Quick answer
It depends on what you want. For monitoring — knowing when Claude Code needs you while it runs on your Mac — Agentfy is the lightest option, with push notifications, Live Activities, and a hooks-only setup. If you want to read output and reply from your phone, you need a remote-control tool like Happy Coder instead.
Claude Code changed how developers write software. But it's still a terminal tool — and terminals don't follow you to the couch, the coffee shop, or the bathroom. The moment you kick off a long task and step away, you lose all visibility into whether Claude is still grinding, stuck on a permission prompt, or quietly finished ten minutes ago.
A growing ecosystem of apps now fills that gap, letting you monitor or control Claude Code from your phone. Some are notification tools. Some are full remote terminals. Some run everything in the cloud. Here's every option available in 2026, what each one actually does, and which one fits your workflow.
The two approaches
Before diving into individual apps, it helps to understand the two fundamental approaches, because they shape everything else:
- Monitoring — your phone watches what Claude Code is doing and alerts you when it needs input. Claude Code still runs on your computer. You still type replies on your keyboard. The phone is a read-only window.
- Remote control — your phone can send commands and replies back to Claude Code. This requires either wrapping the CLI, using SSH, or running Claude Code in the cloud.
Neither is strictly better. If you just need to know when to walk back to your desk, monitoring is simpler and lighter — and it never touches your terminal. If you want to approve permissions or type follow-up prompts from the couch, you need remote control, which means more setup and more moving parts. Many developers start with monitoring and layer on remote control only if they find they actually need it.
1. Agentfy — notification monitoring with Live Activities
What it is: An iOS app that monitors your Claude Code agents with push notifications, Live Activities, and Dynamic Island. It tells you what your agents are doing without touching the terminal.
How it works: The open-source Agentfy plugin adds a webhook to your Claude Code hooks configuration. Every time Claude changes state — starts working, needs permission, finishes a task — it fires a webhook to Agentfy. Your phone gets a push notification and your lock screen updates in real time. There's no CLI wrapper and no background daemon; the hooks Claude Code already supports do all the work.
Setup: Download the app, then install the plugin — claude plugin marketplace add ibrillantes/claude-code-plugin, claude plugin install agentfy@agentfy --config api_token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, /reload-plugins. It stashes your token in your OS keychain and wires up the hooks in under a minute (the copy/paste setup prompt still works as a fallback on older Claude Code). The step-by-step notifications guide walks through it if you get stuck.
Best for: Developers who run Claude Code on their Mac and want to step away without worrying — the "is it done yet?" problem. You don't need to type from your phone; you just need to know when to walk back to your desk. It also shines when you're running several agents in parallel, since every terminal rolls up into one dashboard.
Standout features:
- Live Activities on the lock screen — see agent status without unlocking
- Dynamic Island integration for at-a-glance monitoring
- Multi-agent dashboard across unlimited terminals
- Shows permission context (e.g., "Allow:
npm test?") - One-line plugin install — no CLI wrapper or daemon, hooks only
Price: Free (25 notifications/month). Pro for unlimited notifications plus Live Activities.
Limitation: Monitoring only — you can't reply or approve permissions from the phone (yet). Requires iOS 18 or later for the Live Activities and Dynamic Island features.
2. Happy Coder — encrypted remote terminal
What it is: A mobile client that wraps Claude Code on your Mac and lets you interact with it from your phone through an encrypted relay.
How it works: You install a CLI tool on your Mac that wraps the claude command. It captures Claude Code's input and output, encrypts everything end-to-end, and relays it through their server to your phone. The relay server never sees the decrypted content.
Setup: Install the CLI wrapper, pair with a QR code, open the mobile app.
Best for: Developers who want to read Claude's full output and send replies from their phone. You get the full Claude Code experience remotely, not just a status ping.
Standout features:
- End-to-end encryption (TweetNaCl)
- Fully open source — server and client
- Can send replies and approve permissions from the phone
- Also supports OpenAI Codex
Price: Free and open source.
Limitation: Requires installing a CLI wrapper on your Mac, and your Mac must be running for the relay to work.
3. Vicoa (Vibe Code) — CLI wrapper with cloud sync
What it is: A Python CLI wrapper and mobile app that lets you continue Claude Code sessions from your phone.
How it works: You install pip install vicoa and run vicoa instead of claude in your project directory. The CLI establishes a connection to Vicoa's infrastructure, which relays your session to the mobile app.
Best for: Developers who want a managed solution for remote Claude Code access with account-based authentication.
