Is There a Mobile App for Claude Code?

TL;DR: As of 2026, there's no single official Claude Code mobile app — there are three real options, each with a different architecture: Claude Code Remote Control (Anthropic's built-in session bridge), Grass (direct local WiFi via grass-ide, or cloud VM via codeongrass.com), and CodeVibe (cloud relay with native push notifications). Which one fits depends on whether you need sessions to survive your laptop closing, who you're comfortable routing traffic through, and whether you need agents beyond Claude Code.

Does Claude Code have an official mobile app?

Claude Code does not have a dedicated native mobile app from Anthropic. There is the Claude iOS/Android app (available since October 2025), which provides Claude's general chat interface. Separately, Anthropic shipped Claude Code Remote Control in February 2026, which lets you continue an existing Claude Code terminal session from the Claude mobile app. Remote Control is the closest thing to an "official" answer — but it comes with a key limitation: you cannot start a new Claude Code session from mobile, only rejoin one already running on your machine.

The broader mobile access story in 2026 is an ecosystem of independent tools, not a single app. Three architectural approaches dominate developer conversations, and they work differently in ways that matter for real workflows.

What does Claude Code Remote Control actually do?

Claude Code Remote Control is Anthropic's native answer to mobile agent access. It shipped as part of Claude Code v2 on February 24–25, 2026 — initially as a Max-plan preview, now available on all Claude plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise).

When you start a session in your terminal, Remote Control creates a bridge so you can continue that conversation from the Claude mobile app on any device. Architecturally it is local-first: Claude Code executes entirely on your machine. Only conversation messages route through the Anthropic API over TLS. Your machine never opens inbound ports. No third-party infrastructure sees your session or your project files.

The critical limitation: you cannot start a session from mobile — only continue one. You must have already opened a session in your terminal before you can pick it up on your phone. If your machine goes offline or can't reach the network for roughly 10 minutes, the session times out. Remote Control works well for "kick off at my desk, monitor from my couch," but not for "start fresh work from my commute."

Push notifications arrived with Claude Code v2.1.110 — you can ask Claude to notify you when tests finish, or it notifies automatically when a task completes or needs input. This addressed the biggest practical pain point: not knowing whether your agent was stuck or done.

What is Grass, and how does it work?

Grass is available in two distinct products that are often confused:

grass-ide (@grass-ai/ide, open-source MIT) is a local CLI tool. Run grass start in your project directory, scan a QR code, and you get a web-based chat UI connected directly to your local Claude Code or Open Code process over WiFi. The server runs on your laptop on ports 32100–32199. No cloud relay — prompts travel from your phone's browser to the Grass server on your machine. Nothing leaves your network except the agent's own API calls. Sessions die when your laptop sleeps, same as Remote Control — but grass-ide supports multiple agents (Claude Code, Codex, Open Code) and does not require the Claude app at all. BYOK is the default: your API key stays in your environment, never in Grass infrastructure.

codeongrass.com is a cloud VM product. It provisions an always-on Daytona workspace with Claude Code, Codex, and Open Code pre-installed. Sessions run on the cloud VM and survive your laptop closing entirely — the agent is not tied to your machine. You can connect from any surface: the native mobile app, a browser, or via MCP dispatch from your laptop.

The key Grass differentiator against Remote Control: it supports Claude Code, Codex, and Open Code from the same interface. The cloud VM version is the only option in this comparison where sessions survive laptop closure by default. For a head-to-head breakdown, see Grass vs Claude Code Remote Control: Which Should You Use?.

What is CodeVibe and how is it different?

CodeVibe (quantiya.ai) launched April 2026 and takes a cloud relay architecture. It wraps existing CLI tools — codevibe-claude, codevibe-gemini, codevibe-codex — and routes session activity through AWS infrastructure (AppSync, DynamoDB, Lambda). The agent still executes on your local machine; CodeVibe's cloud layer handles push notifications, diff delivery, and multi-agent coordination to native iOS and Android apps.

The pitch from the CodeVibe founder on r/SideProject captures the core use case: "I step away and my agent gets stuck waiting for me to approve a file edit. 20 minutes of zero progress. So I built CodeVibe. Your phone gets a push notification when your agent needs input. You see the diff, reply '1' to approve, agent keeps going. 5 seconds, no laptop needed."

Session traffic is encrypted with AES-256-GCM in transit. Push notifications work over cellular — unlike grass-ide, which requires your phone to be on the same local WiFi network as your laptop.

The tradeoff: CodeVibe's AWS relay means your session activity passes through their infrastructure. For developers with strict data handling requirements, the cloud relay versus local-only distinction matters. And like Remote Control and grass-ide, CodeVibe sessions die when your laptop closes — only the notification and coordination layer lives in the cloud, not the agent itself.

