Chell CLI

Remote terminal streaming and AI agent session management. Stream your terminal, run Claude/Codex/Gemini sessions, and manage everything from your phone — all end-to-end encrypted.

Install

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Cerulin/Chell-CLI-Releases/main/install/install.sh | bash

Windows (CMD):

powershell -c "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Cerulin/Chell-CLI-Releases/main/install/install.ps1 | iex"

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Cerulin/Chell-CLI-Releases/main/install/install.ps1 | iex

Pre-built binaries are available on the releases page.

Supported Platforms

Platform	Binary
Linux x86_64	chell-linux-amd64
Linux ARM64	chell-linux-arm64
macOS Apple Silicon	chell-darwin-arm64
macOS Intel	chell-darwin-amd64
Windows x86_64	chell-windows-amd64.exe

Quick Start

# Authenticate
chell auth

# Start a terminal session
chell terminal

# Start a Claude Code session
chell claude

# Send a push notification
chell notify "Build finished"

Commands

Command	Description
chell auth	Authenticate with your account (--headless for SSH/headless environments)
chell auth logout	Clear stored credentials
chell terminal	Start a terminal session (--shell, --dir, --resume <id>)
chell claude	Start a Claude Code agent session
chell codex	Start a Codex agent session
chell gemini	Start a Gemini CLI agent session
chell notify	Send a push notification to your devices
chell doctor	Run diagnostics
chell update	Check for and install updates (--check, -y)

All agent commands support --resume <id> to reconnect to an existing session and --dir to set the working directory.

Features

End-to-End Encryption

All session data is encrypted with XSalsa20-Poly1305 (NaCl secretbox). The relay server never sees plaintext — encryption and decryption happen entirely on-device.

Terminal Streaming

Spawns a real PTY shell and streams encrypted output over WebSocket to the relay. Supports session resumption, automatic reconnection with exponential backoff, and configurable shell (--shell bash|zsh|fish|<path>).

AI Agent Sessions

Run Claude, Codex, or Gemini in managed sessions with live progress tracking. Claude sessions watch for task/todo updates and push them to your mobile device via Live Activities.

Push Notifications

Use chell notify to send messages to all registered devices, or use chell notify --hook as a Claude Code --permission-hook to get mobile notifications when Claude needs permission to proceed.

Auto-Update

The CLI automatically checks for updates before session start (with a 3-second timeout so it never blocks you). Set CHELL_SKIP_AUTO_UPDATE=1 to disable.

Architecture

crates/
├── chell-cli/            # Main binary — all commands
├── chell-relay/          # REST + WebSocket relay client, auth, session management
├── chell-crypto/         # XSalsa20-Poly1305 encryption
├── chell-terminal/       # PTY management and shell resolution
└── chell-notifications/  # Push notification client

Built with Rust, using tokio for async, rustls for TLS (no OpenSSL dependency), and russh for the SSH transport layer.

Configuration

Credentials and logs are stored in ~/.chell/. Override the home directory with CHELL_HOME_DIR.

Environment Variable	Description
CHELL_HOME_DIR	Custom home directory (default: ~/.chell)
CHELL_SERVER_URL	Relay server URL
CHELL_SKIP_AUTO_UPDATE	Set to 1 to disable auto-update

License

AGPL-3.0