How to control Codex and Claude Code from your phone
A phone can follow and steer a coding agent only while the machine running the agent is awake and online. If Codex or Claude Code runs on your laptop, the phone shows it offline as soon as the laptop sleeps. Run the agent on a machine that stays on, a server or a cloud workspace such as Murmell, and the phone becomes a full remote.
Step by step
- Run the agent on a machine that stays on. A server inside tmux, or a cloud workspace such as Murmell. Not the laptop that goes to sleep in your bag.
- Open it from the phone. Over SSH from a terminal app for a server, or in the phone’s browser for Murmell.
- Answer and start the next task. Reply to the question the agent stopped on, approve its change, or give it the next task.
- Put the phone away. The agent keeps working on its machine, and you find the result on any device.
What the phone is for
Nobody writes code on a phone. What you want is to see where an agent is, answer the question it stopped on, approve a change, and start the next task, from a train or a queue, so the agent is not idle until you are back at a desk.
Why it breaks
Remote control features for coding agents relay between your phone and the computer the agent runs on. The computer has to stay awake, online, and running the app. A laptop that goes to sleep in a bag, changes network or restarts for an update drops the link, and the phone shows it offline until you are back in front of it.
Make the phone a real remote
Move the agent off the laptop. On a server inside tmux, you can reach it over SSH from a phone terminal app, which works but is cramped. Keeping agents running when the laptop sleeps compares the options.
In Murmell, Codex and Claude Code run on a cloud machine. Open the canvas in your phone’s browser and you get every agent of the project, its conversation, its questions and the changes it made. Answer, start a task, close the browser: the agents keep going, and teammates on the same canvas see the same thing.
Straight answers
Why does my phone show my computer as offline?
The phone talks to the agent through the computer that runs it. When that computer sleeps, loses its network or closes the app, the phone has nothing left to reach.
Can I answer an agent’s question from my phone?
Yes, as long as the agent is still running. In Murmell you see the question in the agent’s conversation, answer it, and the agent carries on.
Do I need an app on the phone for Murmell?
No. Murmell opens in the phone’s browser, with the same canvas, agents and conversations you have on a computer.