How to control Claude Code from your phone

A walkthrough of pairing your terminal with a mobile remote, with notes on PTY handling and React Ink quirks I learned the hard way.

1. The problem — describe the "agent paused, dev paused" loop. Why mobile makes sense (you have notifications, voice input, a touchscreen — all the pieces).
   
   
   
   
   1. What it is, in one sentence — CodeAgent Mobile is a mobile app + CLI that pair via 6-character code so you can drive Claude Code from your phone while it runs locally on
      your laptop.
      
   
   
   2. Setup walkthrough (with code blocks):
      npm install -g codeam-cli
      codeam pair # prints a 6-char code
      Pairing code: 7K2QFM
      Waiting for mobile…
      
   
   
   3. Open the app, enter the code, then:
      codeam # spawns Claude Code; you control from phone now
   
   
   4. What you can actually do from the phone — bullet list with screenshots: prompt input (text + voice), output streaming, approve interactive prompts (y/n, numbered
      selectors), file attachments, model picker.
      
   
   
   5. The interesting technical bits (this is what makes it a Dev.to-worthy post, not a sales pitch):
      
   
   
   6. Why a Python PTY helper: Node's child_process.spawn doesn't allocate a full PTY by default → Claude Code (which uses React Ink) refuses to render interactive UI without a
      TTY. The Python helper wraps the spawn so stdin.isTTY === true even when the CLI's parent is non-interactive.
      
   
   
   7. The 80ms arrow key gap: arrow keys for navigating Ink selectors must be sent one at a time with ≥80ms between each. Sending them in a single write() collapses them into
      one synchronous batch and React batches the state updates → Enter always picks option 0. Took weeks to track down.
      
   
   
   8. Why the backend is just a relay: code never leaves your machine; Anthropic billing stays on your existing key; the backend has zero LLM cost so the free tier can be
      generous.
      
   
   
   9. Caveats — needs internet, free tier limits, you still need an Anthropic subscription on your laptop.
      
   
   
   10. What's next — roadmap (multi-agent comparison, voice-driven flows, etc.).
       
   
   
   11. CTA — install, try it, give feedback. Link to repo.