Claude Code Remote Control: Start a Task, Walk Away, Approve From Your Phone

What Remote Control actually is

Remote Control is a feature in Claude Code that lets you connect a running terminal session to your phone or browser. You start Claude Code in your terminal like normal, type a slash command, and get a QR code. Scan it with the Claude mobile app or open a URL at claude.ai/code — and now you can see, approve, and interact with your Claude Code session from anywhere.

The terminal keeps running. Claude keeps working. You just get a second screen into it.

Why this matters: Claude Code often needs you to approve tool uses — file edits, bash commands, etc. Without Remote Control, you have to be sitting in front of the terminal. With it, you can walk away and approve actions from your phone while Claude keeps going.

How to set it up

There are two ways to start Remote Control depending on whether you already have a session running.

claude remote-control

/remote-control

/rc

Using it from your phone

Once connected through the Claude mobile app, you get a full view of the session. You can:

• Watch Claude work — see tool calls, file edits, and command output in real time
• Approve or deny tool uses — tap to allow file edits, bash commands, etc.
• Send messages — type new instructions or follow-up prompts
• See the full conversation — scroll back through everything Claude has done

It's the full Claude Code experience, just on a smaller screen. The terminal on your computer keeps running in the background — it doesn't need your attention anymore.

Using it from claude.ai

If you prefer a bigger screen, open the URL from your Remote Control session at claude.ai/code. This gives you a browser-based interface to the same terminal session.

This is especially useful when:

• You're on a different computer (e.g. a shared workstation)
• You want a nicer UI for reviewing diffs and file changes
• You're pair programming — share the URL with a teammate so they can watch

The browser, phone, and terminal are all looking at the same session. Send a message from any one of them and the others update immediately.

Real workflows that make this useful

The "walk away" pattern

This is the most common use case. You start a task that will take Claude 10-30 minutes — a big refactor, migrating a database schema, writing a test suite. Instead of watching the terminal, you turn on Remote Control, put your phone in your pocket, and go do something else. Approve actions as they come in.

# At your desk:
claude

> Refactor the entire payments module from callbacks to async/await.
> Update all tests to match. Run the test suite when done.

# Then:
/rc

# Scan QR code → walk away → approve from phone

The "couch review" pattern

Queue up work at your workstation, review from the couch. Works especially well for code reviews — have Claude analyze a PR, then read and approve its suggestions from your phone:

> Review PR #247. Check for security issues, performance problems,
> and anything that doesn't match our coding standards.
> Suggest fixes for anything you find.

/rc
# Move to couch, review findings on phone

The "multi-device" pattern

Start on your terminal, switch to the browser for a bigger view of diffs, then approve quick things from your phone. The conversation stays perfectly synced across all three. Use whichever device is most convenient at the moment.

Remote server + Remote Control

This is the power combo. Run Claude Code on a VPS in a tmux session, enable Remote Control, and now you can code from literally anywhere — your phone becomes a full development interface to a cloud machine:

# SSH into your VPS
ssh dev@your-server
tmux new -s project

# Start Claude Code with remote control
claude remote-control

# Scan QR → now your phone controls a cloud dev environment
# Close SSH → the tmux session keeps running
# Reconnect from anywhere, anytime

Enable it for every session

If you use Remote Control often, you can turn it on permanently so every Claude Code session is automatically remote-controllable:

/config

Then toggle "Enable Remote Control for all sessions" to on.

Now every time you run claude, it's already set up for remote access. No need to run /rc each time.

Limitations and gotchas

The terminal must stay open

Remote Control is a window into a running terminal session, not a replacement for it. If you close the terminal or kill the Claude Code process, the remote session ends. Use tmux or screen if you want the session to survive after closing the terminal window.

One connection at a time

Each Claude Code instance supports one remote connection. You can't have two phones connected to the same session. You can switch between devices though — disconnect from your phone and connect from your browser.

10-minute network timeout

If the remote connection loses network for more than 10 minutes, the session expires. The terminal session itself keeps running — you just lose the remote link. Reconnect by running /rc again.

Max plan only (for now)

Remote Control requires a Claude Max subscription. It's not available on Pro, Team, or Enterprise plans yet.

Sandbox mode

You can run Remote Control with filesystem and network isolation using the --sandbox flag:

claude remote-control --sandbox

Or disable it explicitly with --no-sandbox. Useful when you want to give someone temporary access to a session without full filesystem permissions.

Quick reference

Remote Control turns Claude Code from a "sit at the terminal" tool into something you can use from anywhere. Start a task, walk away, and approve from your phone. That's the whole idea.