session on UDP, roams between networks and echoes your typing locally so it feels instant. It needs UDP ports between 60000 and 61000 open on the server. mosh only syncs the visible screen, so scrollback lives in tmux, not in your terminal.

What it is like: a full terminal on a small screen, with a software keyboard that lacks Ctrl and Esc unless the app adds a key row. Reading a long diff works. Typing a long prompt is slow.

Option 2: Claude Code Remote Control

Remote Control connects the Claude app on iOS and Android, or claude.ai/code in a browser, to a Claude Code session running on your machine. Start it in one of three ways:

claude remote-control

runs a server that waits for connections and shows a QR code when you press the spacebar.

claude --remote-control

starts a normal interactive session that you can also reach from the app. Inside a running session, /remote-control or /rc does the same and keeps the conversation so far.

The phone shows the conversation, not the terminal: messages, tool calls, permission prompts, and the progress of subagents. You can attach a photo or file from the phone, and Claude sees photos directly.

The limits are in the docs. Remote Control needs a Pro, Max, Ultra, Team or Enterprise plan and a claude.ai login; API keys don't work, and Team and Enterprise owners must turn it on first. The machine has to stay on and the claude process has to keep running. On a remote server, Anthropic suggests starting claude inside tmux or screen so it survives SSH disconnects. It covers Claude Code only, not Codex or your other tools.

Option 3: T3 Code

T3 Code is an open-source app that controls coding agents on your machine from a mobile app, a web app or a desktop app. It works with the subscriptions you already have for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and others. Its T3 Connect service reaches your machine without router port forwarding, and the free tier links up to 3 machines. The project calls itself very early and says to expect bugs. Like Remote Control, it needs the machine with the agents to stay on and reachable.

Option 4: Zydra's phone view

Zydra runs your agents in your own virtual machine with a Linux desktop that draws in your terminal over SSH. The phone view is a web page that shows that desktop's windows live.

Pairing takes a few seconds. Open the menu on your desktop, scan the code it shows with your phone's camera, and tap Continue on the page that opens. The desktop then asks "Pair this phone?", and nothing is paired until you say yes there. You can sign paired browsers out from Settings, and a browser unused for 30 days is signed out on its own.

What you can do from the phone:

Watch any window. Swipe sideways between windows. The header shows which workspace you are on.
Talk to the agent. Type in the text field and press Send. A key row has Ctrl-C and the other keys a phone keyboard lacks.
Use graphical apps. Taps click, a long press right-clicks, and dragging a finger scrolls a terminal.
Read comfortably. A window you hold upright on the phone reflows to the phone's shape, so lines wrap to fit instead of shrinking.
Get notifications. With the page closed, notifications from the VM arrive as push notifications. On an iPhone, add the page to your Home Screen first.
Go back in time. The phone has the timeline too, so you can watch what happened while you were away.

Because it is the whole desktop, the phone shows more than the agent's text. If Claude Code opened its web app in the browser beside it, you see the page. It also works with any agent in the VM: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or a plain shell.

Which should you use?

If you own a server and want it free, an SSH app with tmux and Tailscale does the job, and mosh makes it bearable on a train. If you live in Claude Code and pay for a Claude plan, Remote Control is built in and its chat view is easier to read than a terminal. If you want one app for several agents on your own machine, look at T3 Code. If you want to see the agent's screen, its browser included, from your phone, and to keep the agent off your own computer, Zydra's phone view does that.

Try it

Run ssh zydra.sh in your terminal. The demo is free for 15 minutes and needs no sign-up. The phone view comes with the paid plan.