Free · self-hosted · phone-first
Drift Assist is a web terminal for the tmux sessions where your coding agents run. Install it on your computer, then open it from your phone.
Type into the live terminal pane from your phone. Your agent’s CLI stays on the computer, so you can read its work and send the next prompt from the same screen.
How to use it Open the agent’s tab → type in the composer → Send → Keys → Enter. Read the real Claude response in that pane.
todo-api demo01 / The terminal, within reach
Your agents keep running in tmux. Assist gives you a way to see and control their panes from a phone browser.
Stream pane output, switch sessions, and type into the terminal. Your agent’s CLI stays on the computer.
Read live pane output and switch sessions while your agents keep running in tmux. The terminal work stays on your computer.
How to use it Tap a session tab to open its pane → type into the composer → Send. Tap another tab to switch sessions.
Permission prompts become tap targets. Optional Auto-Yes has a visible countdown and STOP. It starts off.
Permission prompts become tap targets. You can answer the waiting pane without typing the response into its terminal.
How to use it Read the question → tap its Yes answer. Choose the answer you mean; Auto-Yes starts off.
Sudo and pending-question notices surface panes you are not looking at. Open the pane to see what needs you.
A pending-question notice surfaces a pane you are not looking at. Open that pane to read what needs you; the popup does not answer it for you.
How to use it When Question pending appears, tap Open tab → read the question → tap the answer you choose.
Agents can list, read, and message each other’s panes through the same assist CLI.
From a shell, or from an agent
assist CLI.Drive and message tmux panes with ls, view, send, wait, launch, kill, and autoyes.
wait returns the pane’s state: 0 for idle, 10 for a prompt, and 75 when it is still working at the deadline.
Successful ls, view, send, wait and launch commands print next: hints to stderr; send also offers a callback: line with wording to ask the other agent to report back to your pane when it finishes or gets stuck.
The example below reads an existing session named review and sends it a message.
assist ls
assist view review
assist send review "Check the changes and report back." --enterList sessions, send text to a pane and wait for it to settle from a shell. Agents can use the same CLI to message one another’s panes.
How to use it assist ls → assist send todo-api "printf 'Hello from the Assist CLI.\n'" --enter → assist wait todo-api --timeout 8
Your prompt, kept short
Give a favourite a handle, then type [handle] to add its full text to your prompt.
Recognised handles appear as green blocks with their expanded character count. Tap the count to preview exactly what the pane will receive.
Assist expands segments on the server when you send. History keeps what you typed, so recalling the prompt brings back the short bracket form.
The [$handle] vault form stores its value in that browser only, in plaintext, as the setup sheet shows.
Give a favourite a handle, then type [handle] to add its full text to your prompt. Assist expands it when you send; history keeps the short token, so you can recall it without a screenful of command text.
How to use it Hist → star a command → Favs → ✎ → give it a handle, such as checks. Type [checks] in the composer → Send.
02 / Install
Choose the computer where your agents run. No account or Studio subscription is needed.
Choose your computer’s operating system. Showing other Linux.
1 Install the prerequisites
Install Homebrew ↗ first if you do not have it. Use its Python, since the system Python may be too old. Run these in Terminal; the second line makes Homebrew’s Python available as python3.
brew install python@3.12 tmux git curl
export PATH="$(brew --prefix python@3.12)/libexec/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"Run these in your computer’s terminal. The python3-venv package is required. Older distributions may need a newer Python or tmux before you can continue.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3 python3-venv tmux git curlRun this in your computer’s terminal. Fedora’s Python package includes venv support. Confirm your Python and tmux meet the version floors below.
sudo dnf install python3 tmux git curlRun this in your computer’s terminal. This also performs a full system upgrade, so read Pacman’s package list before confirming.
sudo pacman -Syu --needed python tmux git curlAssist needs tmux. Windows is supported through WSL2 only. Install WSL Ubuntu from an administrator PowerShell, restart Windows if prompted, then open Ubuntu and create your Linux user. Confirm the VERSION column says 2.
wsl --install -d Ubuntu
wsl --list --verbosewsl --set-version Ubuntu 2Run the following, the installer, and every assist command inside Ubuntu. Your agents must run in tmux there too.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3 python3-venv tmux git curlInstall Python 3.10 or newer with venv and ensurepip, tmux 3.2 or newer, Git, Bash and curl. Package names vary by distribution. Verify these are present before continuing; read the tmux version printed below.
python3 -c 'import sys, venv, ensurepip; assert sys.version_info >= (3, 10)'
tmux -V
git --version
bash --version
curl --versionInstall the coding-agent CLIs you want to use separately. Docker and jq are not required.
