Using Claude Code From Your Phone: Remote Control and the Web

You can use Claude Code from your phone in two ways, both from the Code tab of the ordinary Claude app for iOS and Android. Remote Control connects the phone to a Claude Code session that is still running on your computer, so your files, tools and MCP servers stay where they are and the phone is only a window onto them. A cloud session runs Claude Code on Anthropic-managed infrastructure against a GitHub repository, so it carries on with your laptop shut. Use Remote Control to keep steering work you started at your desk; use a cloud session to start something new while you are away from it.

The routes, side by side

Anthropic’s Claude Code on mobile page↗ (opens in a new tab) is explicit that Claude Code has no separate mobile app: the Claude app is a client for sessions, not a place where code runs. What you connect to from it decides where the work happens.

• Remote Control: a session running on your computer, started from the CLI, the desktop app or the VS Code extension. The computer must stay on. Use it when the work needs your local files, tools or MCP servers.
• Cloud sessions: a session on a cloud VM, working on a GitHub repository. Your computer can be off. Use it for a new task that needs no local setup.
• Dispatch: you message a task in the app and the desktop app on your computer decides how to run it. It needs a Pro or Max plan and is not offered on Team or Enterprise.

Most people asking to use Claude Code from their phone mean the first: a session is running on the desk, and they want to answer its question or tell it what to do next from the sofa or a train.

Setting up Remote Control

The Remote Control documentation↗ (opens in a new tab) lists the requirements. Check them before anything else, because each one produces its own error:

• A Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan, signed in with /login through claude.ai. API keys are not supported, and a long-lived token from claude setup-token cannot start it either.
• On Team and Enterprise, an Owner must first switch on the Remote Control toggle in the Claude Code admin settings. It is off by default.
• Anthropic’s API, directly. It is unavailable on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Agent Platform and Microsoft Foundry, and whenever ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL points anywhere else, which rules out the setups in Claude Code with local models.
• A trusted project folder. Run claude in the project once and accept the trust prompt; start Remote Control from the project, not your home directory.

# 1. server mode: waits for connections, can serve several sessions
claude remote-control --name "Payments fixes"

# 2. a normal interactive session that is also reachable remotely
claude --remote-control "Payments fixes"

# 3. from inside a session you already have open (carries the history over)
/remote-control

# no Claude app yet? shows a QR code for the right app store
/mobile

The first time, Claude Code explains what Remote Control does and asks you to confirm. Then connect from the phone in one of three ways: open the session URL it prints, scan the QR code (in server mode, press the spacebar to show it), or open the Claude app, tap Code and pick the session by name. Remote Control sessions show a computer icon with a green dot while they are online. In the VS Code extension and the desktop app, type /remote-control in the prompt box.

Server mode has two options worth knowing. --spawn worktree gives each new session from the phone its own git worktree, so two sessions do not edit the same files; the default shares one folder. --permission-mode sets the mode the server’s sessions start in. If you want every interactive session reachable, /config has an Enable Remote Control for all sessions setting, also available as remoteControlAtStartup in your user settings; a repository’s own settings can turn it off but cannot turn it on.

What you can do from the phone

• Read the conversation as it happens and send messages, from the phone, the browser and the terminal interchangeably. Typing @ autocompletes file paths from your local project.
• Attach a photo or file. Photos go to Claude as part of your message and are saved under ~/.claude/uploads/; other files are downloaded to your machine and passed as @ references.
• Look at the diff of your changes, pick a model, and stop a subagent that is running in the background.
• Run the commands that produce text, such as /compact, /clear, /context and /usage, and /model or /effort with the value as an argument (/model sonnet). From the app, /mcp returns a text summary of your servers.
• Choose between Manual, Accept edits and Plan. Auto and Bypass permissions cannot be selected from the app for a Remote Control session.

Commands that only work in the terminal interface, such as /plugin and /resume, stay on the desk. The most useful phone feature is push notifications: once the app is installed and allowed to notify, /config on the computer has Push when Claude decides and Push when actions required. The second sends a push whenever a permission prompt or question is waiting, which is the difference between a session that waits an hour for you and one that waits a minute. You can also ask for one in the prompt: “notify me when the tests finish.”

What stays on the desk

• The computer and the claude process. Close the terminal, quit the desktop app or VS Code, and the session goes offline until you bring it back. If the laptop sleeps or the network drops, it reconnects when the machine is back.
• On a remote server over SSH, start the session inside tmux or screen so it survives you disconnecting.
• In server mode, a network outage of roughly ten minutes ends the process. Within about four hours, claude remote-control --continue in the same folder brings the session back.
• One remote session per interactive process. For several at once from one machine, use server mode.

A phone is good for approving, redirecting and answering questions. It is a poor place to review a large diff or read a stack trace, so plan the work at the desk, in plan mode if it is big, and use the phone to keep it moving.

Cloud sessions, for when the laptop is shut

If your computer will be off, Remote Control cannot help, and a cloud session is the route. From the Code tab you pick a repository and branch, describe the task and submit it. Per the cloud sessions documentation↗ (opens in a new tab), each one runs in an isolated VM on Anthropic-managed infrastructure by default, cloning and pull requests need GitHub, and you can tell a session to watch a pull request and fix CI failures or review comments as they arrive. They are available on Pro, Max and Team plans and to Enterprise users with the right seats. How cloud sessions relate to the desktop app and the CLI, including claude --cloud and /teleport, is in Claude Code desktop vs CLI vs VS Code.

Security

Remote Control opens no inbound ports on your machine. The local session makes outbound HTTPS requests to Anthropic’s API, and messages between the phone and the session are routed through it over TLS, using several short-lived credentials that each do one thing. While it is connected, the session transcript, including tool activity, is stored on Anthropic’s servers so devices stay in sync; execution and file access stay local. Organisations with Zero Data Retention cannot enable it, and the disableRemoteControl setting switches it off on a machine.

• Trusted Devices, in beta, requires each browser, phone or desktop app to be enrolled and the sign-in to be no older than 18 hours before it can view or steer a session. Refreshing it takes Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or a passkey. Owners turn it on for Team and Enterprise; on Pro and Max you turn it on yourself.
• A lost phone: remove it under Trusted devices in your account settings, which revokes its credential at once.
• Your permission rules still apply. A deny rule in your settings blocks the same command whether you typed the message at the desk or on a bus, so the rules in Claude Code auto-approve are what keep a quick “yes” on a small screen safe.

Keep the task list off the phone

A phone screen shows one conversation at a time, and a session list titled by first messages does not tell you which piece of work each one is for. Keep that on a board. Because a Remote Control session keeps your local MCP servers, a fenbs board you connected at the desk is still there when you steer from the phone: “work on BUG-042 from the board, and comment on it when the tests pass” reads the task, does the work on your machine, and leaves a comment recorded as Claude acting for you. When you are back at the desk, the board’s History says what happened without scrolling a transcript. The CLAUDE.md lines that make every session do this are in a task-tracking workflow for Claude Code.