[Feature Request] Support macOS (darwin) as SSH remote host

+1 for this feature. I use a Mac Mini as a remote development machine and this limitation blocks the SSH remote session workflow entirely. The workaround of SSH-ing into the Mac and running claude in terminal works, but losing the Desktop's visual diff and parallel session features is a real regression.

Would love to see darwin support, even if it means a separate code path for macOS path conventions and package installation.

+1

+1

+1

+1 🥲

Please implement this as I have a Mac-studio and oh man, it is powerful and expensive and I got it specially for this use case. Thanks :)

+1

Please consider bumping the priority on this feature request. I just tried configuring a Mac Mini as an SSH remote host and was bummed to see that Darwin isn't supported. I was really looking forward to getting that setup working, so I'd love to see this added in a future release.

+1

+1

Glad I searched for this as was going to raise the same thing - even Claude thinks its ridiculous

I've been trying to use Claude Code's SSH remote connection feature to connect from my MacBook to a headless Mac mini home server. When I attempt to connect, I get the error: "Unsupported remote platform: darwin. Only Linux hosts are supported for SSH connections."

I appreciate this may be a known limitation and I may be approaching this wrong — but it feels like a natural use case: many Mac users run Mac minis as home servers and would want to point Claude Code at them remotely.

Is there a supported way to achieve this that I'm missing? If not, I'd love to see macOS supported as a remote SSH host in a future release, given that Claude Code already runs natively on macOS.

Happy to provide any more detail if helpful.

OP here - wanted to share a workaround that's been working well for me.

The setup: MacBook as the thin client, Mac mini as the workhorse, connected over Tailscale.

I tried a few approaches and landed on a hybrid that covers most of what SSH remote would give you.

1. Local project dir + symlinked config via SMB

Mount the mini's home directory via SMB (System Settings → General → Sharing on the mini, then Cmd+K → smb://<tailscale-hostname> from the MacBook). It shows up at /Volumes/<username>.

The key: don't point Claude Code at the SMB mount as your working directory. That's brutally slow on startup because it scans the whole project tree over the network. Instead:

• Keep your project directory local on the MacBook
• Symlink config files to the SMB mount so they always read from the mini: ln -s /Volumes/<username>/path/to/CLAUDE.md ~/project/CLAUDE.md

Fast startup, always-current config, no sync scripts.

1. MCP server on the mini for real work

For actually reading, writing, and searching files on the mini, I run an MCP server there that exposes workspace tools (file read/write/grep/glob, git operations, script execution). Claude Code on the MacBook connects to it over Tailscale. This is way faster than doing file operations over SMB because the search/grep happens on the mini and only the results come back over the wire - no per-file network round-trips.

If you don't have a custom MCP setup, plain SSH works too. You can add a hook or slash command that runs ssh user@mini "command" for heavier operations.

1. Session history sync via launchd

A simple launchd job rsyncs Claude Code session files to the mini every 30 min. Since the SMB mount is already there, it's just a local rsync to the mount point - no SSH needed for the transport.

SMB tuning helps. Create /etc/nsmb.conf on the MacBook:

[default]
notify_off=yes
soft=yes
dir_cache_max_cnt=4096
dir_cache_max=60
protocol_vers_map=4

Disables filesystem change notifications, bumps the directory cache, and forces SMB3-only negotiation. Cut my file operation times roughly in half.

What you get: full Desktop UI (diffs, parallel sessions, project context), config files that stay in sync automatically, fast file operations via MCP/SSH, and session history on the remote machine. What you don't get: Claude Code natively aware it's working on a remote host, which means terminal commands still run locally unless you route them through SSH.

Still want proper darwin SSH remote support, but this has been a solid daily driver.

+1

here is a workaround for those looking for: https://notes.yigitkonur.com/b/FA918EA3-7A6D-42D7-B5C0-B61F7DF6DE58/using-claude-code's-new-native-ssh-r

They added the feature to the Claude app!

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