Watch and steer your laptop's tmux sessions — and the AI coding agent running in it — from any phone, tablet, or car browser.
Quick Start · Clients · Going Remote · Install · Docs
You start an AI coding agent - Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, whatever - in a tmux session and walk away. Airc lets you glance at what it's doing from the couch, and tap a few keys to nudge it along, without unlocking the laptop.
It's a small Node server on your laptop that captures tmux panes, serves a live browser viewer, and accepts input only from clients holding a token. It's not tied to any one AI tool - if it runs in tmux, you can watch and drive it.
The browser is all you need. A phone, tablet, or even a car browser opens the viewer over your LAN with zero accounts and zero install. The Android app and public tunnel are optional add-ons for when you want more.
You need Node ≥ 20.19 and tmux. Nothing else.
git clone https://github.com/Kynde/airc.git
cd airc
npm install
tmux new # or attach to a session you already have
tools/airc local --session main # serve on your LAN
tools/airc pair-web # prints a QR + URL - open it on your phoneScan the QR (or open the printed URL) on any device on the same Wi-Fi, and the live terminal is in your hand.
No tokens to configure. On first run Airc generates strong
viewTokenandcontrolTokenvalues intoconfig.jsonfor you.pair-webhands out the view-only token;pair-web-controlhands out the one that can type.
local mode binds your LAN address and keeps everything on your own network —
no third-party services involved.
Airc is a server with two interchangeable front-ends.
| Client | Setup | View | Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browser — phone, tablet, desktop, Tesla | none | ✓ | ✓ (with control token) |
| Android app (optional) | build the APK once | ✓ | ✓ |
The Android app is a nicer always-on experience — native keyboard, attention alerts, automatic LAN↔public failover — but everything it does over the network the browser does too. Pick whichever fits; you can ignore the app entirely.
Airc uses two tokens, so you can share a read-only link safely:
viewToken— can watch the terminal, nothing else.controlToken— can watch and send keystrokes to tmux.
tools/airc pair-web # QR/URL with the VIEW token (read-only)
tools/airc pair-web-control # QR/URL with the CONTROL token (can type)
tools/airc pair-app # Android pairing payload (control token)The browser only shows the input controls when you open it with a control token.
- Live tmux mirror — ANSI colors and cursor position, updated over WebSocket with HTTP-polling fallback.
- Follow the active pane automatically, or pin a specific pane.
- Type from anywhere — text input plus quick Up / Down / Enter / Esc / Tab / Ctrl-key buttons that target the viewed pane.
- Attention alerts — Airc notices which pane's agent is waiting on you and can auto-follow it. See Attention.
- Readable on small screens — font fit/manual sizing, light/dark theme, pause.
- Works in a car — tested in a Tesla browser; the viewer stays live while driving. See Tesla notes.
local mode only reaches devices on the same Wi-Fi. To watch from anywhere —
mobile data, a friend's network, a car on the road — Airc can run behind a
public ngrok tunnel:
tools/airc on --session main # start the server with the configured tunnel
tools/airc pair-web # QR/URL now points at the public addressngrok needs a (free) account and a one-time setup, and you set your own tunnel
domain in config.json. The full walkthrough — plus how to serve LAN and
tunnel at once so the app uses a direct connection at home and the tunnel away —
is in INSTALLATION.md.
A native client with a few comforts the browser can't easily match:
- tmux pane display with ANSI colors and cursor
- follow-active-pane by default, plus a pane picker for pinning
- Android keyboard input including dictation from the system IME
- quick keys and app-side font adjustment (
A-/A+) - attention chips + an
autotoggle that follows whichever pane needs you (see Attention) - one pairing payload carries both LAN and public URLs, and the app fails over between them automatically
Grab the signed APK from the latest release
(airc-<version>.apk) and sideload it, or build it yourself with the Android
SDK. See INSTALLATION.md.
tools/airc local --session NAME # serve on the LAN (no tunnel, no accounts)
tools/airc on --session NAME # serve behind the configured ngrok tunnel
tools/airc status # process + health
tools/airc pair-web # view-only browser QR/URL
tools/airc pair-web-control # control browser QR/URL
tools/airc pair-app # Android pairing QR/JSON
tools/airc off # stop the server
tools/airc logs # path to the server logThere's also a zsh completion at completions/_airc (subcommands, status --json, and live tmux session names for --session); wiring is covered in
INSTALLATION.md.
- Installation: full prerequisites, ngrok setup, building the app
- Docs index: recommended reading order
- Operations: running, pairing, sizing, troubleshooting
- Development: architecture, APIs, build/test notes
- Implementation Notes: tmux capture, auth, polling, sizing
- Attention: detecting which pane's agent needs you
- Tesla Browser Findings: in-car browser/network notes
- Future Work: known next improvements
tools/airc: start/stop/status/pair wrapper for the laptop serversrc/server.js: HTTP/WebSocket API and lifecyclesrc/tmux.js: tmux capture, pane listing, and input forwardingpublic/: browser viewer and terminal assetsandroid-app/: optional native Android clientconfig.example.json: server config defaults
The code here was largely written by AI agents. It was done in accordance to my specifications. This is a hobby project and a research into agentic workflows. The project itself evolved from a simple tmux viewer for my car into what it is now. I use it daily for work as well as extra curriculum activities.
I've been coding since I was 8 back in 1984, I have over 30 years of professional experience in programming countless langauges.
MIT.