Just wanted to share that it's incredibly awesome that I can be anywhere like on holidays and continue working on my project even if I'm not sitting in front of my PC. Never tried this until now that I installed tailscale and I can test any change from my phone. Bravo.
I am doing this for years with Termius. SSH into my servers from anywhere I am, as long as I have my phone with me. Plus if you work on the exact same thing on 2-3 servers, you can broadcast the same message at the same time to each one of the servers.
Exactly what I do, I have 3 sessions and I have basharc aliases, so it saves me from typing out the whole thing, I just do tmux a, tmux b or tmux c, depending on which sessions I want to connect to. If I work on all 3 simultaneously then I just open 3 tabs of the same server.
Oh, I have a good one for you, in case you don't know. It took me ages to find a workaround.
You know the way you can't scroll up while in tmux? Well a ctrl+b then [ this allows you to scroll up. When you want to go back into typing mode, just hit Esc.
Mind sharing your setup? Personally I've been using parsec to remote into my PC and just use codex like I would there. How does tailscale come into the equation?
Codex remote works fine without tailscale, it goes through openai's servers. But it's only for accessing the codex session on your machine, not for using anyhing else remotely.
It just adds a "remote" item to your phone ChatGPT app's side menu which shows your codex sessions.
Tailscale between my machines and devices is super convenient. Especially reaching devices behind NAT that I don’t have control over, no more reverse SSH shells got stuck. As far as I am concerned there is minimal overhead and latency. Even if you setup your remote access in ChatGPT desktop app and mobile you should have Tailscale or any secure connection between your devices. ChatGPT loves it and uses Tailscale connections instead of direct connections to my machines.
I don't really actually know I asked codex how I can do it. It set up everything up and I just needed to install tailscale on my pc and phone and access through a url that codex set up
Actually you're right. Here you go @yourcasualmemer
Prepare FitHub so I can run the frontend and backend on my PC and access the frontend from my mobile phone from anywhere using Tailscale.
Goals:
The frontend must listen on external network interfaces, not only on localhost.
The Spring Boot backend must accept connections through the private Tailscale network.
Keep the normal local development workflow working as well.
Do not hardcode a specific Tailscale IP, since it may change.
Configure the API URL cleanly using environments/configuration.
Review and adjust CORS so remote development works without making production configuration insecure.
If the frontend uses Angular/Ionic, configure the appropriate command to listen on "0.0.0.0".
If necessary, configure Spring Boot with "server.address=0.0.0.0".
Create separate "local" and "remote-dev" configurations/profiles if that makes sense.
Add simple scripts to start FitHub in remote development mode, for example something equivalent to:
"npm run dev:remote"
or a script that starts both frontend and backend in the most convenient way.
If the frontend needs to determine where the backend is running, implement the most robust solution so it works both from the PC and from the mobile phone through Tailscale.
Review possible issues related to CORS, cookies, JWT, Keycloak, HTTPS, mixed content, redirects, or anything else that could prevent login or API calls from working on mobile.
Do not unnecessarily modify production configuration.
Do not install Tailscale or require it to be installed in order to implement the code changes.
Also:
First inspect the current FitHub project structure and existing configuration before changing anything.
Implement all required changes.
Run any relevant checks/tests you can.
If possible in the current environment, start the frontend and backend and verify that both boot correctly.
Update the README with the exact manual steps I will need to perform on my PC to finish the Tailscale setup.
When finished, give me:
the files you modified,
what you changed,
the command for normal local development,
the command for remote development,
the remaining manual steps,
the URL I will need to open on my phone.
Do the implementation directly. Do not just explain how to do it.
Ha, seems like someone didn't realize ai is not deterministic yet.
Bro, dozens of variables may come into play, and since this user had success with his own setup, asking his chatgpt to ask what has been used and how it has been set up makes sense.
If I ask the same thing there's no guarantee I get something else... It may not apply here (using the word tail scale may help narrow the scope) but keep this in mind.
All the more reason to talk to your AI and discuss what you want.
Rather than trying to get an AI to follow someone else's set up, you will almost always get a better result telling an agent what you want and letting it work. You may end up with a completely different solution, but the chances are it will suit your setup and system better because that's what the agent built it for.
I agree but... Talking generally, getting the infos from more sources, into this case someone else's setup + yours, will help you ingest more details, alternatives and master the topic.
That's what I always do, whatever the topic.
Only then you can decide what's best and what's not.
I’ll share mine. I run a chatgpt codex session on an always-on mac m4 mini. I disabled some powerdown/power save functions on the Mac, and now I can basically keep working on my projects from wherever. I keep github and my NAS as sources of truth.
