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Control your computer's terminal from your phone — without SSH

June 27, 2026 · 4 min read

Get a live, persistent terminal to your own machine from an iPhone or iPad without an SSH server, keys or port forwarding — and a real file tree and Git UI alongside it.

A mobile SSH client gives you a shell — once you’ve stood up an SSH server, managed keys and dealt with port forwarding or a VPN to reach the box at home. If all you wanted was to check a build or restart a dev server from the couch, that’s a lot of setup for a terminal.

CodeMote gives you a live terminal to your own machine with nothing to configure beyond a one-time tunnel install — and wraps a real GUI around it.

No SSH, no keys, no port forwarding

Pairing is a QR scanover a Microsoft dev tunnel. The connection is outbound from your computer, so there’s no SSH server to expose, no keys to rotate and no router ports to open. Tokens are single-use and revokable from the Command Palette at any time.

The terminal keeps running

Shells run on your computer, not on the phone, so a build, a dev server or a long command keeps going after you background the app — and the live output is still streaming when you come back.

A raw shell is rarely all you want. CodeMote keeps the terminal and adds the project file tree, an editor, a full Git UI and an AI-agent approval flow around it.

Get started

Install devtunnel, add the CodeMote extension to VS Code, run CodeMote: Start Mobile Session and scan. The tutorial walks through it, and CodeMote vs SSH apps covers how it compares to Termius and Blink Shell.

Take your dev environment with you.

Drive your AI agents, terminals and Git from your phone — with no cloud copy of your code.

Get the app