Remote

Claude often works for minutes and then stops to ask before it runs a command, or to ask you a question. With Remote you see that on your phone and answer it there, from the couch, a meeting or the train.

On your phone you can:

see your sessions with their status, and answer what Claude asks right from the list;
read a session’s conversation as it happens, with Claude’s answers formatted and its tool runs folded into one line;
allow or deny what Claude asks, answer its questions, and start or keep working on a plan;
send a prompt, or add one to Up next while Claude works, and remove it again;
see what a finished session did, look at its changes and commit them;
stop Claude’s turn, mark a session as read or archive it;
start a new session in one of the projects you added in Switchboard, with that project’s defaults or your own choice of Claude profile, model, effort, mode and worktree;
get a notification when a session needs you or finishes.

Everything else stays on your computer: the terminal, pushing and pull requests, memory, settings, managing profiles and attachments.

How it works

Switchboard on your computer listens on 127.0.0.1, port 47615 unless you change it under Port in Settings → Remote. Only your computer can reach that address. A tunnel gives it an https:// address your phone can reach from anywhere. The page on your phone is the remote app at switchboard.struyfconsulting.com/remote/, and it connects to your computer through the tunnel.

Only phones you pair can get in. Each phone has its own key, every connection checks that key and your computer’s, and everything is encrypted from your phone to your computer. The tunnel carries your messages, but it can’t read or change them.

Choose a tunnel

In Settings → Remote (Command, CommaControl, Comma), choose how your phone reaches this computer. Switchboard starts the tunnel when you turn Remote on and stops it when you turn Remote off or quit.

Tunnel	Needs	Address
Cloudflare quick tunnel	`cloudflared` installed, no account	Changes each time it starts
Tailscale	Tailscale on your computer and your phone, HTTPS certificates on for your tailnet	Stays the same
ngrok	`ngrok` installed and signed in to your account	Stays the same with your ngrok domain
My own address	A tunnel or proxy you run yourself, forwarding to `http://127.0.0.1` and your port (47615 by default)	Yours

Tailscale is the most private: only your own devices on your tailnet can reach the address. With the others, anyone who has the address can reach Remote, but only paired phones get past it.

Cloudflare with your own domain

A quick tunnel gets a new address each time it starts. If your domain is on Cloudflare, a named tunnel gives you an address that never changes, such as https://switchboard.example.com.

Follow Cloudflare’s guide to create a tunnel and run it on your computer.
Add a public hostname to the tunnel with your domain. Set its service to http://127.0.0.1:47615, or your own port if you changed it.
In Settings → Remote, choose My own address and enter the https:// address of that hostname.

Don’t put a login page, such as Cloudflare Access, in front of it: your phone can’t get past it.

Install cloudflared or ngrok with Homebrew (brew install cloudflared, brew install ngrok). Switchboard finds them in Homebrew’s folders and in /usr/local/bin. Tailscale’s app from the App Store or tailscale.com works as it is.

Install cloudflared or ngrok with winget (winget install Cloudflare.cloudflared, winget install ngrok.ngrok). Switchboard finds them where winget puts them, in Program Files and on your PATH. Tailscale’s installer from tailscale.com works as it is.

Pair a phone

In Settings → Remote, turn on Allow access from my phone and choose a tunnel. Wait until the status says Running.
Click Pair a phone. Switchboard shows a QR code. It works once, for two minutes.
Scan it with your phone’s camera. Your phone opens the remote app and asks for a name for the phone.
Tap Pair. Your phone shows a 6-digit code, and Switchboard asks Pair your phone? with a code too.
Check that both codes are the same, then click Allow.

To use Remote in the browser of another computer instead, click Copy link under the QR code and open the link there. It pairs the same way and works once, for two minutes, like the code.

Your phone shows your sessions. Add it to your home screen to open it like an app. Next time it connects by itself.

Change the port

Switchboard listens on port 47615. If another app uses it, or you want another one, change Port in Settings → Remote to a number from 1024 to 65535. Remote restarts on the new port. With My own address, point your tunnel at the new port too.

Paired phones and Revoke

Paired phones in Settings → Remote lists each phone with when it last connected, and Connected now while it is. Revoke disconnects a phone at once, and it can’t connect again until you pair it again. A phone that doesn’t connect for 30 days is removed. On the phone, Forget this computer in the ⋯ menu next to the computer’s name removes the pairing from the phone.

Home

The app opens on Home. At the top, a card says how many sessions need you, how many are working and how many finished today. Tap it to open the list. Under it, each Claude profile has a card with how much of its plan is used: a bar for the 5-hour window and one for the week, with when each resets. A bar turns orange from 60% and red from 85%. With one profile the section is called Usage, with more Profiles. The numbers come from your computer: they update when it checks, and each time you come back to the app. New session is at the bottom of the screen.

