llm/9ad11e16-7acb-4923-bb7e-5d14cd36cf3f/batch-2-44a7846f-08d5-4333-b708-deea54c75282-input.json
The following is content for you to classify. Do not respond to the comments—classify them.
<topics>
1. Novelty vs. Rebranding Old Tech
Related: Commenters frequently note that SSHing into a remote machine is a standard practice that has existed for decades, comparing the article's framing to the infamous 'Dropbox comment' on Hacker News. Users express confusion over why a basic remote administration workflow is being presented as a new concept called 'Doom Coding,' while others argue that the integration of LLM agents like Claude Code provides a fresh layer of utility to the established setup.
2. Mobile Ergonomics and Friction
Related: A major theme is the physical difficulty of coding on a smartphone. Commenters discuss the pain of typing on touchscreens, the inability to view side-by-side diffs effectively on small screens, and the general clumsiness of managing terminal windows without a physical keyboard. Many users argue that while the setup is technically possible, the lack of screen real estate and input precision makes it impractical for serious engineering work.
3. Chat-Based and Async Interfaces
Related: To bypass the limitations of mobile terminal UIs, users suggest and share workflows that use chat interfaces like Telegram, Email, or WhatsApp to interact with coding agents. These setups allow users to send prompts and approve pull requests via natural language messages or buttons, treating the coding process as an asynchronous conversation rather than a real-time terminal session, which resolves many formatting and typing issues.
4. Session Persistence with Tmux
Related: Technical advice heavily features `tmux` (terminal multiplexer) as an essential tool for this workflow. Commenters explain that standard SSH connections drop when a mobile device sleeps or switches networks, whereas `tmux` allows the session to persist on the host machine. This enables users to seamlessly resume their work exactly where they left off, regardless of connectivity interruptions or app switching.
5. Alternative Mobile Environments
Related: Users discuss various apps and environments that serve as alternatives to the article's Termius setup. Android users advocate for Termux, which provides a local Linux environment without needing a remote host, while iOS users recommend Blink Shell or Shellfish for better Mosh and SSH integration. Some also mention using native Pixel terminal features or running local LLMs directly on the device to avoid latency and dependency on internet access.
6. Mental Health and Downtime
Related: The concept of 'Doom Coding' sparks a philosophical debate about work-life balance. Commenters question the healthiness of filling every moment of downtime with productivity, suggesting that time spent waiting or commuting might be better used for rest, observation, or 'micro-exercises.' There is criticism of the compulsion to code constantly, with some arguing that being present in social situations or relaxing is more valuable than 'vibe coding' on a phone.
7. Reliability and Network Latency
Related: The discussion highlights the technical challenges of mobile connectivity, specifically latency and dropped connections. Tools like Mosh (Mobile Shell) are frequently recommended over standard SSH because they are designed to handle intermittent networks and roaming between Wi-Fi and cellular data without killing the session. Tailscale is praised for simplifying the networking layer, though some prefer Wireguard for a lighter-weight alternative.
8. Wake-on-LAN and Power Usage
Related: Critiques of the requirement to leave a computer running 24/7 lead to discussions on energy efficiency and remote wake capabilities. Users share solutions using Wake-on-LAN (WOL) via routers or Raspberry Pis to turn on powerful machines only when needed. Others mention macOS settings like `caffeinate` or specific power configurations to ensure the host machine remains accessible without wasting electricity around the clock.
9. Verification and Code Review
Related: A critical point raised is the danger of 'fire-and-forget' coding with LLMs on mobile. Users note that verifying the code generated by AI is difficult on a phone due to limited visibility and syntax highlighting. The conversation touches on the risks of deploying code or merging pull requests without the ability to properly audit the logic or run tests, suggesting that mobile workflows are better suited for prototyping than production engineering.
10. Security Risks of Remote Access
Related: Several commenters express concern over the security implications of the proposed setup. Issues include leaving a computer unlocked at home, opening SSH ports (even via VPN), and the potential for bad actors to gain access to a local network. Discussions involve best practices such as using key-based authentication, locking the keychain via command line, and the general risks of exposing a development machine to remote connections.
