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Use the PocketAI apps for iPhone and Mac to run agents on your own machine and approve their tool runs from your phone. PocketAI is made by LiveShortly; see pocket.liveshortly.com. You need a machine with live and your agent CLIs installed and signed in, and a network path from your phone to that machine.

Two ways to use PocketAI#

You wantUse
Chat with an agent on your machine from the app, with no accountlive daemon --server and a shared key (this page)
Watch and approve live sessions from your phoneThe session page on liveshortly.com or your server, in the phone's browser. See Approvals

The two are separate. The daemon key is not a web login, and the app's direct-daemon setting does not accept the web platform's URL.

1. Start the daemon in server mode#

export LIVE_POCKET_KEY="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
live daemon --server --dir /absolute/path/to/project

You should see:

live daemon · alice-mbp · listening on [::]:8787
Agents: claude, codex, gemini, ollama
Workspaces: /absolute/path/to/project

The daemon listens on port 8787 on all interfaces. Use --listen to change that, --name to change the displayed server name, and repeat --dir for more projects. --key works instead of LIVE_POCKET_KEY. Keep the key; the app needs it.

This mode does not need the web platform, Google sign-in, Postgres or Redis. Sessions are stored on the machine in ~/.liveshortly/pocket/liveshortly-pocket (change it with --state-dir) and survive restarts.

2. Connect the app#

  1. In PocketAI, choose LiveShortly.
  2. Enter the server address (for example http://your-mac.local:8787) and the key.
  3. Tap Test connection. The app lists the agents found on the machine and the Ollama models pulled there.
  4. Pick an agent and a project, and save.

The daemon looks for Codex, Claude, Gemini, Antigravity (agy), Ollama, Aider and Cursor Agent on its PATH. It does not check that each agent is signed in or has quota left. Ollama sessions need a model that is already pulled; the app never downloads one.

To offer another CLI, list it in a JSON file and pass --agents-file:

[{ "name": "my-agent", "command": "/path/to/my-agent", "args": ["--print"] }]

The adapter gets the prompt on standard input and must print its answer. An argument containing {prompt} receives the prompt instead. No shell is used, and the app can't supply commands or arguments.

3. Approve from your phone#

For Claude, Codex and Antigravity, each tool run waits for you in the chat. The app shows the full tool input with Approve once and Deny.

  • Requests expire after 8 minutes and are then denied.
  • Stopping the turn or restarting the daemon denies any open request.
  • A request that can't reach the app (relay failure, bad input, timeout) is denied.
  • Codex runs with on-request approvals and its workspace-write sandbox.

Per agent:

AgentPhone approvals
Claude CodeSupported
CodexSupported
AntigravitySupported. If its hook plugin can't be installed, the agent is not started.
OllamaNot needed (no tools)
Gemini CLI, Cursor Agent, Aider, ACP agents, custom adaptersNot supported: the agent's own permission behaviour applies

The app shows which agents support phone approvals in its connection settings.

Limits#

One running turn per session and four in total, 200 sessions, 50 turns per session, 32,000-byte messages, 256 KiB of output and a 15-minute timeout per turn. The most recent 96 KB of the conversation is replayed to the agent at each turn.

Keep it secure#

  • Use HTTPS (--tls-cert and --tls-key, or a TLS proxy) or a private network such as a VPN. Over plain HTTP the key is sent unencrypted.
  • The key gives access to every session on the daemon. Restart with a new key to revoke access.
  • Agents run as the daemon's user. The project list is not a sandbox: use a dedicated user or container for people you don't fully trust.

If it doesn't work#

  • Test connection fails. Check that the phone can reach the machine (same network or VPN), the port (8787 by default) is open in the machine's firewall, and the key matches.
  • An agent is missing from the list. It is not on the daemon's PATH. Install it and tap Test connection again.
  • Ollama can't start. Pull the model on the machine first (ollama pull llama3).
  • A turn says "interrupted". The daemon restarted during the turn. Send the message again.
  • The app rejects the web address. The direct-daemon setting needs the daemon's address (port 8787), not liveshortly.com.

For help with the app, write to [email protected].

Related#