To come back to Home from the list, tap the house button next to Sessions. The back gesture doesn’t go between Home and the list: from a session, it goes back to the one you came from.

The list

The chip at the top right shows your computer’s name with a green dot while your phone is connected. It turns orange with Reconnecting… while your phone tries again, and red with Offline when it stopped trying.

Under it, All, Needs you and Working narrow the list. A chip with nothing in it is hidden. The magnifier searches the titles, project names and branches. Esc or the close button ends the search.

What Claude asks shows first, as cards with a pink frame, the oldest first:

A command, an edit or a fetch has Deny and Allow on the card. Allow answers it from the list, and the card folds away. Always allow isn’t on the card: open the session to read what it does.
A question or a plan is a short row. Tap it to answer in the session.

Tap anywhere else on a card to open its session. If someone answered first, on your computer or another phone, the phone says Already answered.

Below the cards are your sessions by group: working, today, yesterday and earlier. Sessions you haven’t read have a bold title. Right-click a session for Mark as read and Archive. With more than one Claude profile, each session’s left edge has its profile’s colour, as in Switchboard’s sidebar. New session is at the bottom of the screen.

A session

The header shows the session’s status, project and branch, and with more than one Claude profile, the profile it runs with. The ⋯ menu has Stop while Claude works, Mark as read and Archive. Opening a session marks it as read, as on your computer.

When Claude needs you, the question stays above the message box, so it doesn’t scroll away: Claude needs you, what it asks, and Deny, Always allow when it’s offered, and Allow. The arrow folds it to one line while you read the conversation. With more than one, 1 of 2 and the arrows step through them. While it’s open, the message box says Or tell Claude what to do instead: what you send there says no, with your message as the reason.

While Claude works, the end of the conversation shows three dots, how long the turn has taken and what Claude is doing, such as Thinking or Using Bash. A working session’s dot pulses, in the list and in the header.

Claude’s answers show headings, lists, links, code and tables, also while Claude is still writing them. Code blocks have Copy. A run of tool calls is one line, such as 6 steps · edited 3 files, ran 2 commands: tap it to see each step. The run Claude is working on stays open.

When a session finished, it starts with its catch-up, as on your computer: how it ended, how long it takes to review, what Claude did, whether the tests passed, and how much changed. The conversation is folded under it: tap Show the conversation to read it.

In a session that runs in Switchboard, the chips under the message box show its model, effort and permission mode. Tap one to change it. The effort chip only shows for a model that takes an effort; Default is the model’s own. From a phone you can pick Ask before edits, Accept edits, Plan mode or Auto mode.

To send images with a message, tap the image button next to the message box: your phone offers its camera and its photos. In a browser on a computer, you can also paste a screenshot or drop images on the message box. Each shows as a thumbnail above the box, with a button to remove it. A message takes up to four images. Your phone makes big photos smaller before it sends them.

Ask about this session

The blue question mark in a session’s header opens Ask about this session, as on your computer: ask Claude what changed, which files it touched or why it took an approach, while it keeps working. Nothing is added to the conversation. On a phone it opens as a sheet, in a wide window on the right, in the place of Changes.

A new thread starts with four questions to tap. Follow-ups go with the earlier questions of their thread. New thread starts another, and ⋯ lists the earlier ones. The questions you asked on your computer are there too. Under an answer, Copy copies it and Quote in message puts it in the message box as a quote. Close Ask while Claude answers, and a blue dot on the button says when the answer is ready.

Changes and Commit

The file button in a session’s header, and Changes on its catch-up, open what changed in the session’s folder (its worktree when it has one): each file with the lines added and removed, and the diff of the file you tap. Swipe it down to close it.

Ask Claude to fix… puts the file’s name in the message box, so you only say what to change.
Commit commits every change, with your message. It starts with what you asked Claude. It only commits: nothing is pushed. When a commit hook says no, the phone shows what it printed.

New session

Pick a project from the row of tiles (swipe for more), then type what Claude should do. Under the box, chips show the project’s defaults: the model, the effort, the permission mode, and This folder or New worktree. Tap one to change it for this session only.

With Auto model on in Settings › Conversation on your computer, the model list starts with Auto: Haiku reads your prompt and picks the model the session starts on, from the models you allowed. In the session, the model chip then says what it picked, such as Auto · Sonnet, until you pick another model. With Auto off, it isn’t offered, and a project whose default is Auto starts on your default model.

With more than one Claude profile, the first chip is the profile the session runs with: the project’s own, else your default profile. Pick another for this session only. The other chips then show that profile’s defaults, where the project sets none.

While a session works in that project, Queue for later puts the prompt in Switchboard’s queue instead. Start it from the queue on your computer.

