Phone to Home Mac: Claude Duet Brings Claude Code Out of the Study

Claude Duet added a connection capability: it can connect to Claude Code running on a Mac, and you can also create new Claude Code sessions from your phone. Riley Brown demonstrated five uses in a 12-minute video and mentioned that he connected both his MacBook Pro and Mac Mini to Duet, so on his phone he could see sessions from both machines over the past 24 hours.

First, some background. Claude Duet is Anthropic's personal agent platform, with a persistent cloud computer, positioned close to products like Dots, Muse, and Grok Bot. Claude Code runs locally and handles tasks such as coding, video editing, and planning. Previously the two worked separately; now Duet on your phone can message local Claude Code or manually start a new session. Note that the material explicitly says you can send instructions directly to an existing session, but to create a new session you have to manually tap New Session on the phone—you can't just ask Duet in conversation to open one for you.

Riley Brown listed five reasons.

1. Cloud computer plus physical computer
Duet's cloud computer handles simple tasks, while heavy work goes to your own Mac. In the demo, you can choose a Mac Mini or MacBook Pro and also query Claude Code sessions active over the past 24 hours. For people with multiple machines, this is closer to existing workflows than stuffing everything into one cloud environment.

2. Editing video on your phone
On his phone, he opened the latest version of V2 video and asked to add a Blender shot that appeared later to the opening, and to adjust the speed to 1.1x the original. The instruction was sent to an existing Claude Code session on the MacBook Pro, and when finished it returned a new V2.video link. This is useful for making a revision while out and about without being tied to your computer.

3. Building an app on your phone
He had Claude Code modify the top style of the Agent Native app and push it to production. A Claude Code session confirmation appeared on the phone, and he approved it with Face ID. Claude Code executed on the Mac and finally provided a production link. Here the phone is a remote control; computation and file operations still happen on the Mac.

4. Triggering computer use from your phone
Claude Code itself can let Claude control the computer. After connecting to Duet, the phone can remotely trigger this kind of operation. The material's subtitles are cut off in this section; what can be confirmed is that Riley Brown listed it as the fourth use but did not elaborate on the full steps.

5. Real-time voice
On the phone, you can interact with Claude Code using real-time voice, which is good for quick triage, dictated edits, and hands-free operation. Some commenters mentioned CarPlay and Android Auto: if it can't be used while driving, this type of voice agent loses a chunk of usable scenarios.

Beyond convenience, the questions in the comments are more worth reading. Some asked whether tasks queue up or sessions drop when the Mac sleeps; some asked how permissions and confirmations work when remotely operating Mac files; others pointed out that approving shell commands on a phone screen is too small to read the command contents, and suggested tightening the allowlist on the Mac first. Another commenter shared using Amphetamine to keep the Mac awake, or Hermes plus Telegram to remind them to turn the monitor on or off. Some also said Claude remote session can achieve a similar effect.

The value of this update is direct: the phone is good for giving instructions and restoring context, but not for reviewing full terminal output. To have Claude Code work remotely, the Mac must stay online, permission settings must be trustworthy, and critical commands need a clear confirmation flow. Riley Brown's full demo is on YouTube.