11. Vibe Coding vs. Engineering
Related: There is a distinction drawn between 'vibe coding'—prompting an LLM to generate scripts or apps—and traditional software engineering. Some users view this workflow as 'slop' or merely prompting, lacking the depth of actual problem-solving, while others find it empowering for quick prototypes or hobby projects. This theme reflects broader tensions regarding the changing nature of software development in the age of generative AI.
12. Web-Based and Cloud Alternatives
Related: Users suggest that browser-based solutions like GitHub Codespaces, Replit, or self-hosted web IDEs (like `opencode`) offer a superior experience to terminal tunneling. These tools often provide better UI elements for mobile browsers and abstract away the need to manage hardware or VPNs, allowing users to code via a web interface that handles state management and environments automatically.
13. Social Acceptability
Related: The humorous notion of 'coding at the club' mentioned in the article draws specific reactions. Commenters joke about or criticize the anti-social nature of pulling out a phone to code in social settings like parties or bars. This overlaps with the 'doom scrolling' comparison, with some users suggesting that using a phone for work in social spaces is just as rude or 'gross' as using it for social media.
14. Hardware Workarounds
Related: To mitigate the interface limitations of smartphones, users discuss hardware additions such as folding phones, external Bluetooth keyboards, and 'thin client' setups using old laptops or tablets. Some mention specific devices like the 'Clicks' keyboard case or using AR glasses, highlighting that while the phone provides the compute or connection, better peripherals are often needed for actual productivity.
15. Agentic Workflows and Automation
Related: Discussions extend beyond simple coding to fully automated agentic workflows. Users describe setups where agents running on home servers are triggered via mobile to perform tasks, run scans, or manage infrastructure autonomously. This shifts the mobile interaction from writing code to orchestrating agents that perform the heavy lifting, reporting back status via push notifications or chat messages.
16. Subscription Fatigue vs. Open Source
Related: Comments reflect a wariness of paid subscriptions for tools like Claude Pro, Tailscale, or premium terminal apps. Users advocate for open-source alternatives such as Ollama for local LLMs, Wireguard for VPNs, and various free terminal emulators. There is a sentiment that basic remote coding shouldn't require a stack of monthly fees when free tools can achieve similar results with slightly more configuration.
17. Educational Value of LLMs
Related: Some users highlight the learning aspect of this workflow, noting that interacting with Claude Code allows them to understand new concepts (like API behaviors or network scanning) through the generative act. This counters the 'slop' narrative, suggesting that 'doom coding' can be a valid educational tool for hobbyists or those looking to understand how their devices and networks function.
18. Thin Client Philosophy
Related: The thread revisits the concept of thin clients, where the mobile device acts merely as a window into a powerful remote machine. Users compare this to historical mainframe/terminal workflows, arguing that the phone doesn't need to be powerful if it just renders text from a desktop. This philosophy underpins the preference for SSH/Mosh over running heavy local IDEs on the phone.
19. Code Quality and Maintenance
Related: Skepticism arises regarding the quality of code produced during short mobile bursts. Commenters worry about creating 'spaghetti code' or unmaintainable projects when working in fragmented sessions on a phone. However, others argue that for small utilities, prototypes, or personal tools, the quality is sufficient, and the ability to iterate quickly from anywhere outweighs the lack of rigorous structure.
20. Gatekeeping vs. Encouragement
Related: The comment section illustrates a divide between experienced users who gatekeep the term 'coding' or mock the setup, and those who encourage the experimentation. While some dismiss the article as trivial, others defend the author's enthusiasm, noting that lowering the barrier to entry and finding new ways to engage with technology is positive, even if the underlying methods are not strictly new.
0. Does not fit well in any category
</topics>
<comments_to_classify>
[
{
"id": "46518209",
"text": "I’d love this, if only for improved diff reviews possible compared to a terminal window! Would also work better for intermittent connectivity."
}
,
{
"id": "46518219",
"text": "> What is the downside to using email?\n\nMake sure you authenticate somehow to prevent external abuse."