On a computer or a tablet

In a wide window, such as the browser of another computer, your sessions stay on the left, as in Switchboard. Prompts are rows in Needs you, with what they ask (“Allow Bash”, “a question”). New session and the ⋯ menu are at the bottom of the list. The house button next to Sessions closes the open session and shows Home on the right.

What needs you

With no session open, the right side shows what needs you: how many sessions need you, how many are working and how many finished today. Under it, every prompt is a card, the oldest first, with everything you need to answer it there: Deny, Always allow when it’s offered, and Allow for a command or an edit, the options of a question with Skip and Answer, and Keep planning and Start for a plan. Open opens its session.

Below the cards, Finished, ready to review shows the sessions that finished and you haven’t read, each with how long it takes to review, what Claude did, the tests, Changes and Open. Then each Claude profile’s plan usage, as on a phone’s Home.

Keys

Key	What it does
Command, KControl, K	Search your sessions and projects, and run an action. Works in the message box too.
Command, Shift, UControl, Shift, U or U	Open the next session that needs you: the ones waiting for you first, the longest waiting first, then the ones you haven’t read.
J and K	Move to the next or previous card, or session in the list.
A	Allow the card you’re on, or in a session the prompt above the message box.
D	Deny it.
ReturnEnter	Open the card you’re on.
N	New session.
Up Arrow and Down Arrow	Move through the files in Changes.
Escape	Close the search, a sheet or Changes, in that order.
?	Show these keys.

The letters only work when you’re not typing in a field, and never with another key held. A does nothing when the prompt is scrolled out of view, so you never allow something you can’t see.

Microsoft Edge keeps Command, Shift, UControl, Shift, U for Read aloud: use U there.

Search and jump

Command, KControl, K, or Search or jump to… at the top of the list, opens the search. Type a few letters of a session’s title, its project or its branch. Sessions that need you come first. Under them, New session in a project that matches, and actions: Next that needs you, New session, Go to Home, Turn on notifications, Mark all as read and Forget this computer. Use the arrow keys and ReturnEnter to pick one.

A session and its Changes

The conversation keeps a comfortable reading width in the middle. The header shows the model and the permission mode (such as Opus · Auto), Ask, Changes with the number of files, and Stop while Claude works. The buttons of a prompt show their keys.

In a window at least 1280 pixels wide, Changes opens on the right instead of over the conversation: the files, the diff of the one you pick, a commit message that starts with what you asked, Ask Claude to fix… and Commit. The browser remembers whether you had it open. Ask opens in the same place; close it and Changes comes back. Esc closes either.

The browser tab

The tab’s title starts with the number of sessions that need you, such as (2) Switchboard Remote, and its icon gets a pink dot. In a session the title is the session’s, so you can find the tab among others.

Notifications

Your phone can tell you when a session needs you or finishes, also when the page is closed. After you pair, a card offers Turn on (in a wide window, a strip above the sessions does). Later, open Notifications in the ⋯ menu and turn Needs you and Finished on or off. Nothing comes while Switchboard Remote is open in front of you.

A notification goes from your computer to your browser’s push service (Apple’s, Google’s, Mozilla’s or Microsoft’s), and from there to your phone. It is encrypted for your phone, so the push service can’t read it. Your computer needs to reach those services over HTTPS: behind a strict proxy, notifications may not arrive.

Tap a notification to open its session. In Chrome, Edge and Firefox on a computer, a notification about a command or an edit also has Deny and Allow. They open Switchboard Remote, which answers once it’s connected, and says Already answered if you, or someone else, answered first.

When your phone can’t connect

A line under the header says why, when your phone can tell:

Its tunnel address changed: a Cloudflare quick tunnel got a new address. Click Show the address to paired phones in Settings → Remote and scan that code, or use a tunnel whose address stays the same.
Is it asleep or offline?: nothing answers. Wake your computer, or check its network.
Is Switchboard running, with Remote on?: the address answers, but Switchboard doesn’t.

Help explains what to do, with a link to this page. While it’s offline, your phone keeps showing the last list, greyed out, and the buttons that need your computer are off. It tries again by itself, and at once when you come back to the page.

Good to know

Your computer has to be on and Switchboard running. Sleep stops Remote until the computer wakes up.
The phone only lists the sessions your sidebar lists, outside Archived, and can only open those.
Messages you send from your phone show From your phone under them on the phone.
Scrolled up in a conversation, Jump to latest takes you back down. It says New messages when something arrived below.
The chip and the offline help use your computer’s name, which you set in System Settings → General → About → NameSettings → System → About → Rename this PC.
Pairing is closed after five wrong attempts, until you click Pair a phone again.
Your phone keeps its key in the browser, for this site only. Someone with your unlocked phone can use Remote until you revoke it.