Managing My Portfolio From the Couch — Claude Code on Mobile

Who said you need a desk to ship?

It started with a Sunday afternoon thought: I want to add a new blog post, but my laptop is across the room.

Two years ago that thought would have ended there. Today, I opened claude.ai on my phone, described what I wanted, and watched it update this site — editing files, writing content, creating a pull request — while I stayed on the couch.

Here is the honest take: it is genuinely powerful, with some real limitations worth knowing.

How It Works

When you use Claude Code on claude.ai (the web version), it connects directly to your GitHub repository. You give it instructions in plain language, and it does the work.

The mobile workflow looks like this:

Open claude.ai on phone
  └─→ Describe what you want
        └─→ CC edits files in your repo
              └─→ Creates a pull request on GitHub
                    └─→ Review diff in GitHub mobile app
                          └─→ Merge PR
                                └─→ Vercel auto-deploys ✓

Notice what is never touched: a terminal. No npm run dev, no git push, no local environment. Just a conversation and a GitHub merge button.

What It Is Genuinely Great For

Brainstorming and writing content

This is where it shines. I can describe an experience I want to document — even in rough bullet form — and Claude structures it into a publish-ready blog post that matches my existing voice. On a phone. While horizontal.

The conversation context is preserved across messages, so you can develop an idea over several back-and-forths before it ever touches a file.

Editing existing content

Want to update a project description? Fix a typo? Rework the homepage bio? Describe the change, CC finds the right file and edits it. One message.

Small code changes

UI tweaks, text updates, adding new links — anything that does not require running a dev server to verify is workable. CC makes the change, shows you the diff, opens the PR.

The PR review step is actually fine

When using Claude Code on the web, it works on a branch and opens a pull request rather than pushing directly to main. So the deploy sequence is:

1. CC opens PR on GitHub
2. You review the diff in the GitHub mobile app
3. You merge
4. Vercel picks up the merge and deploys automatically

That extra step is a checkpoint, not a blocker. Reading a diff on mobile is genuinely workable, and it gives you a moment to catch anything unexpected before it goes live.

The Real Limitations

This is the part worth internalizing.

You cannot run local commands

Claude Code on the web cannot execute commands on your local machine. This is the big one.

What that means in practice:

• npx tsx prisma/seed.ts — cannot run it
• npm run dev — cannot start the dev server
• Visual verification of UI changes — no screenshot, no preview

If CC updates seed.ts to add new content, that file change lands in the PR — but the database does not update until you pull the branch locally and run the seed yourself after merging.

Workaround: For pure content updates (new blog posts, project edits), CC can call your production admin API directly instead of editing seed.ts. Changes hit the live database immediately, no seed run needed. Just remember to also update constants.ts to keep the fallback layer current — that part is still manual.

No visual feedback

Without a dev server, you are working blind on anything layout-related. For content changes this does not matter. For UI work — spacing, animations, responsive behavior — you need the laptop.

Phone keyboard friction

Typing long detailed prompts on a phone keyboard is still the biggest friction point. Voice-to-text helps more than expected, especially for longer content descriptions. But precise technical instructions are still easier to type on a real keyboard.

What the Experience Actually Feels Like

Honestly? It feels like having a capable developer on call who already knows your codebase. You describe intent, not implementation.

"Write a blog post about X, matching the tone of my existing posts, then publish it" is a single message. Thirty seconds later there is a PR waiting in your GitHub notifications.

The mental shift is real. When updating your own site stops requiring you to be at a desk with your environment set up, you actually do it more often. A thought on Sunday afternoon becomes a post by Sunday evening.

When to Use Which

The phone workflow covers roughly 70% of what I actually want to do day-to-day. Writing posts, updating project descriptions, small content edits — all fully workable. Anything requiring the dev server still needs the laptop.

But that 70% being accessible from anywhere, without thinking about my development environment? That changes how I engage with my own work.

The best tool is the one you actually use. Turns out, the one I always have is my phone.