shellxDesktop
A full terminal app for macOS and Windows: workspaces, split panes, sessions restored after a restart, a command palette and custom shortcuts.
End-to-end encrypted · Free
Your terminal. Everywhere.
ShellX is a terminal app for Mac and PC. Open the very session running on your computer from your phone, type commands and watch the output live, anywhere with an Internet connection.
End-to-end encrypted: the relay server in the middle cannot read your terminal content.
Illustration: a command runs in the terminal on a computer and its output appears on a phone at the same time.
Video · 1 minute
ShellX in one minute
A quick look at what ShellX does on your computer and on your phone.
How it works
One terminal, three places you need it
Work on your computer as usual. When you step away, the session keeps running and comes with you.
Phone
Open the very session running on your computer, type commands and watch the output live. Every byte is end-to-end encrypted between the two devices.
Notifications
Get a push notification when a long command finishes or when a program, such as an AI coding agent, needs your answer — with exit code and duration.
Use ShellX to
What you can do from your phone
The situations ShellX users run into most, each with a detailed guide.
Watch Claude Code and AI agents
Let the agent run on your computer, answer its questions and review changes from your phone, and get notified when it needs you.
Read the guide →SSH from your phone
Open the SSH panes running on your computer, tmux sessions on servers included, without exposing a port to the Internet.
Read the guide →Remote terminal without a VPN
Reach the terminal of your home or office computer behind NAT, with no static IP and no router setup.
Read the guide →Compare with other tools
How ShellX differs from Termius and Tailscale, when to pick which, and how to combine them.
Read the guide →
Features
Everything you need to work with a remote terminal, with no network setup.
From anywhere
Open and control your Mac or PC terminal from your phone, anywhere with an Internet connection.
Noise encryption
End-to-end encrypted with the Noise protocol — the relay cannot read the content.
No open ports
No router ports to open, no static IP, no VPN.
Many sessions
Multiple terminal sessions at once, switch as if you were at the machine.
QR pairing
Pair phone and computer with a QR code; private keys never leave the device.
Cross-platform
App for macOS and Windows; app for iOS and Android.
Security
The server in the middle only forwards encrypted frames. Only your two devices hold the keys.
- Terminal content is end-to-end encrypted: only your phone and your computer can decrypt it.
- The relay only ever sees encrypted frames — never commands or output.
- Passwords are hashed with argon2id; access tokens are stored only as SHA-256 hashes.
- No terminal-content logs, no analytics, no cookies.
Get started in three steps
Install ShellX on your computer and create an account.
Install the phone app and sign in with the same account.
Open the tray menu on your computer, choose to pair a phone, and scan the QR code with your phone.
FAQ
Do I need to open router ports or have a static IP?
No. Both the desktop agent and the phone app dial out to the relay, so there are no ports to open, no static IP, no VPN.
What if my phone loses its connection?
The agent keeps up to 256 KiB of each session's most recent output in your computer's memory; when the phone reconnects, the output produced while it was away is replayed.
What does ShellX store on its servers?
Only your email, a password hash, device information, pairing records, and the push token (FCM token) of phones that allowed notifications, kept until sign-out. Terminal content is end-to-end encrypted, so the server cannot read or store it. Push notification text (computer name, window name, command line, exit code, duration, or a program's text) passes through it readable, is only forwarded via Google/Apple to your paired phones, and is not stored (see the Privacy Policy).
Is ShellX an SSH client?
Not quite. An SSH client opens a new session to a server, and that server must accept incoming connections (port 22 open, a reachable IP address, or a VPN). ShellX opens the very terminal sessions already running on your Mac or PC, over a connection both devices dial out to the relay, so no port has to be opened. In the ShellX desktop app you can still SSH to servers as usual (SSH workspaces or the ssh command), and your phone sees those panes like any other session.
Can I use Claude Code or Codex from my phone?
Yes. Run Claude Code, Codex or any other command-line AI coding agent in a ShellX terminal on your computer, then open that session from your phone to read the output, answer its questions and review changes. The agent keeps running on your computer with your repository and tools; the phone is only the screen and keyboard. When a program sends a terminal notification (OSC 9, OSC 777 or OSC 99), ShellX pushes it to your phone.
Does it work if my computer is behind NAT, CGNAT or a company network?
Yes, as long as the computer and the phone can reach the Internet. Both dial out to the relay, so there is no static IP, no open port and no router setup. If a network blocks outgoing connections to the ShellX relay altogether, it will not work there.
Do I need to install anything on my servers?
No agent or daemon on the server. You install ShellX on your Mac or PC and the app on your phone. When you SSH to a server from the ShellX app, it uses the operating system ssh command and your SSH agent, and only places a small shell hook in the server cache folder to show the current folder and branch.
How is ShellX different from a remote desktop app?
Remote desktop streams pictures of the whole screen: heavy, tiny text and hard to type on a phone. ShellX only carries terminal text, so it is light, sharp on a small screen, works well on mobile data, and is end-to-end encrypted.
Does ShellX cost anything?
ShellX is currently free.
Which platforms does ShellX run on?
Agent: macOS 14 or later, Windows 10 (1809) or later. App: iOS 15 or later, Android 8.0 or later.
How do I fully remove terminal sharing on macOS after deleting ShellX.app?
Deleting ShellX.app does not remove the integration block from ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile (it is harmless; your terminal keeps working). To clean up, open Terminal and run: ~/Library/Application\ Support/ShellX/bin/shellx-term uninstall. It removes the block from those files and deletes the ShellX bin and term folders. If Terminal says the file does not exist, there is nothing left to remove.
Take your terminal with you
Install ShellX on your computer, pair your phone, and your sessions go where you go.