Step 1 · Your phone

Get Thumbdesk.

Install the app on your phone, sign in with your email, Apple or Google, then add your first machine. Free for two machines, no card.

Step 2 · Your computers

One command, then scan the QR.

STEP 1 / 2

Open the Terminal app on your Mac and run these, then scan.

Install the agent

Show the pairing QR

Prints a QR code right in your terminal.

Scan the QR

The scan is gated by biometrics and pairs the devices directly — end-to-end encrypted.

The first time you open its screen, macOS asks for Screen Recording access. We'll walk you through it.

End-to-end encrypted

Terminal traffic is end-to-end over WebRTC.

No inbound ports

Outbound-only connection, nothing to expose.

Removable anytime

Run thumbdesk uninstall — it removes the agent completely.

Only pair hosts you own or are authorized to access.

$brew install --cask yashagldit/thumbdesk/thumbdesk

Needs: macOS 13 or later · Apple Silicon (M-series)

Installs Thumbdesk.app with its menu-bar item, and the thumbdesk command.
Screen sharing asks for Screen Recording access the first time; the app walks you through it.

thumbdesk pair: Prints a QR. Scan it from the Thumbdesk app and the agent starts as a service.
thumbdesk status: Host id, daemon state, and whether the backend is reachable.
thumbdesk update: Self-update, checked against the release checksum and signature.
thumbdesk uninstall: Removes the service, the keys and the agent itself.

iPhone and iPad on iOS 16.4 or later, and Android.

Prefer not to install anything on a server? Add it over SSH instead: you get the terminal, files, stats and projects. See SSH hosts.