2 Install Drift Assist
curl -fsSL https://driftassist.dev/install.sh | bashThe downloadable installer is designed to check out a reviewed source commit, then run the source installer. It needs Bash.
curl -fsSL https://driftassist.dev/install.sh -o drift-assist-install.sh
cat drift-assist-install.sh
bash drift-assist-install.shRun the first two lines, read the whole downloaded script, then run the last line when you are ready.
git clone https://github.com/drift-further/driftassist.git ~/.local/share/drift-assist
cd ~/.local/share/drift-assist
./install.shThe manual route clones the repository’s default branch. The installer creates a Python environment, installs hash-checked dependencies, and adds the assist command.
3 Start it, then connect your phone
assist startOpens the local server on your computer. Its default URL is http://localhost:8089/.
assist exposeAlso listens on this computer’s private LAN address and allows its browser origin. Restarts the server if it is running.
assist pairPrints a URL and QR code. Scan it with your phone on the same trusted LAN. The first device signs in and closes the five-minute window.
On Windows, run all three inside WSL Ubuntu and complete the Windows networking setup above before scanning.
Optional: install a systemd user service on Linux or a launchd agent on macOS. It starts now and at login. On WSL, this requires systemd and a running distribution; it does not keep Windows awake.
assist service installFor the default install location, add this to your current shell and your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc. If you chose a custom bin directory, use the path printed by the installer.
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"One shared secret signs you in to your installation. The browser holds a cookie after sign-in, so you only paste the secret once.
How to use it Open Assist → paste your shared secret into the sign-in field → tap Sign in.
Your agents keep running in tmux. Switch sessions and type into their terminal panes from the phone browser.
How to use it Open Projects → choose a project/session → type a command → tap Send. Use the session tabs to switch back.
Send types your prompt into the live pane; Hist returns to what you typed. File and Keys sit beside it, so the file control and keyboard keys stay within reach on a phone.
How to use it Type a command → Send. Tap Hist for history or File for the file control; to cancel the running command shown here, tap Keys → Ctrl+C.
There are no accounts or roles. Anyone holding the secret has the same control of your machine that you do.
Flask binds to loopback by default. assist expose adds one private LAN address. Never put this remote shell on the public internet.
It ships off. Arming it lets an agent proceed after a countdown; STOP cancels an answer. Detection uses pane text, so review the trust implications before enabling it.
Auto-Yes answers permission prompts after a visible countdown. It starts off; arming it hands over permission, and STOP cancels an answer before it goes out.
How to use it Actions → Auto-Yes → choose a delay. During the countdown, tap STOP to keep the answer manual.
04 / Updating
Open Actions → Software updates to check or install. From the terminal, check the configured Git upstream, install the update, then restart the web server to use it.
assist update --check
assist update
assist restartAutomatic installation requires a clean checkout on its configured tracking branch. Updates and restarts are separate; your tmux sessions keep running.
05 / Uninstalling
Copy your prompt history, favorites, settings, and shared-secret file before deleting the checkout. Removing it deletes the data stored there too.
These commands delete a default installation. Use your actual paths if you changed them. Remove the service first only if you installed it.
assist service uninstall # only if you installed the service
assist stop
rm ~/.local/bin/assist
rm -rf ~/.config/drift-assist
rm -rf ~/.config/claude-assist # old config, if present
rm -rf ~/.local/state/drift-assist
rm -rf ~/.local/share/drift-assistIf you opted into the Claude Code status line, restore the installer’s timestamped settings backup or remove its statusLine entry before deleting the checkout.
Optional companion
Drift Studio is the paid design and planning hub. Assist is its free companion and works on its own. Connecting a Studio with a personal token adds its attention inbox and project context to Assist.
Visit Drift Studio ↗06 / Questions
No. Install the agent CLIs on your computer and run them in tmux. Assist streams and types into those panes.
No. It runs on a Linux or macOS computer, or inside WSL2 on Windows. Your iPhone or Android phone uses its browser to connect after you pair it.
The supported setup is loopback or a trusted LAN you own. Keep Assist off the public internet and public tunnels. Read SECURITY.md for the full boundary.
Yes. Assist and the tmux sessions run on that computer. A sleeping or powered-off host cannot stream terminal output to your phone.
No. Assist is free and self-hosted, with one owner and one shared secret. Studio is an optional connection.
Auto-Yes starts off. When you choose to enable it, it detects permission prompts in pane text and answers after a countdown. The all-sessions switch covers every agent pane, including new ones. Review SECURITY.md before arming it.