How to Use Claude Code on Your Phone

2026-03-31

I run Claude Code from the back of an Uber. From the couch. From anywhere I have my phone. It’s the same full CLI I use at my desk — same context, same projects, same session I walked away from an hour ago. There’s something freeing about being able to partner with Claude on whatever you’re working on, wherever you are.

I tried using Claude Code on mobile directly — it dropped out a lot, couldn’t run anything locally, and missed the comfortable feeling of my full laptop setup. I tried a few other apps too, but nothing felt like the real terminal session. Blink Shell was the closest — it’s a real terminal, and it even supports Whisper Flow so I can talk to Claude instead of typing on a phone keyboard.

The other thing that bugged me: Claude keeps asking for API keys to do things. Sometimes you need that, but a lot of the time you can just run it through the Max subscription you’re already paying for. This setup does exactly that — I have a Max subscription ($100/month), and the full CLI runs through it from my phone. No API keys, no separate billing.

Blink makes it easy to run multiple sessions — just swipe between them. And when you get back to your laptop, the sessions are right there waiting. Pick up exactly where you left off.

Here’s what I use and what tripped me up.

Getting Set Up

I’d recommend having a separate Claude Code session open on your laptop while you work through this. If you get stuck on any step, just ask Claude to help you debug it.

1. Install Tailscale on your Mac and iPhone

Tailscale (free for personal use) gives both devices a private network so you can SSH into your Mac from anywhere — not just your home Wi-Fi. Install it on both, sign in, and note your Mac’s Tailscale IP address. You’ll need it.

2. Get a terminal app on your phone

On iOS, I use Blink Shell ($20/year) — it’s a real terminal with Whisper Flow for voice input. Set up an SSH key (Settings → Keys) and add your Mac as a host (Settings → Hosts) using the Tailscale IP from step 1.

On Android, Termux (free, install from F-Droid) works the same way — pkg install openssh and you’re ready to SSH in. Nick Khami has a good writeup on this setup.

3. Make sure SSH is working on your Mac

Enable Remote Login in System Settings → General → Sharing. If you’re not sure it’s set up right, ask Claude in your laptop session — it can check for you.

Set up SSH key authentication so you don’t have to type a password every time:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519
ssh-copy-id your-username@your-tailscale-ip

Now try connecting from your phone: ssh your-tailscale-ip. If it works, you’re most of the way there.

4. Start a session and connect

From your Mac:

tmux new -s claude
claude

From Blink on your phone:

ssh your-tailscale-ip
tmux attach -t claude

That’s it. You’re running Claude Code from your phone.

5. Learn these tmux commands

The -dt flag is the one you’ll use most from mobile — it detaches any other connected client and gives you the session.

6. Use tmux windows for multiple Claude sessions

This is the thing that made mobile actually productive for me. Instead of juggling separate tmux sessions, use windows within a single session. Windows are like tabs — you flip between them instantly, all through one SSH connection.

Start a session, spin up a few windows, and run Claude in each one:

tmux new -s work
claude                        # window 0: main project
# Ctrl+B c                    → creates window 1
cd ~/other-project && claude  # window 1: second project
# Ctrl+B c                    → creates window 2
cd ~/third-project && claude  # window 2: third project

From your phone, Ctrl+B w gives you a visual picker — arrow keys to choose, Enter to jump. Or just Ctrl+B n and Ctrl+B p to cycle through. One SSH connection, three Claude agents running in parallel.

I typically keep 2–3 windows open: one for whatever I’m actively working on, one for a background task Claude is grinding through, and one as a scratch terminal for quick lookups.

7. Enable notification passthrough

By default, tmux swallows the escape sequences Claude uses for notifications. Add this to your ~/.tmux.conf so you get notified when Claude finishes a task:

set -g allow-passthrough on

Without this, you won’t see desktop notifications or the terminal progress bar while running inside tmux.

My cheat sheet

I keep a one-page tmux cheat sheet taped next to my monitor. You won’t need it after a week, but the first few days it saves a lot of Googling. Here’s what’s on it:

That’s the whole thing. Ten commands cover 99% of what you’ll do.

Other tips

Test what Claude builds on your phone. If Claude spins up a dev server, bind it to your Tailscale IP and open it in your phone’s browser. For example: yarn dev --host and then visit http://your-tailscale-ip:4321.

Use Mosh for flaky connections. If your phone keeps dropping SSH (spotty cell service, switching between Wi-Fi and LTE), Mosh handles disconnections better than SSH. Install it on your Mac (brew install mosh) and connect with mosh your-tailscale-ip — it reconnects seamlessly.

A Bluetooth keyboard changes everything. Typing commands on a phone keyboard is tolerable for short prompts, but a small Bluetooth keyboard makes longer sessions comfortable. Claude Code is mostly conversational though — describe what you want, review changes, approve or reject — so the phone keyboard is fine for most of it.

No Mac at home? A $5/month VPS from DigitalOcean or Hetzner works too. Install Claude Code on it, set up Tailscale, and SSH in from your phone the same way. You lose access to your local files, but you get a persistent machine that’s always on.

This is what works for me. If you’ve got a better mobile setup for Claude Code, I’d like to hear about it — say hello.