Claude Code Remote Control: How to Code from Your Phone with a QR Code in 2026

More instructions are available in the Ailoot documentation.

What is Claude Code Remote Control?#

Anthropic released Remote Control on February 24, 2026. Anthropic describes it as a way to continue local sessions from any device.

In plain language: you start a session in the terminal as usual. Turn on Remote Control. Open the Claude app on your phone → the Code tab → and you’ll see your session with a green dot. Tap it, read, and reply. You can write from your laptop, phone, and browser in any combination—all in sync.

The official Remote Control documentation distinguishes local execution from network traffic: commands and filesystem operations run on your machine, while the conversation is synchronized through Anthropic.

That’s the key difference from Claude Code on the web, where the session runs in an Anthropic cloud VM. Here, Claude still runs on your hardware, with all your Git repositories, environment variables, and database keys. Your phone is just a screen you use to talk to it.

Why a vibe coder might need this

Three practical scenarios the author used every week:

1. A long refactor overnight. Give Claude the task of updating 40 files for a new API. Step away from your laptop. In the morning, lie on the couch with your phone, review the diff, and say, “Accept the first 12; show me the rest separately.” No need to open the laptop.
2. Approve a step on the way to work. You’re on the subway when Claude sends a push notification: “Need a decision on the schema migration.” Open it, read the two alternatives, and write, “Take the first option; don’t touch the tests.” The session keeps moving while you ride.
3. Alongside a livestream or meeting. During a Zoom meeting, you can check on your phone that a second Claude session has built a test build. No alt-tabbing out of the video call.

What You Need to Run Remote Control#

Full requirements table:

Check your version with:

claude --version

If it’s below 2.1.51, update:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest

If your environment has ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN, or apiKeyHelper set, Remote Control won’t start. Since v2.1.139 (11.05.2026), Anthropic explicitly blocks the feature when these variables are present. Run unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and sign in again with /login.

How to Start Remote Control: 3 Ways in 2 Minutes#

Method 1. Server mode—a dedicated server for remote sessions

1. Open a terminal in the project folder

   Run cd once to go to the directory where you’ll work. If it’s a new folder, run claude as usual to complete the Workspace Trust dialog.

2. Start the server

   claude remote-control
   

   The terminal stays running. A session URL and the prompt “Press space to show QR” appear at the bottom. The server is waiting for connections.

3. Connect from your phone

   Press Space—the QR code will appear. Scan it with the Claude app or your iPhone camera to open the session.

Optional: set the session name and parameters:

claude remote-control --name "Refactor API" --spawn worktree --capacity 4

• --name — the name shown for the session in the list on your phone.
• --spawn worktree — each new session opens in its own Git worktree so parallel sessions don’t step on each other.
• --capacity 4 — a maximum of 4 simultaneous remote sessions on the server. The default is 32.

Method 2. Interactive mode—my session with Remote Control on top

claude --remote-control
# or shorter:
claude --rc

This gives you a regular interactive session in your terminal, with Remote Control enabled. You can write to Claude from both your laptop and phone—the conversation is one synchronized session.

Unlike server mode, this is one session. It’s useful when you plan to work mostly from your computer and want your phone as a backup for when you need to step away.

Method 3. From an active session with /rc

Already working in Claude Code? Don’t kill the session. Just type:

/remote-control

or, shorter:

/rc

The session becomes remote. You won’t lose its context. Useful when you realize in the middle of a task that you need to step away.

QR Code: Connect Your Phone in 10 Seconds#

1. Install the Claude app

   If you don’t have it yet, type /mobile in Claude Code. A QR code will appear for downloading the app from the App Store or Google Play. It’s faster than searching manually.

2. Show the session QR code in the terminal

   After claude --rc or claude remote-control, press Space. The QR code appears right in the terminal.

3. Scan with your phone

   Open the Claude app → camera, or use the standard iPhone camera (Android cameras can scan it too). If it doesn’t work, make the terminal window wider, switch to iTerm2 or Windows Terminal, or copy the URL above the QR code and paste it into your browser manually.

4. Enable push notifications

   Type /config in the session and enable “Push when Claude decides.” Claude Code must be version 2.1.110 or newer.

What you’ll see on your phone

The Code tab opens in the Claude app. Your session appears in the list with a computer icon and a green dot (online). Tap it to enter.

After that, it’s like claude.ai/code: you can see Claude’s messages and file diffs, approve or reject them, or ask for changes. You can write a new request. It all goes to your machine, where local Claude processes it and returns a response.

What Claude can do with push notifications

Claude sends push notifications when it decides they’re needed. By default, this happens in two cases: a long task finishes, or Claude needs your decision. You can also ask explicitly: “Let me know when the tests pass,” and it will send one.

