Slopty

One app on macOS, iPhone and iPad that reaches many Macs at once. It runs terminals and Claude Code agents on them, streams their windows and desktops, shares the clipboard and moves files either way, all on one scrolling workspace. The aim is that working on a remote Mac feels local.

Slopty adds no encryption or pairing of its own: reach your machines over Tailscale or a VPN, which is the security boundary. A machine admits the tailnet and loopback by default; [worker] allow in settings.toml adds a private LAN or VPN.

How it fits together

• Machines (every Mac or Linux box you want to reach) run the terminals, the agents and the capture. On each one that is slopty-worker, kept running by launchd or systemd.
• The server (one per setup, on any machine) keeps the list of machines and serves the tools to agents.
• Clients (the app on each Mac, iPhone or iPad, and the slopty CLI) ask the server who is there, then talk to each machine directly.

One Mac can play all three roles.

Install

Requires macOS 26.5 or later on Apple silicon. Download Slopty-<version>-macos-arm64.zip from Releases, unzip it and move Slopty.app to Applications. Slopty offers the move itself when it is opened from somewhere else, because the machine it sets up runs from the app.

Then, in the app:

• Use this Mac shares this Mac's shells and windows and adds it, with a checklist for the two permissions it needs: Screen Recording and Accessibility.
• Install on a machine over SSH copies Slopty to another Mac or a Linux machine you reach with ssh (your ssh config and agent; a machine that takes only a password asks for it once and can take your key so it stops asking), then adds it.
• Connect to a server with a server's Tailscale name or address: every machine registered with it shows up by itself, on every client. Run the server on this Mac or Set up the server over SSH puts one up. Machines added before the server joins it through Register machines with the server in the palette.
• Add a machine reaches one by address, without a server.

A new build of the app brings this Mac's own machine and server along. Others show Update on their tiles, and Update all machines in the palette updates every one. An update keeps every shell and agent turn running, and asks first in the rare build that cannot.

A headless Mac runs Slopty in the session of whoever is logged in, so set it to log in automatically (with FileVault off), or unlock it over ssh and log in through Screen Sharing after a restart. A Linux machine keeps running after you log out once loginctl enable-linger is on for your user; Slopty says when it is not.

From the command line

The bundle carries the CLI, so a machine can be set up without the app:

Slopty.app/Contents/MacOS/slopty server install                 # on the server
Slopty.app/Contents/MacOS/slopty worker install --server <host> # on each Mac to reach
slopty --server <host> worker deploy <ssh-host>                 # a Mac or Linux box over ssh

To build it yourself, cargo xtask bundle writes target/bundle/Slopty.app.

Agents

Claude Code started in a Slopty terminal, whether from the app or typed as claude in a shell, gets Slopty's tools (list machines, open terminals, type, read screens, wait on commands, read and write files) and reports whether it is working, waiting or blocked, with nothing to set up. Your own claude runs unmodified, with your flags; SLOPTY_NO_CLAUDE_MOD=1 leaves it alone.

For Claude Code started elsewhere, add the tools yourself:

claude mcp add slopty -- slopty mcp                          # stdio, through the CLI
claude mcp add --transport http slopty http://<server-host>:45561/mcp

and slopty hook install registers the hooks that report whether it is working, waiting or blocked.

The CLI

slopty --help lists everything. The everyday verbs:

Verb	What it does
workers	The machines the server knows, whether they are up, and the agents waiting on you
terminals	Terminals on one machine or all of them
open / close	Start or hang up a terminal
send / screen / output	Type into a terminal, print its screen, print its scrollback
wait / commands	Block until something happens; the commands run and their exit codes
cat / put	Read a file on a machine, or replace one from standard input
ports	TCP ports listening in a machine's terminals
attach	A raw terminal straight to a machine, detached with ^]

The server comes from --server, $SLOPTY_SERVER, or [client] server in settings.toml.

Working on Slopty

CLAUDE.md holds the rules. docs/DEV.md covers the commands and the loop, docs/ARCHITECTURE.md how it is built, docs/TESTING.md the test layers, and docs/DECISIONS.md the rulings with their evidence.