Claude Code

Text Claude Code from your phone. Claude keeps running on your computer with its own credentials, tools, and files. Relay carries the messages, the permission cards, and the final reply. Authenticate Claude on the computer first. Interactive terminal authentication and form elicitation are not proxied through Relay.

Requirements

Requirement	Detail
Node.js	22.18 or newer for the `relaymessenger` CLI. The channel plugin runtime itself needs 20.11 or newer
Claude Code	A build with channel support. Channels are a research preview, and Team or Enterprise organizations must enable them
Relay agent	An agent and its Agent Token. See Create and connect an agent

Give the bridge its own Relay agent when a webhook backend already serves one, so each turn is answered once and by one runtime.

Pair this computer

npm install -g @relaymessenger/cli
relaymessenger pair

Scan the terminal QR code or enter its short code in Relay, and approve the pairing there. The Agent Token is minted onto this computer and never travels to the phone. See the CLI for the full device flow and what pairing never sends.

Choose a path

Use the headless bridge for a conversation that runs without a terminal open. Use the channel plugin to push messages into a Claude session you are already sitting in.

Message the agent

A message, or a quick burst of messages, becomes one turn. Relay shows the agent typing while it works, then posts one final reply. Supported tool permission requests arrive as owner-only messages carrying an id. Answer either path by replying yes <id> or no <id>.

Headless ACP bridge
Native channel plugin

relaymessenger start --engine claude --dir ~/code/my-project

relaymessenger install-claude
claude --dangerously-load-development-channels plugin:relay@relaymessenger-bundled

Claude Code channels are a research preview.

What the channel plugin is

The channel plugin is an open-source MCP stdio server for Claude Code’s channel contract. It publishes to npm as relay-claude-channel and is built from integrations/claude-code in the Relay-SDK repository. relaymessenger install-claude installs the copy bundled inside the CLI, so the three commands above are the whole install. Reach for the package name when you are reading its source, filing an issue, or auditing what runs on your machine.

Install from GitHub instead

Claude Code can add the same plugin without the CLI:

/plugin marketplace add relaymessenger/Relay-SDK
/plugin install relay@relaymessenger

You still need relaymessenger pair, or a hand-written ~/.claude/channels/relay/.env, to supply the Agent Token.

Verify without printing the token

node <installed-plugin-directory>/runtime/server.mjs --check

The check validates the channel configuration, the API origin, and the owner pin. It never prints the Agent Token. Run /relay:configure inside Claude for the same verification from the session.

How it behaves

Area	Behavior
Adapter pinning	`relaymessenger` launches its exact bundled `@agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp` entrypoint directly with Node, with no shell and no mutable `npx latest` lookup. The adapter version cannot change under you between runs.
Session persistence	Conversation-to-session bindings survive bridge restarts when the adapter supports session loading. Where it does not, a restart begins a new session.
Permission previews	Claude supplies a bounded permission input preview. Relay offers remote Allow only when that preview is complete JSON that Claude did not truncate. Otherwise the phone can deny, and you approve at the keyboard.
Channel plugin tools	The plugin follows Claude’s MCP channel contract: it emits `notifications/claude/channel`, exposes retry-safe `reply` and `acknowledge` tools, and relays permission notifications.
One session per agent	A second Claude session on the same agent fails closed instead of answering the same messages twice. Point the second session at a different Relay agent.
Redelivery	Channel notifications are unacknowledged at Claude’s transport layer, so the plugin re-notifies every 30 seconds until Claude calls `acknowledge`, and replays after a restart. Delivery is at least once. Reconcile before repeating a deploy, a deletion, or a payment.
Identity protection	`relaymessenger install-claude` validates the bundled marketplace, copies it into the paired account’s private runtime directory, and writes the token, API origin, and owner pin to an owner-only channel `.env`. It refuses to replace a different configured identity.

Troubleshooting

relaymessenger doctor

See integration troubleshooting for the symptoms shared with every other integration. These are specific to this one.

Symptom	Cause and fix
Channel events stop arriving	The Claude session closed. Channel events flow only while that session stays open. Use the headless ACP bridge for a conversation that does not need a terminal.
The plugin will not load	Custom channels require the development-channel flag unless your organization explicitly allowlists the plugin. Team and Enterprise organizations must also enable channels.

Next steps

The relaymessenger CLI for pairing and the approval guarantees
Codex to bridge a second engine from the same computer
Delivery model for long polling, cursors, and recovery

Start here

Send

Receive

Connect what you already run

Reference

Relay for Business

About Relay

Requirements

What the channel plugin is

Install from GitHub instead

Verify without printing the token

How it behaves

Troubleshooting

Next steps

​Requirements

​What the channel plugin is

​Install from GitHub instead

​Verify without printing the token

​How it behaves

​Troubleshooting

​Next steps

Requirements

What the channel plugin is

Install from GitHub instead

Verify without printing the token

How it behaves

Troubleshooting

Next steps