Claude Code on mobile: how to use Claude Code from your phone

Remote Control, cloud sessions, SSH or a dedicated app — four ways to run Claude Code from your phone, what each needs and when it fits. An honest comparison.

7 minutes Matěj Žalmánek 2026-10-26

Claude Code is a terminal program. But an agent spends most of its time waiting, not writing — for you to approve a command, answer a question or give it the next task. That waiting is most expensive when you are away from your desk. Which is why more and more people search for how to use Claude Code on mobile. There are several ways to run Claude Code from your phone, and each one suits a different job. Here is an honest look at all of them, ours included.

1. Four ways to use Claude Code from your phone

The question that decides everything is where the agent runs. Either on your computer — with your files, tools and configuration — or in the cloud, on a copy of your GitHub repository. In both cases the phone is just a window you watch and steer through.

• Claude Code Remote Control — the official feature: the session runs on your computer and you drive it from the Claude app.
• Cloud sessions in the Claude app — the agent runs on Anthropic's infrastructure against a GitHub repository.
• SSH and tmux — the classic: connect from your phone to a terminal on your computer.
• coden — a separate app where the agent runs on your computer and your phone gets its own interface for the whole development workflow.

2. Claude Code Remote Control: the official way from Anthropic

Remote Control connects the Claude app for iOS and Android (or a browser at claude.ai/code) to a Claude Code session running on your machine. In your project directory, run:

claude remote-control

The terminal shows a session URL, and pressing the spacebar shows a QR code. In a session that is already running, type /remote-control (or just /rc). In the Claude app you will find the session under the Code tab. There is no separate Claude Code mobile app — it all lives there. The conversation stays in sync, so you can type from the terminal, the browser and your phone interchangeably.

Worth knowing:

• You need a Claude subscription (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise) and a claude.ai login. Remote Control does not work with an API key, nor through Amazon Bedrock or your own LLM gateway.
• Your computer has to stay on and so does the claude process. Close the terminal and the session goes offline. Sleep is fine — it reconnects when the machine wakes up.
• Turn on phone notifications in /config: Push when Claude decides for finished tasks and Push when actions required for permission prompts and questions.
• Some commands only work in the terminal (such as /plugin and /resume), and you cannot switch to the bypass-permissions mode from the app.
• Traffic goes through the Anthropic API over TLS; your computer opens no inbound ports.

If you have a subscription and just want to finish what you started from the couch, this is the simplest option: there is nothing else to install.

3. Claude Code cloud sessions in the Claude app

In the same Code tab you can start a task that runs in the cloud: pick a GitHub repository and branch, describe the task, and the agent keeps working even after you lock your phone and shut down your laptop. You then review the changes as a diff and turn them into a pull request. It counts toward your plan's usage limits; there is no separate charge for the cloud machine.

It is great for self-contained tasks on code that lives on GitHub. It is not a fit when the agent needs your local environment — a database on your machine, MCP servers, files outside the repository, or a project that is not on GitHub at all.

4. Claude Code over SSH and tmux: works everywhere, comfortable nowhere

The oldest approach: run Claude Code inside tmux on your computer so it survives disconnects, and connect from your phone with an SSH client.

tmux new -s agent
claude
# later, from your phone:
ssh you@computer
tmux attach -t agent

The upside: it works with anything that runs in a terminal and needs no extra account. The downsides add up quickly:

• Your computer has to be reachable from the phone — a public address, a forwarded port or a VPN. Behind a home NAT it will not work without setup.
• Reading diffs and long output in a terminal on a six-inch screen is painful.
• Nothing tells you the agent has finished or is waiting for permission. You have to go and look.

5. coden: a Claude Code mobile app for the whole workflow, your data stays with you

We built coden because “remote controlling” the agent was not enough for us. A Server on your computer runs Claude Code as the Agent, and your phone gets an app designed for working on a small screen. You pair once with a QR code; after that the phone and the computer find each other on their own, even when both are behind NAT.

• Works with an API key or a Claude subscription. The Agent either signs in to your subscription or uses ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.
• Notifications and approvals. When the Agent finishes or wants to run a command, your phone buzzes and you approve with one tap.
• More than a chat. The app has Tasks with a backlog, git with branches and commits, test run history, documentation with rendered diagrams, a terminal that runs commands on your computer, and a Preview where you can tap through the app you are building — running on your computer — right on your phone.
• Your data stays with you. The connection is end-to-end encrypted; when it goes through our Relay, all we see are encrypted datagrams. Only what would go from the terminal anyway is sent to the model.
• Phone and desktop window at once. Both work with the same Server and see the same thing.

To be fair about what coden does not do: it does not attach to a session you started in your terminal — the Agent runs inside coden's Server. And as with Remote Control, your computer has to stay on. The app is free; you only pay for the model.

6. Claude Code on your phone: comparison table

7. Which way to choose

• Just want to finish a running session from the couch and have a subscription? Claude Code Remote Control.
• The task does not need your computer and the code is on GitHub? A cloud session — it keeps going even with your laptop off.
• Only need to run something now and then and already have a VPN? SSH and tmux.
• Want to actually develop from your phone — plan tasks, approve, commit, run tests and try the result — or work with an API key? Try coden. The Getting started guide shows how.

These options are not mutually exclusive. Keep cloud sessions for small GitHub tasks and use whatever suits you best for work on a local project.

Do you see it differently? Write to support@coden-app.com.