}
,
{
"id": "46518273",
"text": "then run the mail servers locally?"
}
,
{
"id": "46520740",
"text": "I code from my phone via GitHub and the Claude actions plugin."
}
,
{
"id": "46519034",
"text": "interesting. email. Simple multiple sessions support to reply vs tabbing here there get threaded. clever\n\nwith vpn vps if want to interact? how would that work?"
}
,
{
"id": "46520514",
"text": "E-mail is not secure (sent in plain text)"
}
,
{
"id": "46521886",
"text": "You're vibe coding. Clearly what you're working on isn't of enough value to secure anyway."
}
,
{
"id": "46520690",
"text": "Unless you set up pgp in your email client..."
}
,
{
"id": "46518462",
"text": "Email is funny - maybe as a backup. Prompting is chatting."
}
,
{
"id": "46535344",
"text": "Okay, IRC then!"
}
,
{
"id": "46518275",
"text": "or text messages? Could be more convenient to reply to a text"
}
,
{
"id": "46521281",
"text": "I'd rather have an DM interface and each task has its own little icon or face. You still have to set up one of the text servers and also do VPN but if you're already vibe coding that stuff why not make it more pleasant than TUI on your phone?"
}
,
{
"id": "46518343",
"text": "How about leveraging the git email workflow? hey - Claudio submitted a patchset"
}
,
{
"id": "46518419",
"text": "It's amazing to me this is called coding at all. Who knew all project managers and business analysts coming up with business requirements were actually just coding gods sent from the future."
}
,
{
"id": "46518468",
"text": "Inspiring me to do this in Telegram\n\n“Why not Telegram”\n\nall the crypto bros are already there, and maybe some e-commerce"
}
,
{
"id": "46518530",
"text": "> seems easier then getting a vpn working\n\nit could not possibly be easier to get Tailscale up and running on your mac or linux machine, install tmux and mosh on your mac or linux machine, connect to it with Blink Shell https://blink.sh/ on your iOS device that you've also installed tailscale to, and start vibe-coding from anywhere, on a performant, resilient, instantly resumable terminal connection.\n\nseriously, it's a game-changer"
}
,
{
"id": "46518958",
"text": "But I already have email."
}
,
{
"id": "46523818",
"text": "> Would an email interface to Claude code work better?\n\nThis might be the most \"when your only tool is a hammer all your problems look like nails\" suggestion I've ever read.\n\nEmail driven automation isn't a terrible solution to everything - it works very well for support tickets, for example - but it's really lacking in the immediacy required from a serious software development environment.\n\nI'll go further: I think coding on my phone is a fun, neat, idea, and an interesting curiosity, but I don't actually want to do it. There are few situations where I'd feel comfortable getting my phone out to code where I don't also have my laptop with me, and that's going to provide a way better software development experience, so I'm always going to use that for anything serious."
}
,
{
"id": "46524118",
"text": "My thoughts went into a different direction: \"Maybe I should buy a small tablet so that I can read code properly without carrying a full laptop?\"\n\n(Sure, there might be small laptops of similar dimensions ... But as the name \"laptop\" suggests these are made for a different UX... and they require more effort to turn on/off)"
}
,
{
"id": "46525128",
"text": "> Great for parties where you rather be home tinkering.\n\nI know this is probably in jest, but when someone invites you to a party it's not because they just want your atoms in the same room as them.\n\nIn regards to doom coding: I would chop off my arms before coding/prompting on a phone. Also, think about your cervical, neck etc! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"
}
,
{
"id": "46525501",
"text": "I host weekly friend-of-friend open events where some people show up most weeks, find a nice comfortable spot to doom scroll in for a couple hours, maybe take a nap, leave, sit in their car for a bit, scroll some more, then go home.\n\nI am just hoping they actually took a break from doom scrolling while driving as then at least I can say I had some non zero positive impact on their lives.\n\n5 years phone-free and I do not miss it. People use them as security blankets to avoid having to be present for more than 5 minutes at a time with other people or even just exist in their own heads. I now find this behavior immature and gross but avoiding it would mean not having friends.\n\nA smartphone is like toilet paper. No one wants to watch you use it."
