cc-imessage-control

cc-imessage-control

Start Claude on your Mac or Linux box from a text.

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Claude Code only starts at the keyboard. This plugin lets you text "Claude <project>" to yourself and have your Mac (iMessage) or Linux box (SSH over Tailscale) spin up a /remote-control session in that folder — couch, airport, trail, anywhere.

No chat.db reading. No third-party messaging service. Sender filter (macOS) or SSH key over your private tailnet (Linux). The router never sees a message you didn't text yourself.

Install

claude plugin marketplace add nathan-hekman/cc-imessage-control
claude plugin install cc-imessage-control@cc-imessage-control

Restart Claude Code, then:

/cc-imessage-control setup

5-minute wizard. Detects whether you're on macOS or Linux and walks the right path.

Two trigger paths

macOS — native Shortcuts. Shortcuts.app watches your own iMessage thread for the keyword and runs the router directly. No listener, no secret, no network exposure. ~5 min to set up.

Linux — SSH over Tailscale. An iPhone Personal Automation runs a native Run Script over SSH action that calls the router on your box over your private tailnet. No service to run, no open inbound port, no custom code — just sshd, which your distro already ships. The setup wizard does the box side for you. ~10 min, mostly the one-time SSH key paste. See Linux setup (SSH over Tailscale) below.

Linux setup (SSH over Tailscale)

The iPhone is the trigger source on Linux. A Personal Automation fires when you text yourself Claude <project>, and runs a small Shortcut that SSHes into your box and starts the session. The whole box side is handled by /cc-imessage-control setup — this section is the map.

1. Install + run setup on the Linux box.

claude plugin install cc-imessage-control@cc-imessage-control
/cc-imessage-control setup        # detects Linux, runs the SSH path

The wizard ensures sshd is running, confirms Tailscale is up, writes your config + project list, and prints the exact three values you'll paste into the phone Shortcut (host, user, port) plus the SSH-key instructions.

2. Get the Shortcut onto your iPhone. Two ways:

• Import the ready-made one — open ios/CC Remote SSH.shortcut on the iPhone (AirDrop it, or open the raw GitHub link on the phone). Edit the three Text fields at the top (SSH_HOST, SSH_USER, SSH_PORT) with the values the wizard printed.

• Build it by hand (5 actions) if you'd rather not import a file:

  1. Text → your tailnet host (e.g. my-box.tailnet.ts.net) → Set Variable SSH_HOST.
  2. Text → your username → Set Variable SSH_USER.
  3. Text → 22 → Set Variable SSH_PORT.
  4. If Shortcut Input has any value → use it; Otherwise Ask for Input (Text, prompt "Phrase (e.g. claude api)"). Set Variable PHRASE.
  5. Run Script over SSH — Host SSH_HOST, User SSH_USER, Port SSH_PORT, Authentication SSH Key, Script: bash ~/.claude/cc-imessage-control-launcher.sh "<PHRASE>" (insert the PHRASE variable). Then Show Notification "Sent to Claude box: ".

3. Authorize the key. Open the SSH action, tap the key field to reveal the Shortcuts-generated public key, and add it to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the box (the wizard offers to paste it in for you).

4. Wire the trigger. On the iPhone: Shortcuts → Automation → + → Message trigger, sender = yourself, contains claude, Run Immediately, then Run Shortcut → CC Remote SSH passing the message text. (An Automation can't be shipped as a file — this step is always by hand, but it's four taps.)

5. Test. Text yourself Claude <project>. The box launches claude --remote-control in a terminal (or detached tmux on a headless box); drive it from the Claude mobile app.

Prefer no SSH at all? An HTTP-listener path (a tiny Python service behind a bearer token) still ships in bin/cc_imessage_listen.py

• systemd/. It's the older approach — more moving parts, an open port — kept as a fallback. The wizard offers it if you decline SSH.

Day-to-day

Two keywords. One Shortcut.

Claude <project> — opens a fresh Claude Code session in that project dir.