Running Claude Code on a server, so it keeps working when my laptop is closed

People ask me this a lot since I started Podway, so here is the setup, in plain words.

The problem is simple. Claude Code runs on the laptop. When the laptop sleeps, the session is dead. Remote Control lets you open the session from your phone, but it doesn't move anything. The process still runs on the laptop. Lid closed, phone shows nothing.

The fix is to move the process to a machine that doesn't sleep. Below is how to do it by hand on a plain Linux server, what breaks after, and what I ended up building.

What Remote Control is, in one paragraph

The Claude app on your phone (or claude.ai/code in the browser) connects to a claude process that runs on some machine. Files, tools, git, everything stays on that machine. The phone only sends messages and shows the chat. The docs say it directly: "your computer has to stay on and the claude process has to keep running." You need a Claude Pro or Max plan for it. API keys don't work.

So "how do I use Claude Code from my phone" is really "where do I keep the process alive".

The manual way: a small Linux server

Any cheap VPS with Node on it.

1. Install Claude Code: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
2. Run claude, then /login, finish the browser step once. The login is saved on the server.
3. Start it inside tmux. Don't skip this. If you start claude straight from SSH and close the window, it dies with the window.

tmux new -s claude
cd ~/your-project
claude remote-control

claude remote-control is server mode. It prints a session link, and if you press space you get a QR code for the phone. Detach with Ctrl-b d, close SSH, go. From the phone you open the session like any other chat. If you want a normal terminal session with Remote Control on top, claude --remote-control does that, or /remote-control inside a running session.

That's it for day one. Works well.

What breaks in the following weeks

This is the part nobody writes about.

Reboot. The VPS reboots for a kernel update and nothing comes back. You SSH in and start tmux again. Or you write a systemd user service that runs claude remote-control --continue on boot (--continue restores your previous sessions, needs Claude Code 2.1.200+).

Login expired. One morning the phone just shows nothing. The saved login on the server ran out. SSH, /login, done. The annoying part is that nothing tells you.

Updates. Claude Code updates itself, and once in a while the update restarts the process. Pin the version, or live with it.

Crashes. In server mode a crashed session comes back when you message it from the phone (2.1.238+). Before that version, you start it again by hand.

Permission prompts. On a server Claude still stops before many commands and waits for you, same as on the laptop. You either answer from the phone all day, or you turn permissions off. If you turn them off, give Claude its own Linux user and keep your secrets out of its home. On a box that only Claude uses, this is fine. On your main server, it's not.

None of it is hard. It's just a second job: checking if the thing is still up.

What I run now

This is why Podway exists. A pod is a small always-on computer with Claude Code already on it. I sign in with my own Pro or Max plan once, and the pod does the babysitting:

• The session runs on the pod 24/7. I open it from the Claude app on the phone, no desktop needed.
• If Remote Control drops, Podway reconnects it. After a crash or an expired login it restarts Claude. A silent drop is caught within about 3 minutes.
• Claude runs without permission prompts, because the pod is its own isolated machine. My laptop and my network are out of its reach.
• Chats live on the pod's disk and in a nightly backup, so they survive restarts.
• My dev server, database and cron jobs keep running when the laptop is closed.

Same official Claude Code CLI, your own plan, no token markup. The first pod is free during early access, no card: podway.io/agent-computer.

Which to pick

If you like running servers, do the manual setup. Budget an evening and then an hour a month for the small stuff. If you want Claude Code working while you're away and don't want to check on a box, take a pod. And if you just need a one-off task with zero setup, Claude Code cloud sessions come with your plan; just know that when a cloud session goes idle, the machine is reclaimed, the chat stays, servers and running work stop.

Either way: Claude Code works from your phone as long as the process is alive somewhere. That's the whole trick.

Itzhak