Remote Computing
How I leave my Mac at home and still access it from my iPad and work with coding agents.
This was the first time in a long while that I traveled without a laptop. Riga, by the way. This time, I only brought my phone and my iPad.
For many people, that probably isn’t a big deal. But sometimes I need to get my computer out of trouble. Or I have an idea while I’m away and want to tinker with something after all.
So I had to solve two problems: How do I access my Mac while I’m away? And how can I actually work with it without recreating an entire development environment on my iPad?
Part 1: Remote Access
The foundation is surprisingly unspectacular.
My Mac runs caffeinate -dimsu to keep it from going to sleep while I’m away. That’s also useful for the cron jobs I have running.
All my devices are connected through Tailscale as well. Tailscale can do a lot, but I only use a small part of it: My phone, iPad, and Mac can reach each other. That also lets me access the little fun dashboards I host at home while I’m away.
For direct access, I use Termius as my SSH client. When the terminal isn’t enough, I open my Mac on the iPad with Jump Desktop.
That solves the access problem. It still doesn’t mean I want to write code directly on an iPad.
Part 2: Remote Agentic Coding
Of course, I had ideas for new features while I was away. I wanted to build a mobile editor for my blog. The posts live as Markdown files in the repository and go from GitHub to Vercel. I could work on them directly through GitHub, but I don’t particularly enjoy doing that on mobile.
This is where agentic coding gets interesting. I don’t need to move my entire development environment to the iPad. The agent works on my Mac while I control the session from my iPad or phone.
I tried three different options. Here they are, worst to best.
1. Claude Remote Control
Honestly, it sucks.
I first have to start a session on the target machine before I can control it through the mobile app. In my case, that means connecting to the Mac over SSH, starting tmux, launching Claude, and then switching over. It works, but it only solves half of my actual problem.
2. t3code
On desktop, t3code actually offers the best experience for me. The connection is a little fragile, though. It’s currently too flaky for mobile use, so it only makes second place.
3. Codex through ChatGPT
Codex currently gives me the best mobile experience. I don’t have to connect to the Mac over SSH first, and the connection is stable enough for what I need.
The Codex app runs on my computer. Through the mobile ChatGPT app, I can start, control, and monitor sessions. That’s exactly what I wanted: The Mac does the work without making me plan my vacation around operating it.
I probably won’t need to bring my laptop on a trip again anytime soon. My travel companion is likely even happier about that than I am. 😅