Claude Code on iPhone: The Best Ways to Run Agents From Your Phone (2026)

Anthropic doesn't make a separate Claude Code app for iPhone. Claude Code lives in the Code tab of the Claude app for iOS and Android, which can start cloud sessions, drive a session on your computer through Remote Control, or send a task to the desktop app with Dispatch; for one Claude session at a time, that is the simplest path. If you run several agents in parallel worktrees on a Mac, Agentastic Companion (a free public beta on TestFlight for iOS 18+) shows the whole fleet and lets you answer approvals, read live terminals, review diffs, and merge pull requests over an end-to-end-encrypted connection. Paseo, Happy, and Orca are the open-source choices for Android phones or Windows and Linux hosts, and an SSH app with tmux still works when you want nothing extra installed on the host.

We reviewed every option against first-party documentation on October 5, 2026. In all of them the agent runs on a computer or in the cloud, and the phone acts as a remote control.

The options at a glance#

Option	Best for	Phone apps	Where the agent runs	Connection and encryption	Price
Agentastic Companion	Several agents in worktrees on a Mac	iPhone, iOS 18+ (TestFlight beta)	Your Mac and its SSH hosts, containers, and cloud VMs	Direct on LAN or tailnet, optional relay; end-to-end encrypted	Free
Claude app (Remote Control, cloud, Dispatch)	One Claude session; the official path	iOS, Android, browser	Your computer, Anthropic's cloud, or Claude Code Desktop	Outbound HTTPS through Anthropic's API over TLS	Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise
Paseo	Any host OS, Android, open source	iOS, Android, web	Paseo daemon on macOS, Windows, Linux, or Docker	Opt-in end-to-end-encrypted relay, or Tailscale	Free; Apache 2.0
Happy	Claude Code or Codex with minimal setup	iOS, Android, web	Any computer running the happy CLI	End-to-end encrypted; self-hostable relay	Free; MIT
Orca	Orca desktop users	iOS, Android (APK)	Orca desktop on macOS, Windows, or Linux	Device token over LAN, Tailscale, or Orca Relay	Free; MIT
Nimbalyst	Nimbalyst desktop users	iPhone, iPad	Nimbalyst desktop	End-to-end-encrypted sync; Nimbalyst account	Free for individuals
Superset Mobile	Superset Pro users	iPhone, iOS 26+	Superset host on macOS or Linux	Superset Relay; Superset account	Superset Pro, $20/seat/month
SSH and tmux	Nothing extra on the host	Blink (iOS); Termius and Moshi (iOS, Android)	Any machine you can SSH into	SSH or Mosh over your own network	Varies by app

What each option lets you do from the phone#

Option	Answer approvals	Live terminal	Review diffs	Merge PRs	Start new work	Push alerts
Agentastic Companion	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (GitHub)	Yes	Yes, encrypted
Claude app with Remote Control	Yes	Conversation view	Yes	Not documented	Yes	Yes
Paseo	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Happy	Yes	Conversation view	Not documented	Not documented	Yes	Yes
Orca	Yes	Yes	Changed files; stage and commit	Not documented	Yes	Yes
Nimbalyst	Yes	Conversation view	Desktop only	Not documented	Yes	Yes
Superset Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not documented
SSH and tmux	In the agent's TUI	Yes	With git in the shell	With gh in the shell	Yes	Moshi's hook

"Not documented" means the vendor's own pages didn't describe the capability when we checked.

1. Agentastic Companion: best for a Mac running several agents#

Companion is Agentastic's iPhone app. It pairs with the Mac app and shows every agent across every workspace, terminal agents and Chat sessions alike, grouped by repository and worktree and sorted so errors and agents waiting on you come first.

From the phone you can:

• Filter the fleet by Needs You, Working, or In Review, and work through approvals, questions, and finished runs in the Inbox.
• Open any agent to answer a question, respond to a permission request, send a follow-up, or interrupt the turn. It is the same live session the Mac is running, not a copy.
• Read a real terminal. Output goes through a VT parser on the phone, so agents that redraw the screen display correctly, and you can open a new shell in any worktree.
• Review a worktree's changes against its base branch, or only the uncommitted edits, then check its pull request's reviews and CI and merge it with Slide to merge, which takes the color of the CI state.
• Start a task: pick the repository, agent, model, and mode (Agent, Agent with auto-approve, or Plan), run it in a new worktree, an existing one, or a container or cloud machine, and attach up to eight images.

