Glossary

What is remote development?

Remote development means your code, terminals and tools run on one machine while you work from another. The remote machine does the heavy lifting: builds, tests, coding agents. The device in front of you is just the window.

Why people do it

  • One powerful machine, many devices. Keep your work on a Mac mini or desktop and reach it from a light laptop or a phone.
  • Always-on agents. Coding agents keep working on the remote machine after you close your laptop.
  • Same environment everywhere. No syncing projects between machines.

The main ways to do it

Ways to do remote development
ApproachWhat you getTradeoff
SSH clientA shellFiles and dev servers need extra tools
Editor remote mode (VS Code Remote-SSH)An editor on the remote machineTied to one editor, no phone
Remote desktopThe whole screenLaggy, poor on phones
PaneTerminals, files and agents from desktop or phone; dev servers at localhost on a connected desktopInstall Pane on the remote machine

  • SSH client

    What you get
    A shell
    Tradeoff
    Files and dev servers need extra tools

  • Editor remote mode (VS Code Remote-SSH)

    What you get
    An editor on the remote machine
    Tradeoff
    Tied to one editor, no phone

  • Remote desktop

    What you get
    The whole screen
    Tradeoff
    Laggy, poor on phones

  • Pane

    What you get
    Terminals, files and agents from desktop or phone; dev servers at localhost on a connected desktop
    Tradeoff
    Install Pane on the remote machine

Getting started

Use your computer from any device walks through setting up Pane on a remote machine in about five minutes. It's free and open source.

Related

Sources

Corrections
If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we'll fix it and update the date at the top. Open an issue on GitHub
Sources
or
Download*
Windows SmartScreen warningDirect downloads can show a SmartScreen warning while Pane is unsigned. Pane is fully open source, so you can audit the code and build from source yourself.1. Click More info2. Click Run anyway3. Continue the installerThe PowerShell install downloads the official release directly and avoids most browser download friction.npm global install
Paste that in PowerShell.Linux

By Parsa Khazaeepoul, co-founder of Pane. .