Slopty

One app on macOS, iPhone and iPad that reaches many Macs at once. It runs terminals and Claude Code agents on them, streams their windows and desktops, shares the clipboard and moves files either way, all on one scrolling workspace. The aim is that working on a remote Mac feels local.

Slopty adds no encryption or pairing of its own: reach your machines over Tailscale or a VPN, which is the security boundary. Workers admit the tailnet and private LANs by default ([worker] allow in settings.toml narrows that).

How it fits together

• The server (one per setup) keeps the directory of workers and serves the tools to agents.
• Workers (every Mac you want to reach) run the terminals and the capture, and register with the server.
• Clients (the app on each Mac, iPhone or iPad, and the slopty CLI) ask the server who is there, then talk to each worker directly.

One machine can play all three roles.

Quick start

Requires macOS 26.5 or later on Apple silicon.

cargo xtask bundle            # target/bundle/Slopty.app: the app, the daemons and the CLI

On the machine that will be the server:

Slopty.app/Contents/MacOS/slopty server install

On every Mac that should be reachable (the server can be one of them):

Slopty.app/Contents/MacOS/slopty worker install --server <server-host>

The address is saved as server under [worker] in settings.toml, which the worker reads each time it starts.

The first window or desktop you stream asks for Screen Recording, and the first input you send asks for Accessibility, on that worker.

Open Slopty.app on each client and choose Connect to a server with the server's Tailscale name or address. The workers show up by themselves. Add a worker reaches one by address without a server.

Agents

Give Claude Code the same tools the app has (list workers, open terminals, type, read screens, wait on commands, read and write files):

claude mcp add slopty -- slopty mcp                          # stdio, through the CLI
claude mcp add --transport http slopty http://<server-host>:45561/mcp

slopty hook install registers the hook that reports whether an agent in a Slopty terminal is working, waiting or blocked.

The CLI

slopty --help lists everything. The everyday verbs:

Verb	What it does
workers	The workers the server knows, whether they are up, and the agents waiting on you
terminals	Terminals on one worker or all of them
open / close	Start or hang up a terminal
send / screen / output	Type into a terminal, print its screen, print its scrollback
wait / commands	Block until something happens; the commands run and their exit codes
cat / put	Read a file on a worker, or replace one from standard input
ports	TCP ports listening in a worker's terminals
attach	A raw terminal straight to a worker, detached with ^]

The server comes from --server, $SLOPTY_SERVER, or [client] server in settings.toml.

Working on Slopty

CLAUDE.md holds the rules. docs/DEV.md covers the commands and the loop, docs/ARCHITECTURE.md how it is built, docs/TESTING.md the test layers, and docs/DECISIONS.md the rulings with their evidence.