Set up Companion#

1. Install Agentastic on your Mac (macOS 14 or later) from the download page.
2. On your iPhone (iOS 18 or later), join the public TestFlight beta. You can also click the QR button beside Get It on TestFlight in the Mac's Settings → Mobile App and scan it with the iPhone's camera.
3. In Settings → Mobile App, turn on Enable connections from your phone.
4. Under Devices, click + (or Pair a Device…) to show a pairing QR code.
5. In the iPhone app, open Settings, tap Pair a Mac, and scan the code. The invite is single-use and expires after ten minutes; Paste Link works if the camera can't read it.
6. Optional: sign the Mac in to an Agentastic account and turn on Reach this Mac from anywhere, so the phone can connect over cellular through the relay.

Merging from the phone needs Agentastic.dev 0.13.2 or later on the Mac and a GitHub account connected there.

How Companion protects your sessions#

The phone talks to your Mac directly on your LAN or tailnet. The pairing QR code carries the Mac's name, addresses, and public key, never an access token, and every connection negotiates fresh session keys. The optional relay forwards traffic sealed to the key the phone pinned at pairing, so it learns only that a phone and a Mac are talking. Push notifications are encrypted with a per-device key and decrypted on the phone, so Apple's servers and the push relay see an opaque envelope. Every phone request passes through an allow-list grouped into read, steer, run, and merge tiers, and destructive operations such as deleting a worktree aren't exposed at all.

The tradeoffs: Companion is iPhone only, it is still a TestFlight beta, and the phone connects through your Mac, so the Mac has to be awake and online. Agents running on an SSH host or a cloud VM keep working while the Mac sleeps; you just can't reach them from the phone until it wakes.

2. The Claude app with Remote Control: best official option for one Claude session#

Anthropic's Claude app for iOS and Android is a client, not a place where code runs. Its Code tab reaches three kinds of work:

• Remote Control connects to a Claude Code session on your own computer, started with claude remote-control, with claude --remote-control, or with /remote-control inside a running CLI, Desktop, or VS Code session (Remote Control). Since August 2026, a machine running claude remote-control appears as a device card in the app, and you can start a new session in any of its directories from the phone.
• Cloud sessions execute on infrastructure Anthropic manages, working from a GitHub repository, and keep going with your laptop closed (cloud sessions).
• Dispatch takes a message from your phone and starts a Code session in the desktop app, on Pro and Max plans only.

To run a server where every session you start from the phone gets its own git worktree:

Then run /config in Claude Code and turn on Push when actions required for permission prompts and questions, plus Push when Claude decides if you want other updates. /mobile shows a QR code that opens the right app store.

Remote Control requires a Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan and a claude.ai login. It doesn't work with API keys, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud's Agent Platform, Microsoft Foundry, or a custom ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, and setting CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC turns it off. Team and Enterprise organizations need an owner to switch it on first.

How Remote Control handles security#

Remote Control only dials out over HTTPS, so nothing on your machine listens for inbound connections. Messages travel through the Anthropic API over TLS, authenticated with short-lived credentials that each do one job. Anthropic doesn't describe it as end-to-end encrypted: while a session is connected, its transcript is stored on Anthropic's servers so your devices stay in sync. Organizations can require Trusted Devices, currently in beta, and those with Zero Data Retention or the HIPAA configuration can't enable Remote Control at all.

The tradeoffs: it runs Claude only, and the computer has to stay on with the claude process running. Outside server mode, each interactive process carries one remote session. Commands that need the terminal interface, like /plugin and /resume, are unavailable from the phone, and the app won't switch a Remote Control session into Auto or Bypass permissions. Claude Code also supports Channels, which push messages from Telegram, Discord, or iMessage into a running session.

3. Paseo: best open-source option for any host and any phone#

Paseo runs a daemon next to your agents, on a Mac, a Linux server, a Windows PC, or in Docker, and connects phone, desktop, web, and CLI clients to it.

• Phone apps: iOS and Android, plus a web app.
• Agents: Claude Code, Codex, and more than 30 others.
• From the phone: launch agents in worktree-backed workspaces, answer approvals, use the workspace terminal, review diffs, and merge.
• Security: the relay is off until you enable it. Paseo encrypts everything end to end between the phone and the daemon, using keys from the pairing QR code, so the relay can neither read nor forge messages; the relay server itself is open source. Tailscale is the documented alternative (security).
• Price: free; Apache 2.0.

Paseo is the best fit when your agents live on a Linux or Windows machine, or when you carry an Android phone. On a Mac, Agentastic offers more desktop depth; Paseo offers more reach. See Agentastic vs Paseo.