How do the three options compare? (Architecture + BYOK table)

What happens when my laptop closes? The question that separates them all

This is the clearest differentiator in practice:

Remote Control dies. Per official documentation: "If your machine is awake but unable to reach the network for more than roughly 10 minutes, the session times out." Close the lid, lose the session.

grass-ide dies. The Grass server process is running on your laptop. No laptop, no server.

CodeVibe dies. CodeVibe wraps your local CLI tools. The cloud handles routing and notifications, but the agent process is still on your machine.

Grass cloud VM survives. The agent is running on a Daytona workspace in the cloud — not on your laptop at all. Close your laptop, open your phone an hour later, and the session is still there.

For long overnight tasks or multi-hour autonomous builds, the cloud VM is the only architecture in this group that doesn't require leaving a machine running. If you're interested in DIY approaches to the same problem, how to keep Claude Code running after SSH disconnects with tmux covers persistent-session setup from the other direction.

Which option should I choose?

Choose Remote Control if you already have a Claude plan, want zero new installs, and your main workflow is starting sessions at your desk then monitoring from another room or device. It's Anthropic's native answer and the lowest-friction starting point.

Choose grass-ide if you want a local-only setup with no third-party relay beyond Anthropic itself, you use Open Code or Codex alongside Claude Code, and you're typically on the same WiFi network as your development machine. Setup takes under five minutes: npm install -g @grass-ai/ide, then grass start, then scan the QR code.

Choose Grass cloud VM if you need sessions to survive your laptop closing, want multi-agent support from one surface, or want to dispatch work over cellular (not just WiFi). The free tier covers 10 hours with no credit card required.

Choose CodeVibe if native push notification is the must-have — specifically the pattern of getting notified the moment your agent needs approval, opening the native app, seeing the diff, and tapping approve in under five seconds. CodeVibe is also the option if you run Gemini CLI agents alongside Claude.

For approval workflows specifically — approving or denying tool calls from your phone without being at your laptop — all four options handle this, but the UX differs significantly. See How to Get Claude Code Notifications on Your Phone for a focused look at notification approaches across tools.

What about Happy Coder and other options?

Happy Coder is worth knowing about. It has 12,000+ GitHub stars, is MIT-licensed and free, and uses Signal-equivalent end-to-end encryption — making it the default recommendation in Reddit threads when developers ask about privacy-first mobile Claude Code access. If E2EE is your hard requirement and you're running Claude Code locally, Happy Coder is the most-recommended free option in the community. The full comparison of mobile coding agent apps covers Happy Coder, Omnara, and Grass side by side.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an official Claude Code iOS app?
There is no standalone Claude Code iOS app from Anthropic. The Claude app (iOS and Android) added Remote Control support in February 2026, which lets you continue existing Claude Code terminal sessions from your phone. It does not let you start new sessions from mobile or use a different AI coding agent. Two separate things were released on iOS: the general Claude chat app (October 2025) and Remote Control bridging for existing Claude Code terminal sessions (February 2026).

Can I run Claude Code from my phone without keeping my laptop on?
Yes, but only with the Grass cloud VM (codeongrass.com). It runs your agent on an always-on Daytona workspace that persists independently of your laptop. Remote Control, grass-ide, and CodeVibe all require your local machine to stay running — they bridge to a local agent process rather than running the agent in the cloud.

Does Claude Code Remote Control let me start sessions from mobile?
No — Remote Control only lets you continue sessions already started in a terminal on your machine. This is the most-discussed limitation in r/ClaudeCode since Remote Control shipped in February 2026. The required workflow is: open your terminal, start claude, then pick it up on your phone. Grass and CodeVibe both let you initiate sessions from mobile.

Which option keeps my code off third-party servers?
Remote Control routes only conversation messages through Anthropic's API — your file contents stay on your machine. grass-ide routes nothing through any third party at all (direct local WiFi connection from phone to laptop). Both keep your project files off third-party infrastructure. CodeVibe routes session activity through AWS, and Grass cloud VM stores your code in Daytona cloud workspaces.

Which mobile Claude Code option supports agents other than Claude Code?
Grass (both grass-ide and the cloud VM) supports Claude Code, Codex, and Open Code from the same interface. CodeVibe supports Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and Codex. Remote Control is Claude Code only. If you are agent-agnostic and want a single mobile surface for multiple coding agents, Grass is currently the only option that supports all three major CLI agents.

Grass is one of the options covered in this article. This article is published by the Grass team at codeongrass.com — a cloud VM product built for developers running AI coding agents in production workflows.