How to run Claude Code from your phone: three ways compared
Three ways to reach a Claude Code session on your computer from a phone: Anthropic's Remote Control, SSH with tmux and Tailscale, and Grenade. What each takes, and what you get.
Claude Code runs on your computer, and that is where it stays in all three. What changes is how your phone reaches it. Remote Control is the quickest if you have one Claude session and a Claude plan. SSH, tmux and Tailscale is free and reaches any machine. Grenade is for when there are several agents and you want to see which one is waiting.
1. Remote Control, built into Claude Code
In a running session, type:
/remote-control
or start one with claude --remote-control. Then open the Claude app on your phone, go to the Code tab and pick the session, or scan the QR code the terminal shows. It also works in a browser at claude.ai/code.
What to know, from Anthropic’s documentation:
- It needs a claude.ai login on a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. An API key does not work, and neither do Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry.
- Traffic goes through the Anthropic API over TLS, and the session’s transcript is stored on Anthropic’s servers.
- The process on your computer has to keep running. Close the terminal and the session is gone.
- Permission prompts reach the phone, and you answer them there.
This is the one to start with. Nothing to install, and it is free with a plan.
2. SSH, tmux and Tailscale
This is the do-it-yourself way, and many people run it. tmux keeps the session alive, Tailscale puts the phone and the Mac on one private network, and an SSH app is the terminal on the phone.
On the Mac:
brew install tmux
tmux new -s claude
claude
Turn on Remote Login (System Settings, General, Sharing), install Tailscale on the Mac and the phone under one account, and add the Mac’s Tailscale name to an SSH app such as Termius or Blink. From the phone:
tmux attach -t claude
You get your whole terminal, and it costs nothing: Tailscale’s Personal plan and Termius’s Starter plan are free. What you do not get is anything made for a phone. You type in a terminal on a small keyboard, you attach to each session to see whether it is waiting, and nothing tells you when one is. A dropped connection means attaching again.
3. Grenade
Grenade is a small daemon on the Mac and an app on the phone. It runs each agent in tmux, like the setup above, and adds what the phone needs.
brew install holdgrenade/tap/grenade
grenade setup
grenade new api --cwd ~/code/api --agent claude
grenade setup ends with a QR code. Scan it in the Grenade app and the phone is paired: no account, and no VPN. The phone then lists every session with a color for its status, shows Claude’s permissions, questions and plans as cards you answer with a tap, and lets you hold the mic and talk. It runs Codex and plain shells in the same list.
It is Mac only, and it has no browser client.
Which one
| Remote Control | SSH + tmux + Tailscale | Grenade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | One command | Four installs and a setting | Two commands and a QR code |
| Account | A Claude plan | A Tailscale account | None |
| Agents | Claude Code | Anything in a terminal | Claude Code, Codex, shells |
| Computer | Where Claude Code runs | Anything you can SSH into | A Mac |
| Seeing who is waiting | A list with an online dot | Attach and look | A color per session |
| Answering | In the Claude app | Typing in a terminal | Cards, a key row, voice |
| Who carries the traffic | Anthropic | Your own VPN | Your Wi‑Fi, or a relay that cannot read it |
One Claude session and a plan: use Remote Control. A Linux server or a cloud machine: use SSH and tmux. Several agents on a Mac, some of them not Claude: that is what Grenade is for.
The longer comparisons, with their sources: Grenade and Claude Code Remote Control, Grenade and SSH, tmux and Tailscale. And how answering looks on the phone: approving from your phone.