[BUG] remote-control: QR code not displayed on headless/non-GUI systems

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/30447
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/29116
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/28845

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Those issues do not address my problem at all. My session keeps living. I just need a QR presented on my headless server to scan it with my iPhone. TTY terminals can generate QR using ASCII or unicode symbols

I tried reproducing this on a headless Linux VPS (no GUI, no DISPLAY) and from what I can tell the QR code itself does work on headless - it renders using Unicode half-block characters in the terminal. But it's not shown by default.

In the current version (2.1.76), the QR code is hidden behind a spacebar toggle - you should see a "space to show QR code" hint at the bottom of the remote-control screen. Pressing space toggles a scannable QR code made of Unicode block characters (works in any terminal with UTF-8 support).

The catch is that the spacebar toggle only works if you're running in an interactive terminal with a TTY. A couple of things worth checking on your end:

1. Are you running claude remote-control inside tmux/screen, or directly in an SSH session with ssh -t (which allocates a TTY)? If you're running it via something like nohup, ssh host 'claude remote-control' without -t, or piping the output, the interactive key handler won't pick up the spacebar press.

1. If you are in an interactive terminal and pressing space doesn't do anything - could you share what echo $TERM and locale return? Some terminal configurations (particularly TERM=dumb) might cause the UI to fall back to a simpler renderer.

In the meantime, the text URL that's always displayed (https://claude.ai/code?bridge=...) should work for connecting - you can open it on your phone's browser directly, though I appreciate that's less convenient than scanning a QR.

I do think your broader point is valid though - for headless use cases, something like a --show-qr flag that displays the QR automatically on startup (without needing the spacebar toggle) would be a nice improvement. The spacebar toggle is a bit easy to miss.

Hi and thanks for the reply.
Indeed, I use Claude via SSH (wrapped in MobaXterm), and there is no space toggle. I will have to live with copy-paste the link :)
Ofer

QR code in terminal is broken on MacOS default terminal app.

QR code in terminal is broken on MacOS default terminal app.

In my case, it is a headless Linux over SSH. On my personal Mac, it works great.

I experienced the same issue, and when I entered /remote-control again while remote-control was already active, an option called Show QR code appeared.

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