Use boxes.dev on your phone

The mobile app lets you check on agent work, reply, inspect files, and open a shell while you're away from your computer. Tasks started from your phone run on cloud machines, and a thread's messages and agent work are shared across mobile, desktop, and the CLI, so switching devices continues the same conversation.

Install and open a project

1. Install the mobile app on iOS or Android.
2. Sign in to your boxes.dev account.
3. Open your project, then tap a thread to read the agent's progress or reply.

Projects are ordered by recent thread activity. The app remembers the last project you opened. Thread-list rows show Git-change counts inline and a live devbox status dot at the right; sleeping devboxes show a timestamp there.

If you do not have a project, use desktop or local-agent setup, or open the boxes.dev website on your phone and choose Create from GitHub. See Choose how to set up your project.

Browsing the thread list, reading archived conversations, and editing an unstarted draft won't wake a machine. Opening a live thread will connect to the devbox or Template box where that conversation runs.

Choose a project from Home to open its conversations. Select the image to enlarge it.

Start or continue a task

1. Open a project and tap the new-thread button.
2. Choose New devbox + thread for a task with its own machine. In a project with a personal Template box, you can instead choose New thread on template to work on the environment that future devboxes will inherit.
3. Choose Codex or Claude, write your request, add attachments if useful, and tap Send.

If your project was created from a Team Template, the new-thread button opens a new-devbox draft directly. To add a conversation to an existing devbox, choose New thread inside its group; the agents will share that machine's files.

The last Codex or Claude choice becomes the default for your next draft on mobile, desktop, and dvb agents. Open the model menu for available model, reasoning, Codex speed, and Claude permission choices.

Use the attachment menu to add photos or files, including ZIP archives. Files can be up to 50 MiB each and 100 MiB per message. Check that the attachments appear in the composer before sending. During an active Codex response, use Steer to send attachments; Queue doesn't accept them.

After sending a follow-up, you can return to the thread list. boxes.dev will keep the message queued while the machine wakes or the agent accepts it.

Long-press a message to open a bottom menu with Copy. To try a different direction from a completed reply, choose Continue in current box to share the same files, or Continue in new devbox to copy the box's current files into a separate machine. The new chat will include the conversation through the chosen reply; the files won't rewind to that point. You can also continue from the latest reply through the header menu. Wait for the agent to finish before forking; until then, the menu will show these choices dimmed and explain why. Unsent text and attachments will stay with the original chat.

When you choose Continue in new devbox, the new chat will open while the devbox is being created. Send messages to queue them; the agent will receive them when the copied conversation is ready. You can leave the chat while they wait.

Respond while work is running

Choose Queue to send a follow-up after the current work, or Steer to give the agent a correction during its response. For Codex, Steer now will interrupt the current response and start the oldest queued follow-up; the remaining messages will stay in order. Stop will stop the current response but leave Codex's queued messages available to run afterward. Unsent text and attachments will stay in the composer. See Start and continue a thread for the full Queue, Steer, and Stop behavior for each agent.

If the agent asks a question or requests a permission while working, the request will appear in the conversation with its choices or input field. Answer it using the controls shown with the request. See Answer the agent's questions for each agent's question behavior and Agent permissions for what allowing a permission request changes.

If Claude is open in a terminal on your computer, you can still read its progress on mobile. To reply from your phone, choose Take over and confirm. This will close the terminal session and make the mobile composer editable. Unsent terminal text will be lost; your mobile draft and attachments will remain. Use Interrupt if you only want to stop the current response and leave control with the terminal.

Check the agent's rate-limit indicator for the latest available reading. That reading remains visible while the machine sleeps and updates when a newer one arrives.

If a connected MCP tool needs sign-in, follow the notice to Integrations → MCPs in the desktop app.

Read the agent's response and continue the conversation from your phone. Select the image to enlarge it.

Review files and use a terminal

Tap a file or diff link in the conversation to inspect the agent's work. Text files show syntax highlighting, and diffs show added and removed line counts. Pinch and drag to inspect images; use the page, zoom, and fit controls for PDFs. Files without a mobile preview will download directly. Large downloads may open in your browser and will keep their original filenames.

Use desktop for the full file tree, workspace uploads, inline review, Git staging and commits, and port management.

Tap the terminal button for a shell on the thread's machine. Use the accessory controls for Ctrl, paste, and special keys. If the shell exits, choose Reopen shell. If the thread's machine is unavailable, return to the thread and reopen Terminal from there.

Organize or finish work

Open a thread's menu to rename, pin, mark unread, archive, restore, or delete it when those actions are available. Mark unread will keep the thread unread on both mobile and desktop until you reopen it. From a devbox group, you can put an idle devbox to sleep when you want to return to it later, or choose Rename devbox to show a name of your choice instead of its first thread's title.

If you want to remove a devbox, commit and push code or download any files you want to keep before choosing Destroy + archive. This will permanently delete the devbox's files and preserve its conversations as archived history. Review any warning about local changes or unpushed commits before confirming. To archive only a secondary conversation and keep the devbox, use Archive thread on that conversation.

To restore archived work, choose Restore thread and the offered destination. Projects with a personal Template box offer that machine or a new devbox; Team Template member projects offer a new devbox from the current saved version. Restoring a conversation won't recover a destroyed devbox's files.

Update the source for future devboxes

If you changed a personal Template box and want future devboxes to inherit those changes, open a thread on it and choose New snapshot from the header menu. The Template box will briefly become unavailable during capture.

Settings and connection problems

Settings and notifications

Open Settings to check usage, share your invite link or QR code, change your theme or font, or turn the unread app badge on or off. Under Appearance, choose Compact, Medium, or Large for thread text; Medium is the default. Tap a notification to open its thread, even when the app is closed.

Under Coding agents, open Agent accounts to choose, add, re-authenticate, or remove the Codex and Claude accounts your devboxes use. When one of those accounts needs you to sign in again, a banner shows at the top of the app; tap Reconnect to fix it. See Connect Codex and Claude for the sign-in steps.

Settings also includes the Help center, release details and refresh controls, sign-out, and account deletion. Account deletion is permanent; read Your data and credentials before proceeding.

To use another boxes.dev account on the same phone, tap Add account with Google in Settings (or Add account with Apple on iPhone) and finish signing in. The account you're using will stay open until the new one is ready, and the app will then switch to it. Your first account stays signed in: Settings will list it under Signed in as, and tapping it will switch accounts without signing in again. Sign out will sign out only the account you're using and open another signed-in account if there is one. Your phone will get notifications from every signed-in account; see Notifications.

Reconnect or retry a message

If Can’t connect appears, restore your internet connection or use Try again. The app will also retry automatically and retain already loaded project data during reconnects.

If the connection drops while a new draft's first message is sending, the app will keep it pending and send it after reconnecting. After about 30 seconds without reconnection, it will return the message to the composer for retry.

If you close the app after tapping Send and the message hasn't reached boxes.dev yet, reopening will restore the draft and its attachments. The restored draft is not resent automatically; tap Send again when you're ready. Once boxes.dev has accepted the message, the work continues whether or not the app stays open.