Claude Code on Mobile: Cloud Sessions and Remote Control

Install the Claude app for iOS or Android (iPad uses the iOS app). Inside any Claude Code session, /mobile shows a QR code for claude.ai/mobile that opens the right app store. Sign in with the same claude.ai account and organisation you use for Claude Code, then tap Code in the app's navigation.

Cloud sessions and Remote Control both need a claude.ai account, so they are not reachable if you use Claude Code with a Console API key or through Bedrock, Google Cloud, or Foundry. If the Code tab is missing, your plan or organisation does not include these features.

The table is the decision. If your computer will be off, only cloud sessions and projects work, because Remote Control and Dispatch drive your own machine.

In the Code tab, pick a repository and branch, describe the task, choose a permission mode, and submit. The session clones the repository into a fresh VM, works on its own branch, and continues after you lock the phone. Sessions sync across devices, so a task you start on the train is waiting on your laptop, and vice versa.

From the phone you can open a session to check progress, answer Claude's questions, review the diff, and steer it. You can also ask Claude to watch a pull request ("watch this PR and fix any CI failures or review comments"), which turns on auto-fix if the Claude GitHub App is installed on the repository.

Cloud sessions offer Accept edits, Plan, and Auto modes. There is no Manual mode, so pick Plan if you want to approve the approach before Claude edits anything.

Remote Control connects the phone (or any browser at claude.ai/code) to a Claude Code session on your computer. Claude keeps running locally the whole time, so your filesystem, MCP servers, tools, and project configuration stay available, and @ autocompletes local file paths.

There are three ways to start it from the CLI:

1# server mode: waits for connections, can serve several sessions2claude remote-control --name "payments-api" --spawn worktree3 4# an interactive session that is also reachable remotely5claude --remote-control6 7# inside a session that is already running8/remote-control

In server mode, press the spacebar to show a QR code and scan it with the phone, or open the Code tab and pick the session by name (a computer icon with a green dot means it is online). --spawn worktree gives each new session its own git worktree so they do not edit the same files; the default same-dir shares the directory. The Desktop app and VS Code extension start it with /remote-control.

Once connected, the conversation stays in sync across terminal, browser, and phone, so you can type from any of them. Permission prompts and Claude's questions appear on the phone for you to answer. Photos you attach go to Claude directly; other files are downloaded to your machine and passed as @ references.

With Remote Control active, Claude can push notifications to your phone, typically when a long task finishes or when it needs a decision. You can also ask for one in the prompt: "notify me when the tests finish".

To set it up: install the app, sign in with the same account, accept the operating system's notification prompt, then run /config in the terminal and enable Push when Claude decides, Push when actions required, or both. There is no finer per-event configuration than those two toggles.

Claude Code skips pushes while you are typing in or focused on the connected terminal. To extend that to any time you are at the machine, set CLAUDE_CLIENT_PRESENCE_FILE to a marker file that a screen-lock listener creates while you are at the screen and deletes when the screen locks.

The local Claude Code process makes outbound HTTPS requests only and never opens inbound ports. When you start Remote Control it registers with the Anthropic API and polls for work; when you connect from the phone, Anthropic's servers route messages between the app and your local session over a streaming connection. All traffic uses TLS, with several short-lived credentials each scoped to one purpose.

One consequence is easy to miss: while Remote Control is connected, the session transcript is stored on Anthropic's servers, including your messages, Claude's replies, and tool activity. That is what keeps devices in sync and lets the session reconnect after a network drop. Execution and file access stay on your machine, and the transcript is retained under Anthropic's data usage policy.

Remote Control is not available with API key authentication, on Bedrock, Google Cloud, or Foundry, or when ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL points at a gateway or proxy. Organisations with Zero Data Retention or the HIPAA configuration cannot enable it, and anyone can turn it off with the disableRemoteControl setting. Team and Enterprise organisations can also require Trusted Devices, so a session can only be viewed or steered from a device enrolled with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, or a security key.

Plan around these before relying on the phone for real work:

• The local process must keep running. Close the terminal, quit Desktop or VS Code, or stop claude, and a Remote Control session goes offline until you bring it back (claude remote-control --continue resumes the last server's session).
• Terminal-only commands do not work from the app, including /plugin and /resume. Commands with text output, such as /compact, /clear, /context, and /usage, do. Commands that open a picker take an argument instead, for example /model sonnet or /effort high.
• Network outages: an interactive session keeps working locally and reconnects when the network returns; a server-mode process gives up after roughly 10 minutes and exits.
• Forwarded dialogs other than permission prompts and questions close after five minutes by default and continue with their no-action default (dialogExpiry changes this).
• Dispatch is Pro and Max only.

You need the Claude app on a phone and a project on your computer.

1. In the project, run claude remote-control --name "practice" and accept the one-time confirmation. 2. Press the spacebar and scan the QR code with the phone. Confirm the session shows a green online dot in the Code tab. 3. Run /config in a separate local session and enable Push when actions required. 4. From the phone, set the mode to Manual and ask Claude to run the test suite and fix one failing test. Approve the edit on the phone. 5. Lock the phone and wait for the push when Claude needs a decision or finishes. 6. Stop the server with Ctrl+C, then run claude remote-control --continue and confirm the same session comes back.

Pass criterion: you approved a change from the phone, received at least one push notification, and resumed the session after restarting the server.