If push notifications don’t arrive:

• On iOS, check Settings → Notifications → Claude. Focus modes may silence them.
• On Android, turn off battery optimization for the Claude app.
• If /config says “No mobile registered,” open the Claude app at least once so it can update its push token.

Working from the Couch: 5 Useful Scenarios#

Scenario 1. Couch review—reviewing an overnight run

Before bed, give Claude a task like, “Run the whole repository through the new lint rules and fix everything that isn’t critical; mark the rest TODO.” Run claude --rc and leave the terminal open.

In the morning, lie on the couch with your phone. Open the Claude app → see the session with a green dot → find 87 commits as diffs inside. Scroll through them; in the questionable spots, write “revert this; I’ll fix it manually,” and for the clean ones, “accept everything.” No “getting to the laptop” at 7 a.m.

Scenario 2. Commute approve—approving a step on the subway

Start a long database schema migration in the morning. At 9:30, a push arrives on the subway: “Found two migration alternatives; need a decision.” Tap it, read them, choose one, and add, “Don’t delete the old table until the full test run is complete.” Claude keeps going.

Without Remote Control, Claude would stop at that point and wait in silence. You arrive and open your laptop—40 minutes lost.

Scenario 3. Walk-away pattern—a long task over lunch

Before lunch, start Claude on “Update the documentation for all endpoints.” Head to a café. After 25 minutes, a push arrives: “Done, take a look.” Tap “accept” once, then go back to your soup. Without Remote Control, either you sit at your laptop for 25 minutes like a guard, or you come back and find Claude did nothing the whole time because it hit a decision point.

That’s an important point. Remote Control doesn’t make Claude more autonomous—it just gives you access from anywhere. The fewer decision points Claude encounters, the fewer push notifications you’ll get. So make your task instructions more specific: “Do it this way; in these cases, do that; if it’s really unclear, stop and send a push.”

Scenario 4. An architectural decision from a café

Claude finds two migration paths in the middle of a refactor and asks you to choose. If you’re away from your computer, open the proposed diffs on your phone, choose an option, and add the comment, “But don’t touch the user_settings table—I’ll drop it next week.” The session keeps going.

This works especially well in worktree mode (--spawn worktree): each parallel task is in its own branch, so they don’t interfere with one another. On your phone, you switch between them like chats.

Scenario 5. Several worktree sessions at once

One powerful approach is server mode plus multiple worktrees. Start this on your laptop:

claude remote-control --spawn worktree --capacity 4

Start sessions in different branches from your phone: one builds a feature, another fixes bugs from a list, and a third runs regression tests. They all run in parallel on your laptop; none blocks another.

Security: What Stays on Your Computer and What Gets Sent#

Before connecting a sensitive project, decide what content may enter prompts and tool output. Keep production secrets outside the agent’s accessible environment; the transfer table is not proof that a particular session cannot disclose them.

In everyday terms: your laptop asks Anthropic, “Do you have any messages for me?”, gets a response, and processes it locally. Nobody outside opens an incoming port to your machine. A corporate firewall will allow this without special configuration.

What physically goes to Anthropic

Remote Control adds a synchronized interface, not an offline inference mode. Anthropic stores the connected session transcript, including messages, responses, and tool activity, under its data-usage policy. Review both the data sent to the model and access from connected devices.

A note about credentials

In other words, a pool of short-lived tokens circulates between your laptop, Anthropic, and your phone instead of one long-lived token. Compromising one won’t give you access to them all.

One more important limitation: --dangerously-skip-permissions doesn’t work in Remote Control. Every tool call (Bash, Write, Edit) still waits for your approval. This is deliberate—to keep the phone feature from turning into “a laptop on autopilot with no supervision.”

Started Remote Control? Now Set Things Up So Claude Doesn’t Interrupt You Every 10 Minutes#

/rc is a convenient way to bring your session to your phone. But if Claude writes “I don’t understand what to do” every 10 minutes, the problem isn’t the phone; it’s context engineering: how clearly you set the rules at the start.

Six First-Run Problems and How to Fix Them#

Problem 1. “Remote Control environments are not available for your account”

The most common complaint in the anthropics/claude-code repository (issue #29449 and more than a dozen duplicates). You answered y to “enable Remote Control?”—the CLI returned an error and no longer offers to try again.

The cause is almost always the same: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN is set in the environment. Remote Control works only through full OAuth via /login, not with a key.

Fix:

unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
unset CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN
unset apiKeyHelper

# check that the environment is clean:
env | grep -i anthropic
env | grep -i claude

# sign in again:
claude
/logout
/login

After /login through the browser, Remote Control should start.

Problem 2. The QR code won’t scan with your phone

Your phone camera points at it but doesn’t react, or says, “Can’t read this.”

