Claude Code Remote Control (2026): Setup, Fixes, Sleep Limits

Claude Code Remote Control lets you steer a Claude Code session from your phone or browser, but the session still runs on your machine, so it stops when the machine sleeps. It is in research preview on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. Start it with claude remote-control, then connect from claude.ai/code or the Claude app.

TL;DR

• What it is: a window into a Claude Code session on your machine. Files, tools, and MCP servers stay local; your phone only sends and receives messages.
• Setup: claude remote-control in your project, then scan the QR code or open the session at claude.ai/code.
• The catch: your computer and the claude process have to stay running. Sleep it, close the terminal, or drop wifi for too long, and the session goes offline.
• Not working? Most setup errors come from sign-in or an environment variable; the troubleshooting table lists each error and its fix. Bug #34255 reports silent drops where auto-reconnect never fires.

What Claude Code Remote Control actually is (and what it isn't)

Remote Control connects claude.ai/code and the Claude app to a Claude Code session on your own machine. Start a task at your desk, then keep working on it from your phone or a browser, per the official docs.

The part people miss: nothing moves to the cloud. Claude keeps running locally the entire time, so code execution and filesystem access stay on your machine. The web and mobile interfaces are a window into that local session. Remote Control feels like "Claude Code on phone," but it is not Claude Code on the web, which runs on Anthropic-managed cloud infrastructure.

Requirements

Remote Control is in research preview and available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, per the docs. API keys are not supported. On Team and Enterprise it is off by default until an Owner enables it.

The environment gotchas block more people than the plan check:

• You must be logged in through claude.ai. Run claude and use /login; API-key or third-party login does not work.
• Headless tokens don't work. Tokens from claude setup-token or CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN only make model requests; run claude auth login instead.
• Not on Bedrock, Vertex, or Foundry. It needs the Anthropic API directly, and it is disabled when ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL points anywhere but api.anthropic.com.
• Feature-flag env vars break it. DISABLE_TELEMETRY, DO_NOT_TRACK, CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC, and DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK each disable the check Remote Control depends on. Unset them.
• Workspace trust. Run claude in the project directory once; your home directory never qualifies, so start from a project directory.

How to set it up, step by step

Three ways in. Documented in the Remote Control guide.

1. Server mode. In your project directory run:

claude remote-control

The process stays in your terminal and prints a session URL; press spacebar for a QR code. The hint is in very small text, but do it: scanning is the fastest way to connect your phone. Server mode runs more than one session: up to 32 concurrent by default (--capacity), and --spawn worktree gives each on-demand session its own git worktree.

Useful flags: --name "My Project" sets the title, --verbose shows connection logs, --sandbox turns on sandboxing.

2. Interactive session. Keep a normal terminal session while also steering it remotely:

claude --remote-control

or the short form claude --rc.

3. From an existing session. Inside a running session, run /remote-control (or /rc). This carries over your conversation history.

To connect, open the session URL in any browser, scan the QR code, or find the session by name in the Code tab of the Claude app. Run /mobile in the terminal for a download QR code.

To auto-connect every session, run /config and set Enable Remote Control for all sessions.

How it works: what runs locally, what is relayed

The connection model explains every failure mode below.

Your local session makes outbound HTTPS requests only and never opens inbound ports. It registers with the Anthropic API and polls for work. When you connect, Anthropic's server relays messages between your device and the session over a TLS streaming connection, using short-lived, single-purpose credentials.

The trade-off: while connected, the session transcript (messages, responses, tool activity) is stored on Anthropic servers to keep the conversation in sync and let the session reconnect after a drop. Execution and filesystem access stay on your machine.

Access is tied to your claude.ai account, not the URL: auto-connect sessions appear only in your own account's Claude apps, so protect that account. On Team and Enterprise, Trusted Devices (beta) adds a layer: each device must be enrolled, and your sign-in must be no older than 18 hours. A disableRemoteControl setting exists, and Zero Data Retention organizations cannot use Remote Control.

What happens when the laptop sleeps, the lid closes, or wifi drops

A top-ranking r/ClaudeCode post for "claude code remote control", 1w8zo58, opens with: "Claude Code Remote is great until your dev machine goes to sleep."

The docs promise reconnection, but only reconnection. Per the docs: "if your laptop sleeps or your network drops, Claude Code reconnects automatically when your machine comes back online," and it queues subagent and workflow updates, delivering them once it recovers.

Reconnect means the phone reattaches; it does not mean work continued. While asleep, the local process computes nothing.