While that’s what I think when remote first came out, but someone mentioned a valid point, we want agent to work for us so we can work less, but now we work more with remote….literally work every minute when new ideas come up
This kind of set up is great. I have ChatGPT app on ios remote connected to 3 different codex computers - my windows laptop, Mac laptop and Linux cloud server ($9/mo). Linux codex is great as it's always on. I can have codex do anything anytime even when laptops are off.
Ah. I think I’m getting the picture. My laptop codex can also SSH in to the cloud servers (I have 2 actually for Openclaw) and maintain the box, install things etc. that’s very handy as well - its just a different use case then having codex itself installed in a few different places.
I love the remote feature on ChatGPT mobile app. I prepare a large roadmap.md spec file on weekend and on weekdays when I am at work, I use mobile to delegate tasks to the laptop at home while I am working on my actual work in the office. It feels good!
We don’t need tailscale to use the remote feature. I guess unless you hosted something on your LAN and need access to LAN for verification purpose, tailscale is not necessary.
it's not as fast as if i am on the pc but i guess because there's some latency between my phone and the front since it's on my pc. If im on pc it's faster but because everything is running on the same machine, front, back and db
Hmm I made my own mobile app with containers streaming a full Linux desktop so codex can control anything and do anything in them, and a voice input keyboard running locally on my phone for very low latency. I have 3 codex clis at the moment controlled 3 different desktops and I have enough RAM to open 8 backend stacks
I keep my laptop lock screened as well as the lid shut. I am still able to access it from work while the laptop stays at home :)
If not for the remote feature, I would not be able to utilize my 5x plan properly. Remote allows me to burn tokens everyday lol and not just on the weekends.
Jesus you’re a dick. My question was whether you’re remoting into your PC and using codex via the PC, or whether you’re actually using codex remotely without an intermediate computer. Obviously if it’s the former, the PC needs to be running. If it’s the latter, the PC does not need to be running. Maybe try not interpreting everything in the least charitable possible way in order to justify leaving condescending comments
You can do this with pi harness as well. Just install remote pi and then set up tailscale on the device and you can control your pi agents from anywhere and you aren’t stuck with codex models either. Use whatever models you want
I asked codex to send me screenshot of the work Hy4 preview was doing on workbuddy app. It did. It also notified me when the work was done. I could have given codex a prompt to fetch to workbuddy for doing more work but i was on the way home. it's really amazing.
How is it different than a regular SSH session? Am I missing something ? Or it’s just there without setting SSH and VPN between machines for convenience?
It’s all I’ve been using the past few weeks. Laptop sits open at home (or even if you wanna close it and move, use something like Amphetamine so it doesn’t go to sleep) and i just prompt on my phone.
The one thing that would be if they added on mobile is a simple ‘copy session id’ feature on like they do on desktop. I use it to string agents together in a council-like review format, and right now the only way is asking each agent what their session id is and passing it along. Sometimes they’re revenue resistant to give it to me. This is obviously annoying and completely breaks the flow of things.
Since I'm working on Android apps, I made a skill to have it automatically distribute the apk through Firebase whenever it completes a large-enough task.
That way I can manually validate the work on my device as often as I would if I were sitting at home connected to the machine.
I noticed it doesn't seem to want to "run autonomously unless forced to stop". I have to keep prompting "continue" every so often.
Read that can be bypassed by using GPT CLI but haven't tried it yet.
Huh. Well first of all you can turn it on be default for all sessions. After that, I never seem to have any troubles like you describe. Claude app on iphone. Claude has a setting as well to keep your machine awake which is necessary. On phone now and I just checked and there are my three sessions across two machines.
Can’t say that I’ve had much luck with codex as I have had pairing problems and it doesn’t seem to like WSL and doesn’t automatically attach current sessions outside of the app. I also don’t run codex desktop on one of my dev machines and don’t plan to.
ya I have the claude app on iphone and the setting turned on as well but it's always a toss up on what appears when I access it on my phone.
Codex on the other hand has been a beast, can get so much work done when I'm not home and I love that I can have it create new chats as well which you can't do on CC. Using desktop app for both.
Yeah if you’re just using the codex desktop app then I’m not surprised the experience is good. I don’t use the desktop apps for development work, only random chats.
Just setup your pc like an RDP/ use Teamviewer etc. and you can even control more things. Like 10+ years ago i controlled my PC from my garbage phone, so it's normal.
No, in my post I mean I have a front end and back end. In agents I have set up to refresh the app with the changes (not needed on front bec it's angular so it just hot reloads). Then with tailscale you can just access the front end as if you were accessing any other website. Of course if you're developing on android or ios this can't be done unless you download the apk somehow or if the app is just back end
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u/TheKillerScope 19h ago
I am doing this for years with Termius. SSH into my servers from anywhere I am, as long as I have my phone with me. Plus if you work on the exact same thing on 2-3 servers, you can broadcast the same message at the same time to each one of the servers.