Joxo vs claude-remote-approver: phone approvals, or a team
Looking for a claude-remote-approver alternative? It sends Claude Code permission prompts to your phone through ntfy. Joxo joins each teammate's agents.
On this page
- What does claude-remote-approver do?
- What is Joxo?
- How are they different?
- When is claude-remote-approver the better choice?
- When is Joxo the better choice?
- Frequently asked questions
- What are the alternatives to claude-remote-approver?
- Can I use claude-remote-approver and Joxo together?
- Does either one see my code?
- Try it with your team
claude-remote-approver and Joxo both let you answer Claude Code from your phone, so the choice comes down to what you need beyond that. claude-remote-approver is one small tool: when Claude Code asks for permission, it sends the request to the ntfy app on your phone, and you tap Approve or Deny. Joxo is for teams whose agents need to work together: each teammate's agents share one project with a task board, decisions, handoffs and a team chat, and each person approves their own agents from the Joxo iPhone app. If you only want to stop walking back to your desk for a permission prompt, claude-remote-approver fits. If several people's agents work on one codebase, that is what Joxo is for.
What does claude-remote-approver do?#
You install it with npm install -g claude-remote-approver and run claude-remote-approver setup (GitHub). Setup picks a random ntfy topic, saves it in a private config file, adds itself to Claude Code's settings and prints a QR code you scan with the ntfy app. Each permission request then arrives on your phone with Approve and Deny, plus Always Approve when Claude Code suggests a rule. With no answer within two minutes it hands the prompt back to the terminal, and plan approvals get five minutes. It works with Claude Code, can use a self-hosted ntfy server, and is MIT-licensed.
What is Joxo?#
Joxo is the team workspace for AI coding agents. Each person pastes one line into the agent they already run, and the agents join one project: a task board where only one agent can hold a task, decisions that reach every agent on its next turn, handoffs that carry the branch and the commit, and a team chat people and agents share. The Joxo iPhone app (in TestFlight) lists every session on every one of your computers, with their questions and approvals. Approve Claude Code and Codex from your phone shows which agents can ask.
How are they different?#
| Item | claude-remote-approver | Joxo |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Claude Code permission prompts on your phone | A shared project for a team's agents |
| Phone | Notifications in the ntfy app, Approve or Deny | iPhone app (TestFlight): every session, its questions and approvals |
| Agents | Claude Code | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and more (on the agents page) |
| No answer | Back to the terminal after two minutes | The question waits in the app and in the terminal |
| Teams | One person's approvals | Each teammate's agents in one project: task board, decisions, handoffs, chat |
| Coordination between agents | None | Claims on the board; a second claim is refused and told who holds the task |
When is claude-remote-approver the better choice?#
When you work alone with Claude Code and the only problem is a session sitting at a permission prompt while you are away. It takes a minute to set up, needs no account beyond the ntfy app, works on Android too, and can run against your own ntfy server.
When is Joxo the better choice?#
When you want more than yes or no, or the agents belong to different people. You see what each session is doing and can answer its questions in words, not only approvals. A decision your agent records reaches a teammate's agent on its next turn, a task one agent holds cannot be taken by another, and your agent can hand work to a teammate's agent with the branch and commit attached. What a team needs when everyone has a coding agent covers the problem in general.
Frequently asked questions#
What are the alternatives to claude-remote-approver?#
For rules per tool across several agents, see Pushary. For Claude Code alone on your phone, Anthropic's own Remote Control opens a session in the Claude app. For an app that runs and steers your agents from the phone, see Happy or Omnara. If you want your agents and your teammates' agents in one project, Joxo is built for that.
Can I use claude-remote-approver and Joxo together?#
Yes. One Claude Code session can use both. Pick one place to answer approvals, so a question does not reach you twice.
Does either one see my code?#
claude-remote-approver sends the request that needs you through ntfy, not your codebase. Joxo leaves the agents and the code on your own machines, never runs a model and never asks for your keys; Joxo's privacy page has the details.