• Laptop sleeps: nothing runs until it wakes, then the remote link reconnects. Whether the agent picks up cleanly after waking varies; in Cloudroom's Immortal Agents tests, Codex recovered on its own after 21 minutes offline while Claude Code needed a continuation prompt.
• Lid closes: on a MacBook this normally triggers sleep, so same as above. Exception: clamshell mode with power and an external display stays awake with the lid closed. In practice this is very flaky, so don't rely on it.
• Terminal closes (or you Ctrl+C the process): the session goes offline until you bring it back, per the docs.

  Recovery is built in. Run claude remote-control to bring back every session it was serving, --continue for the first session, or --session-id <id> for one specific session. All three work for about 4 hours after the server stopped; the --continue and --session-id flags need v2.1.200 or later. For a --rc or /rc session, resume with claude --continue or claude --resume. On a remote machine, run the process inside tmux or screen so it survives an SSH disconnect.

• Wifi drops (machine awake, network gone): the behavior depends on the mode.
  • Server mode: Claude Code gives up after roughly 10 minutes and the process exits. Run it again to start a new session.
  • Interactive session: Claude Code retries for as long as the outage lasts and reconnects on its own when the network returns.
  • If presence heartbeats fail while the rest of the connection stays up, an interactive session shows "could not reach the Remote Control server" after about 30 minutes and disconnects. Run /remote-control to reconnect.

There is one more layer to this, and it's behind many of the "not working" reports. GitHub issue #34255, open since March 2026 and still getting reports in August, describes automatic reconnection that often never fires: the connection drops silently, the phone still shows the session as active, but messages don't go through. Reconnect behavior has changed since that report (v2.1.224 fixed a stale-token startup failure, and v2.1.232 changed what happens on resume when the server reports the recorded session gone). If you still hit this on a current version, the workaround users report is a manual cycle at the machine: /remote-control, Disconnect, then /remote-control again.

Mobile push notifications

Claude decides when to push, typically when a long task finishes or it needs a decision; you can also ask for one, for example notify me when the tests finish.

Turn it on with /config: Push when Claude decides for proactive notifications, Push when actions required for permission prompts and questions. If /config shows No mobile registered, open the Claude app so it can refresh its push token. On Android, battery optimization can delay pushes; on iOS, Focus modes can suppress them. Permission prompts stay open until you answer them, and these toggles make sure you see them.

Claude Code Remote Control not working: what to try

Built from the documented errors.

For headless setups, the community workaround is tmux plus a watchdog that restarts the process when it loses its ESTAB connection on port 443; a systemd version is posted in #34255.

Remote Control vs tmux and SSH vs cloud sessions vs a VPS vs Cloudroom

All five move the screen; the difference is what keeps running when you walk away.

Remote Control is the right tool when the job is "keep steering the work already on my machine." It is the wrong tool the moment you need the work to survive your machine being off. For that, your options are cloud sessions, a VPS or Mac mini, or a hosted platform.

Anthropic's Dispatch sits in between: message a task from the Claude app and it runs on the Desktop app on your machine (Pro or Max). The machine still has to stay on.

Cloudroom is our take on the hosted option: each agent gets its own cloud sandbox and its own Git branch, and it keeps working after you close the laptop. You bring your own subscriptions, and the core is open source. See our guide to keeping agents running with the laptop closed. Claude Code, Codex, and Pi Agent already work, and Cloudroom is invite-only while we test it.

I think Claude Code Remote Control is a good solution if you're starting out and you're fine with one subscription and some downtime. For anyone more advanced, I'd recommend tmux + SSH as a short-term patch, since it works with any model provider. You'll still run into problems when your laptop isn't on, and you won't get a clean interface. The best long-term setup I landed on after testing many is a clean GUI with all the providers in one place and cloud sessions built in.

Codex Remote Control, briefly

OpenAI shipped the same idea on May 14, 2026. Codex now lives in the ChatGPT mobile app in preview on iOS and Android across all plans, including Free. From the phone you connect to the Codex desktop app on macOS (Windows is "coming soon") or to a Remote SSH host, to review outputs, approve commands, and start new threads. A secure relay keeps those machines reachable without exposing them to the public internet.

The property is identical to Claude's: "your files, credentials, permissions, and local setup stay on the machine where Codex is operating," so that machine has to stay on; Remote SSH is generally available for an always-on devbox (announcement).

Cloudroom runs each of your coding agents in its own cloud sandbox, with your own subscriptions. Its Rust core is open source at github.com/davidondrej/cloudroom-core. If "my agent stops when I close the laptop" is your problem, start with our laptop-closed guide, or join the Cloudroom waitlist.