For a long time, I did not think mobile development was very practical.
Yes, you could install an SSH client on an iPhone or iPad, connect to a server, and run a few commands. But for real development work, it usually felt too awkward. The screen was small, typing was slow, terminal interaction was not designed for touch, and anything more than a quick check often became frustrating.
AI coding agents changed that for me.
With tools like Claude Code, Codex CLI, and other terminal based agents, mobile development no longer means writing every line of code on a phone. The phone can become more like a control surface for a real development machine.
You connect to your Mac, Linux box, or remote server, guide the agent, review the output, trigger builds, and verify results. The actual heavy work still happens on the development machine.
That shift made me think mobile development could become practical in a new way.
So I built Redock.
Redock is an iOS and iPadOS terminal app designed around SSH, tmux, and AI coding agent workflows.
The problem I wanted to solve
The original use case came from my own workflow.
Sometimes I am not at my desk. I might be outside, waiting in line, or just away from my Mac. But that is often exactly when a small product idea, bug fix, or implementation detail comes to mind.
In the past, I would usually write it down and handle it later.
But now, with AI coding agents, a lot of small development tasks can be started and verified remotely.
For example:
- connect to my development machine
- resume a previous tmux session
- ask the agent to inspect or modify part of the codebase
- run tests or scripts
- keep the session alive even if the phone disconnects
Traditional mobile SSH clients can technically do some of this. But they are still mostly designed as generic terminals.
Redock is designed around the development loop.
How Redock is different from a generic SSH client
A normal mobile SSH client gives you a terminal.
That is useful, but it does not remove much friction from the workflow.
When working with coding agents, I found myself repeatedly doing the same things:
- navigating to the same project directory
- starting the same agent command
- attaching to the same tmux session
- running the same test, build, or deploy scripts
- copying and editing prompts before sending them
On a desktop, that is manageable. On a phone, every repeated command becomes friction.
So Redock adds a few workflow layers on top of SSH.
Projects
A Project groups a host, working directory, and common context together.
Instead of thinking only in terms of “connect to this server,” Redock lets me think in terms of “continue working on this project.”
This matters because agent workflows are context heavy. I usually want to land directly in the right machine, right directory, and right session.
Actions
An Action is a reusable command.
It can be something like:
- start Claude Code
- run tests
- open a project directory
- trigger a build script
The goal is not to hide the terminal. The goal is to avoid typing the same operational commands over and over on a small screen.
For mobile workflows, tappable commands make a big difference.
Agent TUI friendly terminal UX
Coding agents often use terminal UIs, long running output, and conversational history.
Redock adapts the terminal experience for that kind of usage:
- scrollable history
- gesture navigation
- voice input
- a draft input area for preparing prompts before sending
- better handling of long agent output on a small screen
The draft input area is especially important to me.
When I am using a phone, I do not want every typed character to go directly into the terminal. I often want to compose a prompt, edit it, and then send it as one message.
That feels much closer to how I actually interact with AI coding agents.
Built-in tmux workflow
Mobile connections are unreliable.
The app can be backgrounded. The network can change. The phone can disconnect. Long running agent sessions, builds, and deploy scripts should not die because of that.
So tmux is central to the workflow.
Redock makes it easy to create, resume, and keep sessions alive. The development task keeps running on the machine, while the phone is just the interface.
This is one of the biggest differences between “mobile terminal as a quick emergency tool” and “mobile terminal as a real workflow.”
Why terminal first instead of chat first
There are also remote agent controller products that provide a more chat like interface.
I considered that direction, but I wanted Redock to stay terminal first.
The reason is flexibility.
With SSH, I can use any CLI agent, any script, any shell tool, and any development environment. I can inspect files, run commands and verify things myself.
Redock does not proxy coding sessions through my server. It connects to your own machine over SSH.
That means the workflow is not tied to one specific agent or one hosted backend.
For my use case, that matters.
Link
You can find Redock here:
The bigger question
I do not think the phone will replace a desktop development setup.
That is not the point.
The more interesting question is whether AI coding agents make small pockets of development time more useful.
If the agent can do more of the implementation work on a real development machine, then maybe the phone becomes good enough for:
- starting a task
- guiding an agent
- reviewing progress
- running verification
- resuming a session
- shipping a small fix
That is the workflow I wanted to explore with Redock.
I am curious how other developers think about this.
Do you ever do real development work from a phone or tablet? Or prefer to keep coding strictly tied to a desktop setup?