Limitation: Requires running their CLI wrapper instead of native claude. Code goes through their relay, which is not end-to-end encrypted the way Happy Coder is.
4. MobileCode — notification + reply
What it is: A mobile companion that notifies you when Claude Code needs input and lets you reply from your phone.
How it works: A similar relay-based approach — a local component on your machine bridges Claude Code to your phone via their service.
Best for: Developers who want a middle ground between pure monitoring and full terminal access — alerts when Claude needs you, plus the ability to send a quick reply without a full remote terminal.
Stop babysitting your terminal
Agentfy pushes Claude Code status to your iPhone — Live Activities, Dynamic Island, and instant alerts.
5. CodeAgents Mobile — SSH-based remote access
What it is: A native SwiftUI app that connects to remote Linux servers via SSH to run Claude Code.
How it works: The iOS app is an SSH client. You connect to a server (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, your own box) where Claude Code is installed. Full terminal access, no relay service needed.
Best for: Developers who already run Claude Code on remote servers and want direct access. Power users who want maximum control without intermediaries.
Limitation: Raw terminal UX on a phone screen. Requires a server running Claude Code, and there's no iOS-native UI for notifications or status.
6. Mobile IDE for Claude Code — Apple CloudKit sync
What it is: An Apple-native app that syncs prompts between your iPhone and Mac using CloudKit.
How it works: You create prompts on your iPhone. The macOS companion receives them via CloudKit, executes them against your local Claude Code CLI, and syncs results back. No third-party servers are involved.
Best for: Developers who want to stay entirely within the Apple ecosystem with no third-party infrastructure.
Limitation: Requires a Mac running the companion app, and works within the Apple ecosystem only (the same Apple ID on both devices).
7. Claude iOS app (official) — full cloud IDE
What it is: Anthropic's own iOS app with built-in Claude Code support. Runs entirely in the cloud.
How it works: Your GitHub repo is cloned into an Anthropic-managed VM. Claude Code runs in a sandboxed cloud environment. Your phone is a thin client — you see progress, send messages, and changes get pushed as branches or PRs.
Best for: Developers who don't need a local machine in the loop. Quick prototyping, working from anywhere, or when your laptop isn't available.
Limitation: Requires a Claude Pro or Max subscription. Code must be on GitHub, and there's limited environment customization compared to running locally.
8. SSH + tmux (DIY)
What it is: The no-app approach. SSH into your dev machine from any iOS terminal app (Blink Shell, Termius) and attach to a tmux session running Claude Code.
Best for: Developers who already live in tmux and don't want another app. Works well with Tailscale for easy, secure networking.
Limitation: You're driving a full terminal on a phone screen, and you have to manage the SSH, tmux, and networking setup yourself — there's no notification layer telling you when Claude needs you.
Quick comparison
| App | Type | Reply? | Runs Where | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agentfy | Monitor | No | Your Mac | Free / Pro |
| Happy Coder | Remote | Yes | Your Mac | Free (OSS) |
| Vicoa | Remote | Yes | Your Mac | Free tier |
| MobileCode | Monitor + Reply | Yes | Your Mac | Free tier |
| CodeAgents | SSH Terminal | Yes | Remote server | Free (OSS) |
| Mobile IDE | CloudKit Sync | Yes | Your Mac | Paid |
| Claude App | Cloud IDE | Yes | Anthropic cloud | Pro/Max sub |
| SSH + tmux | DIY | Yes | Any server | Free |
Which one should you use?
It depends on what problem you're solving:
- "I just want to know when Claude needs me" → Agentfy. Simplest setup (one-line plugin install), best iOS integration (Live Activities, Dynamic Island), and no CLI wrapper needed.
- "I want to read output and reply from my phone" → Happy Coder or Vicoa. Full remote terminal, with end-to-end encryption in Happy's case.
- "I want to code from my phone, no laptop" → The official Claude iOS app. Everything runs in the cloud.
- "I have a server and want maximum control" → CodeAgents Mobile or SSH + tmux.
The honest summary: monitoring and remote control aren't competing — they're different jobs. Most developers running Claude Code locally on their Mac start with monitoring, because it solves the immediate "is it done yet?" problem with the least setup. If you later find yourself wanting to reply from the phone, you can layer on a remote-control tool without giving up your monitor. And if notifications ever stop arriving, the troubleshooting guide covers the usual culprits.
If you're new to driving Claude Code away from your desk at all, the complete guide to Claude Code on iPhone is the best place to start.