Troubleshooting

Start with the relay URL and the agent process. Most early failures are one of:

• the phone or agent cannot reach the relay URL
• the device was paired but the agent is not running
• Claude Code is not working locally on the agent machine

Run this first:

remote-cli doctor

Device Shows Offline After Pairing

remote-cli pair starts the agent after pairing. If that terminal exits, the device goes offline.

On the agent machine:

remote-cli status
remote-cli run

For background use:

remote-cli service install
remote-cli service status
remote-cli service logs

QR Code Or Pairing URL Shows localhost

localhost only works from the same machine. If you scan a QR code containing http://localhost:8080, your phone tries to connect to itself, not your laptop.

Set the relay URL to a LAN IP, Tailscale hostname, or public HTTPS domain:

remote-cli relay init --url http://192.168.1.10:8080 --force

See choosing-relay-url.md.

Phone Cannot Reach Relay

Symptoms:

• PWA does not load.
• Login says it cannot reach the relay.
• Reconnecting banner stays visible.

Check from the phone browser:

http://YOUR_RELAY_URL

If the page does not load, fix networking first.

Common causes:

• relay URL is localhost
• phone is on cellular but relay is LAN-only
• firewall blocks port 8080
• relay host is asleep
• relay process is not running
• reverse proxy is not forwarding WebSockets

Check the relay:

remote-cli relay status
remote-cli relay start

For Docker:

docker compose ps
docker compose logs relay

Device Shows Online But No Response To Messages

First check whether Claude works on the agent machine:

which claude
claude --version
claude --print "Reply with OK"

If Claude says you are not logged in, authenticate Claude Code on that machine.

If Claude says you are rate-limited, wait until the reset time and try again.

Then watch the terminal running:

remote-cli run

Useful logs include:

session start: <session-id>
session <id>: claude pid <pid> started
session <id>: claude init
session <id>: turn complete
session <id>: claude stderr: ...

If no session logs appear after tapping a device, check the PWA for an error such as device_offline, device_busy, or device_unreachable.

Device Shows Busy

The relay marks a device busy while it has an active session.

Normal fixes:

• end the active session from the PWA
• wait for the agent to send session.ended
• restart remote-cli run if the local Claude process got stuck

If the phone disconnects, the relay asks each affected device to end the owned session. The device should become online again after the agent sends session.ended.

Agent Online, Then Suddenly Offline

The relay marks a device online only while its agent WebSocket is connected.

Common causes:

• the remote-cli run process exited
• laptop/desktop/Pi went to sleep
• relay host restarted
• network changed
• relay URL became unreachable
• firewall/VPN changed

Restart the agent:

remote-cli run

If it reconnects and then drops again, check:

remote-cli service status
remote-cli service logs

Tapping A Device Does Nothing Or Session Never Starts

Check that the agent is currently connected to the relay.

On the agent machine:

remote-cli status
remote-cli run

If the PWA reports device_unreachable, the relay had the device in memory but could not deliver the message. This usually means the agent disconnected at the same moment. Restart the agent and try again.

Check the stored relay URL:

cat ~/.config/remote-cli/agent.toml

If the relay URL is wrong:

remote-cli unpair
remote-cli pair --relay http://CORRECT_RELAY_URL

Claude Auth Or Rate Limit Errors

The agent uses Claude Code locally. Each agent machine needs its own working Claude Code setup.

Verify on the agent machine:

claude --print "Reply with OK"

If this fails, remote-cli cannot get a response from that machine either.

Common fixes:

• run the Claude Code login/auth flow
• wait for rate limits to reset
• confirm claude is on the PATH used by remote-cli run or the background service

Phone Cannot Scan QR Code

Camera-based QR scanning may require HTTPS depending on browser and platform.

Fallback:

• tap manual code entry in the PWA
• enter the 6-digit code printed in the agent terminal

If the code expired, rerun:

remote-cli pair --relay <relay-url>

Relay Behind Reverse Proxy: WebSocket Fails

The relay uses WebSockets for both phone and agent connections.

For nginx, include:

location / {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
}

Caddy usually handles this automatically:

relay.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Reset Pairing On An Agent

On the agent machine:

remote-cli unpair
remote-cli pair --relay <relay-url>

This resets the local agent credential. To remove the relay-side device record, delete the device from the PWA.

Reset Relay Admin Password

remote-cli relay reset-password

Reset Relay State

For local development only, stop the relay and delete the SQLite database.

Warning: this removes admin and device state.

Default local database:

~/.config/remote-cli/relay.db

For Docker, stop the stack and remove the relay data volume.

What To Include In Bug Reports

Please include:

• OS and architecture of relay and agent machines
• relay deployment mode: npm/local binary, Docker, or source
• relay URL shape: LAN IP, Tailscale, public domain, etc.
• whether the PWA shows the device online
• output of remote-cli doctor
• output of remote-cli status
• whether claude --print "Reply with OK" works on the agent machine
• relevant agent logs from remote-cli run or remote-cli service logs
• relevant relay logs

Do not include tokens, JWTs, or private credentials.