claude-rc-keep

Claude Code Remote Control lets you continue a session on a server from claude.ai/code or the Claude mobile app. When the server reboots, or the session process is killed, the web session shows "Can't reach . It may be asleep or offline." and stays that way. claude remote-control comes back as a systemd service, but it does not reliably re-adopt the sessions that were running before.

claude-rc-keep keeps every Remote Control session online until you stop it:

• every minute it records the running sessions that have a web session (local session id, folder, web URL)
• sessions that are no longer running are restarted as claude --resume <id> --remote-control in a detached tmux, in their original folder
• a restarted interactive session reattaches to the same web session, so the open tab on your phone or browser reconnects with the full conversation

Why

Issue	State	Reactions
claude-code#30447 claude remote-control --headless, daemonizable remote control without TTY dependency	open	48
claude-code#33041 Remote Control disconnects frequently	open	30
claude-code#98310 Unarchived server-mode sessions are never re-dispatched to the running host	open	3
claude-code#98504 Remote Control doesn't survive app restarts or session eviction	open	2
claude-code#101190 Session shows "environment was deleted" after server exit; no way to re-attach	open	2
claude-code#91592 Remote Control sessions require PC-side input to reconnect after restart	open	1
claude-code#94049 Auto-update silently drops all Remote Control bridges	open	0

(Reaction counts as of 2026-10-21.)

Install

pipx install git+https://github.com/Jwrede/claude-rc-keep

Python 3.10+, no dependencies. Needs Linux with systemd user services and tmux. Tested with Claude Code 2.1.306.

Install the units and start the timer:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
curl -fsSL -o ~/.config/systemd/user/claude-rc-keep.service https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jwrede/claude-rc-keep/main/systemd/claude-rc-keep.service
curl -fsSL -o ~/.config/systemd/user/claude-rc-keep.timer https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jwrede/claude-rc-keep/main/systemd/claude-rc-keep.timer
curl -fsSL -o ~/.config/systemd/user/claude-rc-keep-tmux.service https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jwrede/claude-rc-keep/main/systemd/claude-rc-keep-tmux.service
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now claude-rc-keep.timer
sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"   # start user services at boot without a login

Usage

Start sessions as usual: claude remote-control (server mode), claude --remote-control, or /remote-control inside a session. Within a minute they are recorded.

$ claude-rc-keep ls
4f1c09ab  running           10-21 16:42  /home/dev/game  https://claude.ai/code/session_01Hq7Tz3VkM2pXa9LwR4cNe8
9b72d4e0  stopped           10-21 16:42  /home/dev/game  https://claude.ai/code/session_01Bv6sYc8KdJ3nQe5FtU2gWm
c35e8a17  running (server)  10-21 16:42  /home/dev/game  https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ra4Ln9XpE7cWb2Mk6TsJy3

Stop a session for good (local id prefix, web session id or name):

$ claude-rc-keep rm 9b72
removed 9b72d4e0, stopped pid 101553

The restarted sessions run in tmux -L claude-rc-keep attach. claude-rc-keep tick runs one round by hand. Set CLAUDE_RC_KEEP_ARGS in the service to pass extra arguments to every restarted session, and CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR to use another Claude Code profile.

How it works and limits

Claude Code writes ~/.claude/sessions/<pid>.json for every running session, with the local session id, the folder and, when Remote Control is on, the web session id (bridgeSessionId). The file is deleted when the process ends, so claude-rc-keep copies the entries to ~/.local/state/claude-rc-keep/registry.json.

Interactive sessions (claude --remote-control, /remote-control) store their web session with the transcript and reattach to it on claude --resume <id> --remote-control, even after the web session was archived on exit.

Sessions spawned by the claude remote-control server cannot be restored the same way:

• claude remote-control --session-id <id> reattaches one of them, but only in single-session mode and only while no other claude remote-control serves the machine.
• After a restart the server sometimes re-adopts an old web session on its own. Its worker downloads the conversation from the server and overwrites the local transcript with it (observed: 77 MB down to 14 MB, everything before the last /compact gone from the file).

claude-rc-keep therefore restores a server session once with --fork-session: a copy with a new local id and a new web URL. The conversation is complete, and the original transcript is left alone if the server re-adopts the old web session. From then on the copy is an interactive session and keeps its URL. The old tab stays offline, or shows the server's copy if it was re-adopted; use the new one.

• The session files are undocumented and may change with any Claude Code release.
• Each restarted session is a full Claude Code process (about 270 MB of memory).
• A session you end with /exit in its tmux window is restarted within a minute. Use claude-rc-keep rm to stop one.

License

MIT