I made an MCP server that basically implements all the tools an agent harness would provide. The code is checked out on my server, the MCP server creates git worktrees on "activation" and it can read, modify files, run bash commands etc. I have this setup in typingmind so I can do everything from my phone :p The only problem is that typingmind needs to be in the foreground on my phone, otherwise it will kill the connection.
replyThere was a time where I was often stuck for an hour with nothing but my phone and I kept copying file contents into chat for context so I made this and it works surprisingly well.
I don't know what typingmind is but Termux is very good at keeping the pace when the screen is turned off. If it's just a chat interface you could probably grab someone's weekend hack in your favourite language off the Internet and plug it in through Termux.
reply> I wonder how hard it would be to get an agent to send me a text message if it gets stuck on something.
replyNot too hard, aka. I have a friend who did this. Rather than a text message, he uses IRC, but the effect should be the same. IRC is probably a little better.
Assuming you use Claude Code, the concept to look for is 'channels'. It's described as being for sending messages to Claude, but they work both ways. And I see one of the canned channels is iMessage.