}
,
{
"id": "46526009",
"text": "Maybe host your event in a cave if you can, no cell coverage, no Wi-Fi.\n\nThere is a bar like that where I go sometimes, it is in a cave, some people got Wi-Fi from the staff, and you have some reception if you stand near the front door, but it is mostly a network-free zone and it is great.\n\nAnother thing we did from time to time at the restaurant is to put all our phones stacked in the middle of the table, anyone who picks up his phone before the end of the meal for any reason pays the bill for everyone. So far, no one did."
}
,
{
"id": "46527893",
"text": "Suddenly the one good use case for lead paint becomes clear."
}
,
{
"id": "46526234",
"text": "Get better friends! Not everybody does this."
}
,
{
"id": "46527057",
"text": "Very curious to hear how you went phone-free and what your setup looks like"
}
,
{
"id": "46527823",
"text": "I have a mini PC hooked to screens in every room other than the bedroom and bathroom, and remote controls with built in air-mouse and keyboard (pepper jobs remotes). This way anyone can pick up a controller in any room and look something up on a shared communal screen as needed, which discourages use of private screens.\n\nWhen I leave home for less than a day I pack no electronics of any kind and enjoy the peace in my own head to think about the next problems I want to solve in my universe.\n\nI pay with cash exclusively in public so tap and pay is not an issue. If I ever need to be reachable for emergencies I can carry a pager but so far this has not been worth it."
}
,
{
"id": "46528073",
"text": "Did not expect that: I got rid of a small screen i can carry around by putting a lot of small screen all over my house.\n\nI put that in the same bin as all the “Stop doomscrolling” apps. You can’t prevent doomscrolling by adding another app on your phone. Get rid of the phone (and all other screens), one does not need to be able to look up everything in a moments notice. Write it down on a paper and do it later."
}
,
{
"id": "46529235",
"text": "I'm with you... just with gesture input as it is, I hate using my phone for much beyond a quick comment or two. I can't imagine trying to do anything technical with a phone's onscreen keyboard. Even through an AI prompt... nope, just nope.\n\nAt worst, put your ideas into a notes app and then go back to where you are... this is just anti-social and borderline psychotic imo."
}
,
{
"id": "46532346",
"text": "Yes to the last two 100% - hence the \"doom\" in doom coding! I wrote the post more as a replacement to TikTok scrolling - it feels like a worse evil, but it's still not healthy.\n\nThe UI isn't as good as a laptop but maybe it's all my years of swiping, liking, and navigating between apps. In a very sad and concerning way, phone time feels like home."
}
,
{
"id": "46523757",
"text": "If you don't want to run your machine 24/7 (whether for electrical consumption, environmental, noise, etc reasons), I wrote an ssh proxy [1] that will send WOL packets to a target machine and hold your connection until its alive.\n\nI then configured debian-autoshutdown [2] to turn the machine off if there's no traffic on ssh after 15 minutes.\n\nThis way I just ssh into my machine (whether via antigravity on my laptop or termius on my phone) and within 30 or so seconds its awake, no physical button presses needed. I documented the whole flow in more detail on my blog [3].\n\nI'm now working on an improvement called machine on proxy (or mop) that will allow me to start Proxmox VMs instead of physical machines, so I can let gemini-cli run wild and if it decides to wipe the entire hard drive I can restore from a snapshot.\n\n[1] https://github.com/simonamdev/ssh-wol-proxy\n\n[2] https://github.com/mnul/debian-autoshutdown\n\n[3] https://www.simonam.dev/ssh-wol-proxy/"
}
,
{
"id": "46524417",
"text": "I do the same. I can SSH into my router at home (which is on 24/7), then issue a WOL request to my dev machine to turn it on.\n\nYou don't even have to fully shut down you dev machine, you can allow it to go into stand-by. For that it needs to be wired by cable to LAN, and configured to leave the NIC powered on on stand-by. You can then wake up the device remotely via a WOL magic packet. Maybe this is possible with WLAN too, but I have never tried.\n\nAlso, you don't need a Tailscale or other VPN account. You can just use SSH + tunneling, or enable a VPN on your router (and usually enjoy hardware acceleration too!). I happen to have a static IP at home, but you can use a dynamic DNS client on your router to achieve the same effect."