Cause: your terminal renders the QR code too small or with too little contrast.

Fix:

1. Expand the terminal window to full screen.
2. If you’re using Apple Terminal, switch to iTerm2 (or Warp). If you’re on Windows, use Windows Terminal instead of CMD.
3. Reduce the terminal font size by 1–2 points so the QR code appears larger.
4. If that doesn’t help, copy the URL above the QR code and open it in your phone’s browser.

Problem 3. The firewall blocks port 443

This usually happens on corporate computers with an intercepting proxy (Zscaler, or a corporate VPN with MITM).

Fix: start with verbose logs and capture the specific error:

claude remote-control --verbose

If you see “certificate verification failed,” there’s MITM interception, and you need to talk to your network administrator. If you see “connection refused” / “timeout,” ask the administrator to allow outbound access to *.anthropic.com:443.

Problem 4. Claude Code is too old

Check:

claude --version

If it’s below 2.1.51, update:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest

The VS Code extension requires at least v2.1.79. Push notifications require v2.1.110.

Problem 5. Push notifications don’t arrive

Scenario: Remote Control works, but your phone stays silent when Claude finishes a long task.

Checklist:

1. Run /config in the session. If it says “No mobile registered,” open the Claude app on your phone at least once so it can update the push token.
2. iOS: Settings → Notifications → Claude → check that notifications are enabled and not silenced by Focus mode.
3. Android: open battery settings and exclude Claude from battery optimization.
4. If iOS Notification Summary is on, the push may arrive but show up in the hourly summary. Turn off Summary for Claude.

Problem 6. Claude Desktop breaks /remote-control

If you run /remote-control inside the Claude Desktop app, you get the error “Remote Control requires a full-scope login token” (GitHub issue #48378).

Cause: Claude Desktop injects an OAuth token with limited permissions (inference only).

Fix: run Claude Code in a regular system terminal, not in the terminal built into Claude Desktop. This is a known limitation; Anthropic is working on a fix.

Bonus. Auto-reconnect silently dies in long sessions

Symptom: a Remote Control session runs for 30–60 minutes, then the phone silently disconnects with no indicator (issue #34255). Fix it manually: /remote-control → Disconnect → start it again. It’s not ideal, but the feature is still a research preview.

In May 2026 alone, Anthropic shipped eight fixes specifically for Remote Control—the feature is actively being improved. You can complain, but it’s reasonable to expect most of these problems to go away in a couple of months.

Remote Control vs. Telegram Bots and SSH+tmux#

Comparison table

When to choose each option

• Remote Control — the default setup for “leave the laptop and keep directing the work.” Full UI, device sync, and no third-party services.
• Channels (Telegram bot) — when you want a CI failure, a new customer complaint, or a chat message to automatically prompt Claude to investigate. This is “event → Claude reacts” instead of “I direct Claude from my phone.” Read more in the guide to Telegram and Claude Code.
• SSH + tmux — when you need an arbitrary shell on your phone for your own commands (deploy a release, check a log, restart a service). A universal shell outside Claude Code. For one-off tasks, it works through Termux/Blink.
• Other coding agents — Anthropic Remote Control is only for Claude Code. For a comparison of Claude and alternatives, see Cursor vs Claude Code.

Anthropic’s own documentation thus distinguishes these two features by use case: Remote Control is for control; Channels is for reacting.

What’s New in Remote Control from May 2026 to June 2026#

Complete fix timeline:

Eight Remote Control-specific fixes in one month is normal for a research preview feature. Anthropic is clearly responding to feedback and closing edge cases.

If the feature behaves strangely for you, the first step is to check the version and update. There’s a good chance the bug has already been fixed.

Checklist: Set It Up and Get It Working in 5 Minutes#

1. Check your Claude Code version

   claude --version — it should be 2.1.51 or newer. If it isn’t, run npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest.

2. Remove API keys from the environment

   Run unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and unset CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN. Then run /logout → /login through the browser.

3. Install the Claude app on your phone

   Run /mobile in a Claude Code session to show a QR code for the App Store / Google Play.

4. Start Remote Control

   Run claude --rc or /rc inside a session. A URL and the prompt “Press space to show QR” will appear.

5. Scan the QR code with your phone

   Press Space in the terminal → use the camera or Claude app. Expand the terminal window if it won’t scan.

6. Enable push notifications

   /config → “Push when Claude decides.” If it says “No mobile registered,” open the Claude app at least once.

7. Start a long task and step away

   Make the prompt specific: “Do it this way; in these cases, do that; in questionable cases, send a push.” Then work from your phone using push notifications.

In a practical example, this took 3–5 minutes from scratch to the first conversation from the couch.

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