How to approve Claude Code permission requests from your iPhone

Why your agent stops and waits.

Claude Code asks before it does things your settings don’t already allow: editing files outside the project, running shell commands, fetching from the web. Until someone answers, the session waits. If you’ve stepped away, the work stops there.

Your options.

• Remote Control in the Claude app.

  Anthropic’s own way to continue a Claude Code session from your phone. It works with sessions you start with Remote Control and needs a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. It can notify you when a session needs you.

• A hook and a push service.

  You can write a Claude Code hook that sends a notification through a service like ntfy. It tells you something happened; answering is up to you.

• Hoptail.

  Watches every Claude Code session running in tmux on your Mac, notifies your iPhone, and lets you Allow or Deny from the notification.

Checked on 11 October 2026.

Set it up with Hoptail

1. Install Hoptail on your Mac.

   brew install hoptail-app/tap/hoptail

2. Run setup. It checks tmux, Tailscale and Claude Code and adds Hoptail’s hooks.

   hoptail setup

3. Pair your iPhone. Run this and scan the QR code with the Hoptail app.

   hoptail pair

4. Pick a notification mode in the app: Away notifies you right away, Desk waits a few seconds for you to answer at your Mac, Auto switches between them for you.

5. Step away. When an agent needs permission, tap Allow or Deny in the notification.

What happens when you tap Allow.

Allow from the lock screen asks for Face ID or Touch ID first; Deny doesn’t. The agent continues as if you’d answered at your Mac. Want to say why you’re denying, or choose “Yes, and don’t ask again”? Open the notification: in the app you can deny with a note or tap Answer in Terminal.

todo-app · needs permission

Edit: index.html

AllowDeny

Troubleshooting

• No notification at your desk? In Desk mode, Hoptail waits 20 seconds for you to answer at your Mac.
• No notifications at all? Check that the mode isn’t Mute, notifications for Hoptail are on, and a Focus mode isn’t silencing them.
• Can’t reach your Mac? Your Mac needs to be awake, with Tailscale running on both devices.
• Allow asks for Face ID? That’s on purpose: allowing an action from the lock screen needs your face or fingerprint.

FAQ