Claude Code Remote Control: Does This Replace OpenClaw?

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/remote-control

code.claude.com

Claude Code now has Remote Control — start a session at your desk, then pick it up from your phone or any browser. Your local environment stays fully intact: filesystem, MCP servers, tools, project config. Nothing moves to the cloud. I shut down my OpenClaw instance to try it.

It's a good start. The core idea — /remote-control from an existing session and you're connected from anywhere — is exactly how I want to work. But it needs some rough edges smoothed out before it replaces a dedicated setup.

For one, your machine can't sleep. I was writing this post from my iPad via Remote Control and had to reconnect and restart the session when my Mac dozed off. You'll want to tweak your energy settings or run a keep-alive if you plan to step away for real. The session also times out after about 10 minutes of lost connectivity, so there's no fire-and-forget.

What's missing for a full OpenClaw replacement is orchestration. There's no persistent memory between sessions, no heartbeat or scheduler to kick off recurring tasks, and no way to queue up work while you're away. Right now it's a remote window into a live session — not a background agent. To get there, you'd either need Anthropic to build those primitives into the product, or roll your own orchestration layer on top.