DeepSeek Harness is useless when you leave the desk — so I open-sourced a way to run it over 4G
Your desktop agent is only as good as your presence in front of the computer. Until your phone can command it.
Let's get this straight first: this post is about disproving something — my own previous belief.
I loved DeepSeek Harness. Then one day I was out and wanted the agent on my computer to organize some files. That's when reality hit:
I'm not at the computer. The agent is a decoration.
At work. On the commute. At dinner. On the couch. Any moment you're away from the desk, you can't use it. Is that reasonable? No. So I built something.
What I built
An open-source mobile remote-control project that lets your phone operate DeepSeek Harness on your computer from any network:
- Direct 4G/5G (via Tailscale, free) — no public IP needed
- Real-time streaming — the agent's words appear on your phone character by character
- Full tool-call visibility — which file was read, what command ran, the result — one card per call
- Approvals + questions — permission card pops up, question card pops up, tasks never hang
- Model switching, image attachments, terminal, file browsing
How light is it?
Zero npm dependencies. ~4000 lines. Frontend is a single HTML file.
No cloud server. No database. No framework. No npm install. Clone → set a token → run.
Real scenarios (all true)
Scenario 1: On the subway, opened the page, sent a task to the desktop agent. By the time I got off, the result was already on my phone.
Scenario 2: The agent needed permission mid-task — previously that meant waiting until I got back. Now a card pops up on my phone, I tap "Allow once", it continues.
Scenario 3: The agent asked me a question. I picked an option on a card. Task resumed. A question used to mean a deadlocked task; now it's a 10-second fix.
Run it in three minutes
git clone https://github.com/2903077918-lgtm/DeepSeek-phone-harness
cd DeepSeek-phone-harness && cp config.example.json config.json
node agent.mjs --mode=both
Install Tailscale on the phone, open http://<computer IP>:8788/, enter the token, go.
Honest talk
It's not perfect: it's a web page (not a native app), commands run one at a time (no full PTY), and the cloud channel needs you to deploy a Worker. But "fully controlling your desktop agent from your phone" is done — open source and free.
Repo (stars, PRs and issues welcome):
What would YOU most want to do with your desktop agent from your phone? Or any concerns about remote control? Drop them in the comments — I read every one.
(Community project, not affiliated with DeepSeek.)