}
,
{
"id": "46529504",
"text": "I run a lot of small form factor (SFF) machines including NUCs, Minisforums, and a Mac Studio.\n\nAt idle, they aren't loud or consuming much electricity compared to sleep/shutdown.\n\nFruit co devices in particular are extremely efficient; the Studio is rated at 6W idle, 145W max consumption (cf. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102027 )"
}
,
{
"id": "46530822",
"text": "Can you do the same to remotely wake up my MacBook on demand via WoL and ssh into it from my phone? What are the security risks?"
}
,
{
"id": "46532130",
"text": "I don't think WOL works over Wi-Fi and whether you can get WOL from a USB ethernet adapter.\n\nMy proxy doesn't attempt to handle security. Most folks use either Tailscale or some other VPN solution. In my case I use the wireguard server in my router to VPN into home which gives me access to the proxy and consequently to the machine."
}
,
{
"id": "46518312",
"text": "Historically I had thought there was a pendulum swing between using local computing resources vs. having a dumb terminal to access something remotely.\n\nBut now instead of swinging back to local resources, apparently we're proposing to add a second layer of remote access (phone -> computer -> Claude servers)."
}
,
{
"id": "46519478",
"text": "In the last 5 years I pretty much fully migrated to my laptop being a terminal for other machines. I more use it like a local machine in HPC: web browsing, word processing, scripting. Anything serious is done remotely. But I also live in the terminal and so realistically what's the difference? 99% of the time the result is that I get to use a \"big\" computer without having to carry it around.\n\nFWIW, I'm not a big fan of AI coding. I use AI (including LLMs) and I am an AI researcher, but the vibe coding just hasn't clicked despite constant efforts. I guess it can make more sense to do it if you're programming from your phone because while normally typing isn't the bottleneck it definitely is on the phone (or at least far less comfortable)"
}
,
{
"id": "46519938",
"text": "Same setup as mine, I have an OpenVPN server running in my router, and my main PC has wake-on-lan and a KVM as a backup to turn it on and off.\n\nI have an old used Dell Latitude that I use as a pseudo thin client. I ssh into my PC, and everything just works.\n\nI really like this setup because I only have one environment, so everything is there, and I don't have to install anything in the laptop"
}
,
{
"id": "46520469",
"text": "> I really like this setup because I only have one environment, so everything is there, and I don't have to install anything in the laptop\n\nYeah that's one of my favorite parts. Same about living in the terminal. I can be effective anywhere nearly instantly. I carry everything around in my dotfiles and keep it small (keep the .git folder small and don't add anything except text files)[0].\n\nOn that note, one thing I highly recommend to people is to add some visual clues to tell you which machine you're on. I use starship and have a few indicators but I also have some PS1 exports that I've used in the past or use in new tmp instances (I HIGHLY recommend also doing this for when you're using the root account). It can get confusing when you have different tabs on different machines and it is easy to mistake which one you're on.\n\n[0] I also recommend keeping notes there if you like writing in markdown. Files are so tiny that it's worth having them. It's benefited me more times than I can count."
}
,
{
"id": "46525817",
"text": "If you don't mind, I'd like to hear more about your setup. I have a bunch of bash scripts and python programs I've used to make working in the terminal easier (and more fun). Are you saving your dotfiles are a git project and then just syncing and pulling them down from there? I'm not an expert, just a tinkerer, but I like tinkering in the terminal. :)\n\nThanks in advance!"
}
,
{
"id": "46535503",
"text": "Not the parent but a project (glorified Bash script) called vcsh[1] has served me well over the years for managing multiple Git repositories containing my dotfiles (separation of concerns).\n\nLately I have migrated some of that to Guix Home because the other half of the problem is having all the dependent programs necessary for the dotfiles installed automatically at the appropriate versions.\n\nThe latter one especially falls into the realm of tinkering. :)\n\n[1]: https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh\n[2]: https://systemcrafters.net/craft-your-system-with-guix/guix-..."
