A Claude Code session runs where you start it: in the terminal on your computer, in the folder you’re working in. Remote Control doesn’t change that. It only lets you write to that session from the Claude app on your phone, and the terminal and your phone show the same conversation.
Who can use Remote Control
Remote Control works on the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, when Claude Code is logged in with a claude.ai account. It won’t work on the free plan or when you log in with an API key. To see how you’re logged in, run:
/statusClaude Code shows which account and which plan it’s logged in with. If your plan isn’t one of those four, type /login and log in with a claude.ai account on a paid plan.
On Team and Enterprise, Remote Control is off by default, and the organisation’s owner has to turn it on first.
Remote Control needs Claude Code installed on your computer. How to install it and log in is covered in the lesson on installing Claude Code.
What stays on your computer and what your phone shows
With Remote Control, Claude Code keeps running on your computer: it reads and changes the files in your folder and uses your MCP servers and your settings. The phone shows the conversation and lets you write into it. That’s why your computer has to stay on, with Claude Code running, for as long as you want to talk to it away from your desk.
While you’re connected, Anthropic’s servers hold a record of the conversation – your messages, Claude’s replies and information about the tools it used – and that record is what the app on your phone displays.
Remote Control for every new session
You can turn Remote Control on once, in the settings. Type /config, find Enable Remote Control for all sessions and set it to true. From then on, every new Claude Code session in the terminal starts with Remote Control on, without any command. To connect a session you opened earlier, use the /remote-control command, covered in the next section.
A connected session shows /rc active in the terminal. If it isn’t there after you start a new session, go back to /config and check that the option was saved as true.
What the other values of this option do is explained in the tip on the settings in the config panel.
While you’re in /config, turn on notifications to your phone as well. Push when actions required sends a notification when Claude Code is waiting for your permission or for an answer to a question. Push when Claude decides leaves the call to Claude – usually it lets you know when a longer task is finished. Notifications arrive through the Claude app, so the app has to be installed on your phone and logged in with the same account, and notifications for it have to be allowed in your phone’s settings. If you see No mobile registered next to these options, open the Claude app on your phone – the warning goes away the next time Remote Control connects. While you’re typing in the terminal or have it in front of you, Claude Code doesn’t send notifications.
Remote Control in a session that’s already running
When Enable Remote Control for all sessions is off, or the conversation was already going before you turned it on, you switch Remote Control on with a command in the conversation itself:
/remote-controlThe short form is /rc. The first time, you’ll be asked to confirm – choose Enable Remote Control. If you choose Never mind or press Esc, the session won’t connect, and you’ll be asked again the next time you try to connect. Once connected, your phone shows the whole conversation so far.
You can add a name for the session after the command, for example:
/remote-control Quarterly reportThat’s the name you’ll find the session under in the list in the app on your phone. Without it, Claude Code names the session based on the conversation.
Once connected, the terminal shows /rc active. If you don’t see it, widen the terminal window, because a narrow window hides it, or type /remote-control again – in a connected session the command opens the connection status panel. If the connection fails, Claude Code shows the reason in the terminal. If the reason concerns your subscription or your login, go back to the check in /status.
The /remote-control command also turns Remote Control on in the Claude Code extension for VS Code and in the Claude desktop app.
Your computer’s session in the Claude app on your phone
You’ll find the Claude app in the App Store and on Google Play. Log in with the same account Claude Code uses on your computer and tap Code in the app’s navigation. A list of sessions opens. A Remote Control session has a computer icon, and a green dot next to it means it’s connected and you can write to it. Anthropic reworks the app often, so Code may move to a different place in the menu over time – look for it by name.
You can’t start a new Remote Control session from your phone. Remote Control only connects you to sessions that are running on your computer with Remote Control on, and those are started in the terminal, in VS Code or in the Claude desktop app.
Talking to Claude Code from your phone
The easiest way to try Remote Control is with your phone in your hand and the terminal on the screen next to you. Open your computer’s session on the phone, and in the terminal, tell Claude Code:
List the files in this folder and ask me which one you should summarise for me.The list of files appears in the terminal and on the phone at the same time. Answer the question from the phone: type the file name in the app and send it. Your message shows up in the terminal, and you’ll see the summary in both places.
Claude Code’s questions and permission requests wait for your answer for as long as the session runs on your computer. From your phone you can answer a question and approve or reject a permission request. You can also send a photo or a file from your phone: Claude sees a photo straight away, as part of the message. Any other file Claude Code first downloads to your computer. Many commands work from the phone too, some in a simpler form than in the terminal, but a few, such as /plugin and /resume, only work in the terminal.
How often Claude Code asks for permission depends on the permission mode. Which mode to choose is covered in the tip on permission modes.
A sleeping computer and a closed terminal
Remote Control works for as long as Claude Code is running on your computer. While the computer is asleep, Claude Code isn’t running and won’t answer a message from your phone. When the computer wakes up and the network is back, Claude Code reconnects to the session on its own, without any command from you.
Closing the terminal window ends Claude Code, and the session on your phone is no longer available. To get back to it, start Claude Code in the same folder like this:
claude -cClaude Code picks up the last conversation and connects it to Remote Control again. If the connection doesn’t come back after the computer wakes up or after you resume the conversation, Claude Code shows the reason in the terminal. Then type /remote-control to connect again.
Disconnecting and getting back to your desk
You turn Remote Control off in the panel that opens when you type /remote-control again in a connected session. Disconnecting only cuts off the phone: the session in the terminal keeps running, with the whole conversation. With the option from /config on, every new session still starts with Remote Control on.
You don’t have to disconnect. Back at your desk, you carry on typing in the terminal, in the same conversation, and the phone stays connected for as long as the session runs.
What to take away from this lesson
- Claude Code keeps working on your computer. The phone only shows the conversation and passes your messages into it, so the computer has to be on and Claude Code running.
- You turn Remote Control on for good in /config, or with a command for a single session. Enable Remote Control for all sessions connects every new session from the start; the /remote-control command connects the one that’s already running.
- From your phone you connect to a session from your computer. The session itself is started in the terminal, in VS Code or in the Claude desktop app.
- Questions and permission requests wait for your answer, and you can answer them from your phone.
- After your computer wakes up, Claude Code reconnects on its own. After you close the terminal, you resume the conversation with claude -c in the same folder.
Tasks
Your browser remembers the items you tick off for a month.
- Plan and account checked in /status
- Enable Remote Control for all sessions set to true, or the session connected with /remote-control
- /rc active visible in the terminal
- Claude app on the phone logged in with the same account, your computer’s session visible in Code with a green dot
- An answer sent from the phone visible in the terminal
- Notifications on in /config, without the No mobile registered message
- Remote Control disconnected in the panel, and the conversation in the terminal carries on