4. Happy: best lightweight wrapper for Claude Code and Codex#

Happy wraps the CLI you already use. Install it with npm install -g happy, then run happy claude (or happy codex) instead of claude. When you take control from your phone, Happy restarts the session in remote mode, and pressing any key on the computer hands it back.

• Phone apps: iOS and Android, plus a web app and a macOS desktop app.
• Agents: Claude Code and Codex.
• From the phone: continue sessions, allow or deny permission requests, start new sessions in directories on a connected machine, and get push notifications.
• Security: end-to-end encrypted, with the master secret kept on your phone. No account is required, and you can run your own relay server (repository).
• Price: free; MIT.

Happy is the shortest path from a terminal habit to phone control, on any operating system. It leaves worktrees, diff review, and pull requests to your other tools.

5. Orca: best if you already use Orca's desktop app#

Orca's mobile companion pairs with Orca on macOS, Windows, or Linux and works as a remote control for it.

• Phone apps: iOS from the App Store, and Android as an APK.
• Agents: whatever Orca runs, including Claude Code and Codex.
• From the phone: see every worktree and whether its agent is working, done, or waiting; read terminal scrollback or switch to a chat view; reply, attach photos, or dictate; review changed files, stage, and commit; create workspaces; switch agent accounts; and get notified when an agent finishes.
• Security: pairing issues a device token for that phone, over your LAN, Tailscale, or Orca Relay, which requires signing in.
• Price: free; MIT.

It is a good choice for Orca users and Android owners. Orca positions the phone app as a remote control for the desktop rather than an editor, and its docs don't describe the relay as end-to-end encrypted. See Agentastic vs Orca.

6. Nimbalyst Mobile: best if you plan in Nimbalyst on the desktop#

Nimbalyst Mobile syncs the projects you choose from the Nimbalyst desktop app to an iPhone or iPad.

• Phone apps: iOS.
• Agents: Claude Code and Codex sessions.
• From the phone: start and resume sessions, answer questions and approvals, queue prompts even while offline, edit synced markdown (in alpha), and get push notifications only when you are away from the desktop. Code diff review stays on the desktop.
• Security: end-to-end-encrypted sync with AES-256-GCM and keys exchanged by QR code; you sign in with a Nimbalyst account.
• Price: free for individuals.

7. Superset Mobile: best for Superset Pro users#

Superset Mobile connects an iPhone to the workspaces on a Superset host.

• Phone apps: iPhone with iOS 26 or later; Android is on a waitlist.
• Agents: any terminal agent you run in Superset, Claude Code and Codex included.
• From the phone: send prompts, follow terminal sessions, review syntax-highlighted diffs, check pull request status, and merge.
• Security: traffic goes through Superset Relay, and Superset recommends exposing a dedicated machine rather than your main workstation (remote access).
• Price: requires Superset Pro at $20 per seat a month; the app itself is a free download.

8. SSH and tmux from a phone terminal: best zero-install fallback#

The oldest method still works: run Claude Code inside tmux on your Mac or a dev box, then attach from a terminal app on the phone. Anthropic's own Remote Control docs suggest tmux or screen to keep a session alive on a remote machine after SSH disconnects.

Phone apps worth knowing:

• Blink Shell: an iOS and iPadOS terminal with SSH and Mosh; two weeks free, then $19.99 a year.
• Termius: an SSH client for iOS and Android as well as desktops.
• Moshi: an iOS and Android terminal built for agent sessions, with Mosh, automatic tmux reattach, voice input, and push notifications through an optional hook; free, with Pro from $9.99 a month.

Security is whatever your SSH setup is: use keys, and reach the machine over Tailscale or another VPN instead of opening SSH to the internet. The costs are a full-screen TUI on a small screen, no structured approval cards, and notifications you have to wire up yourself. Back at your Mac, Agentastic can show a tmux -CC session as native tabs (how tmux control mode works).

New this month: Conductor for iOS#

Conductor shipped an iOS app on October 2, 2026, in version 0.90.0. Its changelog says you can chat with agents and merge pull requests from the phone, and that it works with Conductor's cloud workspaces (Conductor changelog). It is too new for us to compare in detail; the desktop app it pairs with is Mac-only and runs Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenCode.

