Guide · Remote Control

Claude Code Remote Control: keep working from your phone

Remote Control lets the Claude app on your phone drive a Claude Code session that's still running on your PC. Here's how I set it up before I step away, and what it's good and bad at.

Last updated 28 Oct 2026

Everything still runs on your PC. Your files, MCP servers, skills and hooks stay where they are. The phone is only a window into the session. So the PC has to stay on and awake, and you need a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan (API keys don't work).

1Start in the parent folder

Before I leave, I open a new terminal in the folder above my projects, not inside one of them:

claude_can_access/      <- start Claude Code here
  coding/
    ahdevstudio/
    arthur-hsiao-portfolio/
  arttie_design/

Claude can only work freely inside the folder it started in. If I start in ahdevstudio/ and later ask for something in arttie_design/, Claude stops and asks permission for every file outside, and I'm not at the keyboard to say yes. Starting one level up means anything I might ask for is in reach.

The cost: with more folders to look through, Claude may spend more tokens searching. Name the project in your first message ("in coding/ahdevstudio, …") and it goes straight there.

2Turn on Remote Control

# a new session with Remote Control on from the start
claude --remote-control "home PC"

# or, inside a session that's already running
/remote-control home PC

Either works. The name is what you'll see in the session list on your phone. The first time, Claude Code asks you to confirm. Then open the Claude app on your phone, tap Code, and pick the session (a green dot means it's online). No app yet? Run /mobile for a QR code to the app store.

3Turn on push notifications

Without them you have to keep checking the app. In the terminal, run /config and turn on:

Push when actions required: a permission prompt or a question is waiting for you. This is the one that matters most.
Push when Claude decides: usually when a long task finishes.

You can also just ask for one: "notify me when the build finishes".

4Keep the PC awake

This is the one that got me. The PC went to sleep, the session went offline, and nothing happened until I got back. Set sleep to "never" while plugged in. On Windows:

powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0

Closing the terminal stops it too. When you're back, claude --continue in the same folder picks the conversation up again; run /remote-control in it if you're heading out again.

5Use the phone to watch, not to drive

I don't hand everything over when I leave. I use the phone for urgent things, and to watch the progress. I'd rather see what the AI is doing than leave it alone, because if something goes wrong I know what happened, and can fix it or tell Claude how.

Typing on a phone is slow, so keep messages short and point at things that already exist instead of explaining them:

do the next roadmap item in coding/ahdevstudio
run npm run build and tell me if it fails
what did you change? short list

6Run /clear before switching projects

Because the session sits in the parent folder, it's easy to finish a task in one project and start the next one in another, in the same conversation. Don't. The old project's files and decisions stay in the context and leak into the new task. Type /clear from the phone first, then name the next folder. It also keeps the token count down; more on that in how to save tokens in Claude Code.

Leave visual checks for when you're back. On a phone you can't open the site and look at it. Claude can take screenshots, but they don't always show what you expected, and sometimes they fail. Ask for things it can measure instead ("check nothing scrolls sideways at 375px"), and do the real look at your desk.

One more thing to know: while Remote Control is connected, the conversation is stored on Anthropic's servers so it can sync between devices. The code still runs only on your PC. Full details are in the Remote Control docs.