}
,
{
"id": "46519680",
"text": "My desktop is 11 years old, but I still feel like it does so much that I wouldn't want any cloud services except for AI. (And there's no way this thing would handle a useful local model, but I'm also really not very enthused about the kind of data sharing involved in remote AI use.)"
}
,
{
"id": "46519741",
"text": "I mean the power of the work machine really depends on what your needs are. Definitely should adapt to whatever your needs are.\n\n> And there's no way this thing would handle a useful local model\n\nSo if you have a setup like mine then it is fairly trivial to incorporate that (or anything else). Either way you'll need a machine that can do the local AI though. Either that is on your \"work machine\" or you run the AI on a separate machine. You could even rent a machine and as long as you add it to your Tailscale network then you're connected.\n\nI strongly suggest having a workhorse machine and then let other devices be your terminal into it. Your terminals can be very cheap (or an old machine) or as suggested, your phone."
}
,
{
"id": "46520180",
"text": "I appreciate the thought, but advice like this is completely irrelevant to my current circumstances (and personal principles) and would be very expensive (respectively, emotionally unpleasant) to implement."
}
,
{
"id": "46520397",
"text": "Just trying to help given that you responded. I'm happy to help you find solutions but the constraints might be too much, unfortunately. If you don't have a machine that can run local AI and don't have the funds to buy one then frankly it just isn't in the cards. But hey, if you don't want to use AI or at least willing to use non-local then the setup probably doesn't require you to spend a dime."
}
,
{
"id": "46527711",
"text": "(I wasn't looking for a solution, just giving my perspective.)"
}
,
{
"id": "46519203",
"text": "Hey, come on, it could be better: you could have hundreds of employees venting directly to chat logs held by Microsoft detailing all your internal politics, planning, customer acquisition strategies, code, integrations desires, excel sheets, emails, and projects.\n\nNothing could possibly go wrong, those guys are always 100% trustworthy and reliable, contracts and NDAs with them are ironclad and easily enforceable… … o_o"
}
,
{
"id": "46523675",
"text": "Maybe in the future we'll all have a \"hub\" in our homes that contains our data, but we'll shell out to the local datacenter for AI compute, while our actual interface will be a VR headset or tablet located with us, anywhere in the world."
}
,
{
"id": "46517974",
"text": "If you're on Android and can download QPython, it works just fine and has for years. This seems way overcomplicated, it depends on a remote computer that's on 24/7? Ick."
}
,
{
"id": "46518561",
"text": "Also, if your Android phone is a Pixel, you can run the recently added Terminal app, which runs a plain vanilla Debian distribution within a VM. So you then have a pocketable Linux machine to develop code on. Not only does Python run on it, you can install the entire Anaconda Python suite."
}
,
{
"id": "46524356",
"text": "I tried this a while back with. NET and Blazor. With split screen I was able to add some code and preview live in the browser and build and 'install' a simple pwa.\n\nPresumably with an external monitor and the desktop mode it would be better.\n\nCode from tiny llms such as Gemma are a waste of time but it \"worked\". It was neat to generate a working app completely offline.\n\nThe main problem was that the VM crashed on my pixel fairly frequently. Might be better by now."
}
]
</comments_to_classify>
Based on the comments above, assign each to up to 3 relevant topics.
Return ONLY a JSON array with this exact structure (no other text):
[
{
"id": "comment_id_1",
"topics": [
1,
3,
5
]
}
,
{
"id": "comment_id_2",
"topics": [
2
]
}
,
{
"id": "comment_id_3",
"topics": [
0
]
}
,
...
]
Rules:
- Each comment can have 0 to 3 topics
- Use 1-based topic indices for matches
- Use index 0 if the comment does not fit well in any category
- Only assign topics that are genuinely relevant to the comment
Remember: Output ONLY the JSON array, no other text.
50