Getting Claude Code notifications on your phone#

Most of the time you don't want to watch an agent; you want the phone to tell you when it finishes or gets stuck. Here is how each option handles that:

• Remote Control: two /config toggles, one for permission prompts and questions and one for updates Claude decides to send. It stays quiet while you are typing in the connected terminal.
• Dispatch: a push when a session it started finishes or needs approval.
• Agentastic Companion: encrypted pushes for permission requests, questions, finished runs, errors, and agent notifications, built on the Mac's attention routing. Agentastic can also reach you in Slack.
• Happy, Paseo, Orca, and Nimbalyst: their own push notifications; Nimbalyst sends them only when you are away from the desktop.
• Plain SSH: Moshi's hook, or a Claude Code hook that calls a push service of your choice.

If you also run Codex#

OpenAI's equivalent is Codex Remote in the ChatGPT app for iOS and Android. It connects to a Mac or Windows PC running the ChatGPT desktop app, and lets you start, approve, and review Codex chats there (Codex Remote). Agentastic Companion, Happy, Paseo, and Orca handle Claude Code and Codex from one app. The best Codex GUI apps guide covers the desktop side.

How to choose#

One Claude Code session, Claude only#

Use the Claude app with Remote Control, and switch to cloud sessions when your laptop will be closed.

Several agents in parallel worktrees on a Mac#

Use Agentastic Companion. It is built for a fleet: one list of every agent, sorted by what needs you, with diffs and merges a tap away.

An Android phone#

Use the Claude app for Android, Paseo, Happy, Orca, Termius, or Moshi.

Agents on Linux or Windows#

Paseo, Happy, Orca, and SSH all work there, and Remote Control runs anywhere the Claude Code CLI does.

Nobody in the middle should read your sessions#

Agentastic Companion, Paseo, Happy, and Nimbalyst document end-to-end encryption. SSH over a VPN such as Tailscale keeps the session between your own devices.

The work has to continue while your computer sleeps#

Use Claude's cloud sessions, or run agents on an SSH host or cloud VM that stays on. For a desktop app around those sessions, see the best Claude Code GUI apps.

Sources#

Each product claim above was checked against these first-party pages on October 5, 2026:

• Anthropic: Claude Code on mobile, Remote Control, platforms, cloud sessions, Channels
• OpenAI: Codex Remote, remote connections
• Paseo: getting started, security, repository
• Happy: happy.engineering, repository
• Orca: mobile companion, repository
• Nimbalyst: mobile app, downloads
• Superset: Superset Mobile, remote access
• Conductor: changelog, supported agents
• Phone terminals: Blink Shell, Termius, Moshi pricing, tmux

Continue the research:

• Companion documentation
• Run agents on remote machines
• Best Claude Code GUI apps for Mac
• Best Codex GUI and desktop apps
• Agentastic vs Claude Code

Frequently asked questions#

Is there a Claude Code app for iPhone?#

Not a separate one. Claude Code lives in the Code tab of the Claude app for iOS and Android, where you can run cloud sessions, drive a session on your computer with Remote Control, or message Dispatch. Third-party apps such as Agentastic Companion, Paseo, Happy, and Orca add other ways to reach agents on your computer.

How do I use Claude Code Remote Control from my phone?#

Run claude remote-control on your computer, or /remote-control inside a session, then open the Code tab in the Claude app and pick the session or your computer's device card, or scan the QR code the terminal shows. You need a Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan and a claude.ai login, and the computer has to stay on.

Can I get Claude Code notifications on my phone?#

Yes. With Remote Control active, run /config and turn on Push when actions required for permission prompts and questions, and Push when Claude decides for other updates. Agentastic Companion, Happy, Paseo, Orca, and Nimbalyst also send push notifications when an agent finishes or needs you.

Is Claude Code Remote Control end-to-end encrypted?#

Anthropic describes it as outbound HTTPS through the Anthropic API over TLS, with short-lived credentials and no inbound ports on your machine. While a session is connected, its transcript is stored on Anthropic's servers to keep devices in sync. Agentastic Companion, Paseo, Happy, and Nimbalyst document end-to-end encryption instead.

Why is Claude Code Remote Control not working?#

The usual causes are signing in with an API key instead of a claude.ai subscription, using Bedrock, Agent Platform, Foundry, or a custom ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, setting CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC, or a Team or Enterprise plan where an owner hasn't turned it on. Sessions also drop while your computer sleeps and reconnect when it wakes.

Does Claude Code Remote Control work with worktrees?#

Yes. Start server mode with claude remote-control --spawn worktree and each session you open from your phone or browser gets its own git worktree. Press w in the running server to switch between worktree and shared-directory mode.

Is there a Claude Code app for Android?#

The Claude app for Android has the same Code tab as the iPhone app, with cloud sessions and Remote Control. Paseo, Happy, Orca, Termius, and Moshi also run on Android. Agentastic Companion is iPhone only.