Remote Control

Control Pilot Shell sessions from your phone, tablet, or any browser.

Start a /spec task at your desk, then monitor and steer it from the couch. Your full local environment stays available — filesystem, MCP servers, hooks, rules, and project configuration. Nothing moves to the cloud.

Prerequisites

Remote Control requires the native install of Claude Code, not the npm version. If you have the npm version installed, uninstall it first:

npm uninstall -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code   # Remove npm version if installed
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash  # Install native version

You also need a Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise Claude subscription. API keys won't work with Remote Control.

Setup

1. Start Pilot Shell

pilot

Loads all hooks, rules, MCP servers, and project configuration.

2. Activate Remote Control

Method	How
Single session	Type /remote-control inside the Pilot Shell session
All sessions	Run /config in Claude Code and set "Enable Remote Control for all sessions" to true

3. Connect from your phone

Open the Claude Mobile App (iOS / Android) and go to the Code tab. Your session appears there with a green status dot when online.

You can also connect from any browser at claude.ai/code.

How it works

Sessions started via pilot carry over all rules, hooks, MCP servers, and project configuration. The Claude App and web interface are just a window into your local session — your machine does all the work.

• Full Pilot Shell experience — hooks, rules, skills, MCP servers all stay active
• Outbound-only — no ports open on your machine, all traffic over TLS
• Multi-device sync — send messages from terminal, browser, and phone interchangeably
• Auto-reconnect — reconnects automatically when your laptop wakes from sleep

Starting sessions from your phone via SSH

The setup above assumes you start sessions via pilot on your computer first. To start new sessions from your phone instead:

1. Install Termius on your phone (not your computer)
2. SSH into your computer
3. Run pilot in any project directory

Keeping your computer reachable

For the Claude App or browser to stay connected, and for SSH to work when you're away from the keyboard, your computer needs to stay awake and — in the SSH case — accept connections while sleeping.

Scenario	What you need
App / browser approach	Keep the Mac awake — Amphetamine keeps it awake with the display off
SSH approach	System Settings → General → Sharing → Advanced → Remote Login lets you SSH into your Mac while it's sleeping
Away from home network (either approach)	Install Tailscale on both devices for a VPN tunnel that works anywhere — the Claude App works everywhere out of the box, so Tailscale is only needed for SSH

Channels — Telegram, Discord & iMessage

Channels push messages from external platforms directly into your running Pilot session. Claude reads the message, acts on it with your full local environment, and replies through the same platform.

pilot --channels plugin:telegram@claude-plugins-official
pilot --channels plugin:discord@claude-plugins-official
pilot --channels plugin:imessage@claude-plugins-official

Channels require Bun and a one-time bot setup (Telegram/Discord) or macOS (iMessage). Each channel maintains a sender allowlist — only paired users can push messages.

Channel	Setup	Pairing
Telegram	Create a bot, pass token during install	Send any message to the bot → approve pairing code in terminal
Discord	Create a bot, pass token during install	Send any message to the bot → approve pairing code in terminal
iMessage	macOS only, no token needed	Texting yourself works automatically

Channels vs Remote Control: Remote Control gives you a window into your session from the Claude App or browser. Channels let external platforms push events into your session — they're complementary. Use both: channels for incoming messages, Remote Control for monitoring and steering.

Team/Enterprise: Channels are off by default. Admins enable them via claude.ai Admin settings. See the full Channels documentation and Channels reference for building custom channels.

Use cases

Pattern	Description
Walk away	Start a /spec task at your desk, monitor progress from your phone
Couch review	Queue up code reviews at your workstation, approve from the couch
Quick check	Glance at a running session from your phone without going back to your desk
Multi-device	Heavy coding from terminal, lighter interactions from browser, quick approvals from phone

Troubleshooting

If Remote Control doesn't connect or shows authentication errors, run /logout followed by /login inside Claude Code. This re-authenticates your session and resolves most connection issues.

Limitations

• Your computer must stay awake (see above)
• One remote connection per Claude Code instance
• Terminal must stay open (close it and the session ends)