Can AI replace Yado?

01What it costs

Checked Aug 14, 2026 · source: apps.apple.com.

Hidden costs: Claude Code/model/API usage is not included and must be supplied separately; only one container is provided per GitHub account.

02Could AI build it for you?

The core job: Serve Claude Code running inside tmux on your own always-on box as a browser terminal, reachable from your phone over HTTPS, with a push when the turn ends.

What a working version needs:

• an always-on Linux box or a $5 VPS
• a Claude Pro or Max subscription
• a domain for HTTPS, or Tailscale
• a laptop, once, to do the Claude login over SSH

The moat is the boring half: upkeep, a box that sleeps at zero, and a login that works without a terminal.

03What you'd give up

Because the weekend build is a pet. You keep the box alive, you keep the proxy alive, you patch it every time Claude Code shifts under you, and you pay for a machine that idles all week. Some people like pets, and if that's you, keep it. Yado is the version where none of that is yours. It wakes when you open the app and costs nothing the rest of the time, signing in is one tap instead of an SSH session, and when Claude Code moves, that's my problem now. You still bring your own Claude account. You're paying me for the boring half.

04Free and cheaper alternatives

05The build prompt

Paste this into an AI coding tool (such as Claude, ChatGPT, Lovable or Replit) to build your own version.

Build me a phone-reachable Claude Code setup to replace Yado. Requirements:

- Runs on one always-on Ubuntu box I already own, a $5 VPS is fine. I reach it
  from Safari on my phone, there is nothing to install on the phone.
- Install Claude Code on the box and log it in by hand once over SSH, so the
  credentials sit on disk and nothing has to handle auth later. This step needs
  a laptop, say so in the README.
- Serve the terminal with ttyd running `tmux new -A -s claude`, so the session
  survives a dropped connection and keeps working while my phone is locked.
- Put Caddy in front for automatic HTTPS on a subdomain, with basic auth
  credentials read from .env. If I already run Tailscale, bind ttyd to the
  tailnet address instead and skip Caddy. No accounts, no telemetry, everything
  stays on my box.
- Make it usable with a thumb: start ttyd with `-t fontSize=18`, and write a
  ~/.tmux.conf with mouse mode on so I can scroll and switch panes by tapping.
- Add a Claude Code Stop hook in ~/.claude/settings.json that curls a private
  ntfy.sh topic, so my phone buzzes when a turn finishes instead of me sitting
  there watching output.
- A `work <repo>` shell function that attaches to the tmux session, cds into
  ~/code/<repo> and starts claude there. Repos live in ~/code, there is no
  database and nothing to migrate.
- Out of scope: multiple users and isolation between projects. Do not build a
  chat UI over `claude -p`, that is a far bigger project than this one.
- README: the one time SSH login, the DNS record for the subdomain, the ntfy
  topic name, and an honest warning that if the box goes down there is no way
  back in from the phone.

06Open-source starting points

• Happy: MIT mobile and web client for Claude Code, self-hostable, but it remote-controls Claude running on a computer you keep on
• Moshi: a polished mobile terminal that drives Claude Code over SSH, freemium rather than open source, and the machine it connects to has to be yours and switched on