Mobile and notifications

Setting this up for the first time? Run Claude Code from your phone walks through it in order, start to finish.

Install the app

Termdeck installs as a progressive web app, so there is no store download and no separate build to keep updated.

Turn on notifications

Go to Settings, then Notifications and enable push. Your browser asks for permission once. Termdeck then registers this device, so each phone, tablet, and desktop is subscribed separately and you can keep the phone loud and the desktop quiet.

Push needs a secure context. On termdeck.io that is always true. If the option says not supported, the browser itself lacks push rather than something being misconfigured.

What can notify you

A terminal or another process merely going quiet does not send a completion notification. Completion alerts are reserved for whole turns started from Termdeck.

Each is a separate switch. A reasonable starting point is approvals and questions on, turn finished off, because a finished run is something you go and look at while a blocked run is something that needs you now.

Logging out of a browser stops its notifications, and so does changing your password from another device. They come back on their own the next time you sign in on that browser, as long as it still allows notifications.

This browser remembers the switches, and Quote what the agent said with them. Disabling push and enabling it again, or the browser renewing its subscription on its own, keeps what you chose.

While you are using Termdeck

An alert never lands on one device while you are working in another. When you are using a Termdeck window, that window raises the alert itself, as a popup under the bell in the top right corner and a sound, and nothing is pushed to any device on the account. Chats other than the one on screen are covered too, so a run finishing on a different machine still reaches you, in the window you are actually looking at.

Push comes back as soon as you leave that window. Locking the phone, switching to another app, and switching tabs all count as leaving, so an alert that fires the moment you put the phone away still reaches it. If the page never got the chance to say it left, a closed laptop for example, push comes back within about a minute.

A window left open and focused on an empty desk stops counting after three minutes with no typing, clicking, or mouse movement, so your phone takes over. The window still shows the alert when you come back to it.

Approving from a notification

Approval notifications carry Allow and Deny buttons, so a blocked run can be unblocked without opening the app. Each notification carries a single use token that expires after 5 minutes, the same five minutes after which an unanswered approval is denied, which is why answering an old notification asks you to open the app instead.

An approval you answer somewhere else, one that times out, and one whose run ends all take their notification with them. A device with Termdeck open clears it within seconds; a locked phone clears it the next time you open Termdeck on it.

Notifications are always free, on every plan. Watching your agents and unblocking them is never something Termdeck meters.

In app alerts

Separately from push, the interface keeps its own count of everything that needs you: the badge on the bell in the top right corner, the badge on the tab title, and the Approvals page. All three are computed from one list, so they cannot disagree with each other.

What counts is deliberately narrow: a waiting permission, a waiting question or plan, and a turn that failed. A turn that finished cleanly and has not been opened yet does not count as something that needs you. It shows a small green dot on the bell instead, and is listed under Earlier when you open it.

When something lands, a popup drops out from under the bell and the bell rings. A waiting approval, question or plan glows as it arrives and stays until you answer it, here or anywhere else. A finished turn leaves on its own after a few seconds; hold the pointer over it to keep it. Select the popup to go to the chat. No popup appears for an approval whose card is already on screen.

On the Terminals page the bell moves into the status bar, and notifications lead to panes instead of chats: Go to pane switches to the window holding that chat and highlights its pane, or opens it in a new pane if none holds it. A popup that arrived while you were on Terminals still goes to the pane after you have left the page. Turn popups and the sound off in Settings, then Notifications.

Using Termdeck on a phone

Everything is reachable on a small screen. The sidebar becomes a drawer, the transcript takes the full width, and the dock opens over it.

Inside a chat, the header carries one button at each end: the menu button on the left opens the sessions drawer, and the panel button on the right opens Files & agents. Your account and settings live at the foot of that drawer. Outside a chat the same menu button sits at the left of the app bar, with the app icon, New chat, your picture and the settings gear beside it.

• Read a live transcript and follow tool calls as they run.
• Approve or deny anything waiting.
• Send a prompt, including a photo or a screenshot.
• Read the diff of what an agent changed.
• Stop a run that has gone the wrong way: while it runs, the round send button becomes a square stop button.
• Switch account when a rate limit is reached.

Dictation uses the browser's own speech recognition where the browser provides it, which keeps audio out of any upload path.

When the keyboard opens, the chat resizes to the space above it: the message box sits on the keyboard's top edge, the header stays put, and the transcript keeps whatever room is left rather than sliding out from under you. The tray above the message box shows only its first row while the keyboard is up.

The model and options button under the message box opens a sheet that rises from the bottom of the screen instead of a small menu. Choosing a model inside it swaps the sheet for the model list, with All options at the top to go back. Tap outside the sheet to close it.

When notifications do not arrive

Nothing arrives on an iPhone

Almost always the home screen requirement. Add the site to your home screen from Safari's share menu, open Termdeck from that icon, and enable push there. A subscription created in a Safari tab does not carry over.

Then check iOS Settings, Notifications, Termdeck, and confirm alerts are allowed.

The switch turns itself back off

The browser denied permission. Reset the site's notification permission in browser settings and enable it again. A denied permission cannot be re asked for by the page.

They worked and then stopped

Browsers expire push subscriptions, particularly after a long idle period or a browser data clear. Toggle push off and on in Settings, then Notifications to register a fresh subscription for that device. Your per event choices are kept.

Some events notify and others do not

Check the per event switches. Approval requests, questions and plans, finished turns, and failed turns can each be enabled or disabled for this device.

My phone stays quiet while I am at my desk

That one is deliberate. A Termdeck window you are using on any device silences push on all of them and shows the alert in that window instead. Leave that window, or stop typing and moving the mouse in it for three minutes, and the phone notifies again. See while you are using Termdeck.

They arrive late

Delivery goes through the browser vendor's push service, and aggressive battery saving on the device can delay it. On Android, exclude the browser or the installed app from battery optimisation. On desktop, keep the browser running rather than fully quit.