GitHub Copilot CLI on Mobile: Monitor and Approve From Anywhere

GitHub Copilot CLI brings the Copilot coding agent into the terminal: it reads your repository, edits files, and runs commands — and, sensibly, it asks first. Before touching files or executing anything, it shows you what it wants to do and waits for a yes.

That approval gate is the right default. It's also the reason a Copilot CLI session can't really run unattended: the agent works for two minutes, then blocks on a human. This post is about closing that gap — how to see Copilot CLI's progress and answer its approval prompts from your phone.

Copilot CLI in 60 seconds

The CLI installs via npm and runs as copilot:

npm install -g @github/copilot
cd ~/code/my-app
copilot

You need an active Copilot subscription; the tool authenticates with your GitHub account on first run. Inside the session you describe work in plain language, and the agent proposes concrete actions:

• File changes — shown as diffs before they land.
• Shell commands — printed and held until you approve, once or for the session.
• GitHub operations — issues, PRs and CI via built-in tooling.

The babysitting problem

A realistic Copilot CLI task — "fix the failing integration tests and open a PR" — is a chain of approvals: run the test suite (approve), edit three files (review), re-run tests (approve), push a branch (approve). Each pause is short, but they're spread over twenty minutes, and every one of them needs you at the keyboard.

Auto-approving everything is the obvious workaround and the wrong one for anything but throwaway sandboxes: the approval prompt is the only moment you get to catch a bad command before it runs.

Copilot CLI + Remoot: the setup

Remoot's bridge extension runs inside VS Code (or Cursor) on the machine where Copilot CLI is working. It relays agent activity to the Remoot mobile app over an encrypted connection, and relays your decisions back. The setup:

1. Install the Remoot bridge extension in VS Code on your workstation.
2. Install the Remoot app on your phone and pair by scanning the QR code the extension shows — a one-time step.
3. Mark your repository as a trusted projectso it's visible from the app.
4. Start your Copilot workflow. Progress and approval prompts now mirror to the phone.

What it looks like on the phone

When the agent hits an approval gate, your phone gets a push notification. Opening it shows the pending action in context — the command to run or the change being proposed — plus the recent agent output leading up to it. You can:

• Approve or reject with one tap.
• Browse the file tree and preview files the agent modified before you decide.
• Scroll the action history to catch up on what happened while you were away.

The decisions execute on your workstation, exactly as if you'd typed them locally. The phone never holds your code or your credentials; it holds a session with your machine.

Honest notes

• Your workstation must stay awake and online for the session to keep running — the extension can prevent sleep during active runs.
• Mobile review is great for commands and small-to-medium diffs. For a 40-file refactor you'll still want a real screen for the final pass.
• Remoot doesn't extend what Copilot CLI can do — it extends where you can be while it does it.

If you also use Cursor, the same bridge covers Cursor Agent — see How to Run Cursor Agent From Your Phone for that walkthrough.