Pocketty, a new iPhone SSH terminal for herdr, alerts you when a coding agent is blocked or done

Pocketty is a new SSH terminal app for iPhone and iPad, made to work with herdr and you get told when an AI coding agent is blocked or finished, and you can answer from your phone.

SSH is a standard way to connect securely to another computer and use its command line. Herdr, as described on the app's page, tracks agents running in panes (terminal sections) on your computer. When an agent changes state, for example from working to blocked, herdr notices.

The alert flow works like this, according to the app's page. Your computer seals the alert so only your phone can read it. A relay forwards the sealed data, and Apple's push service delivers it. The page says the relay stores nothing and that neither the relay nor Apple can read the alert. It names HPKE, X25519 and ChaCha20 as the encryption used.

Tap the alert, confirm with Face ID, and pocketty opens that exact pane over SSH. The page says there is no server in between. Its example shows a connection to a host called studio over Tailscale, a private networking tool. The SSH key is created in the iPhone's Secure Enclave, the chip area that holds secrets.

Once you're in, you can send real keystrokes such as Return, Esc, Ctrl and the arrow keys. A text mode sends a whole message at once, and the page says dictation and images work too. A swipe from the screen edge shows a diff, meaning a list of what the agent changed since its turn began. The page's example shows 2 files with 4 lines added and 3 removed.

Other features listed include a view of every pane on the host with each agent's live state, and a file browser with search and 20 color schemes. When a pane opens a port, such as a local dev server, pocketty offers a preview that loads through the SSH connection, with no separate tunnel to set up.

On privacy, the page says the app has no sign-up, no email and no analytics. Terminal traffic does not touch the developer's servers. Only agent notifications pass through, and only if you turn them on. If a host's key changes, the app stops the connection and asks before trusting the new one.

The page also compares pocketty with Moshi, another mobile terminal app. It says Moshi does more, including Mosh, Apple Watch support, Live Activities and a chat view, and that pocketty does less on purpose. These comparison claims come from pocketty's own page. We have not independently checked them.

Pricing is stated inconsistently. The intro says the app is free for 14 days, then $129 once. The comparison table says $99 once, with every update. Check the current price before buying.