Mobile workspace
Use Rope Notes on Android for local editing, project health, review, sync, session transfer, and approved desktop work.
Rope Notes on Android is a working surface for development—not just a way to view a desktop session. The mobile shell is organized around resuming work, seeing what needs attention, reviewing changes, and continuing local tasks in a compact layout. It also includes an app-local sh terminal and can connect to configured agent endpoints.
What you can do on mobile
- Open a project through the Android document picker and work with local files.
- Edit files, preview Markdown, search, and inspect Dart diagnostics.
- Use Home to resume recent workspaces and files, see attention items, and capture a note locally.
- Open Project Pulse for Git status, diagnostics, validation, agent state, sync state, and architecture signals.
- Review agent and filesystem changes one hunk at a time; accept, reject, comment, defer, or validate.
- Send an approved build request to a paired desktop over a VPN or other trusted network path, monitor progress, and retrieve the artifact and diagnostics.
- Pair devices for P2P sync and transfer sessions when the project needs to move.
- Open Privacy & Trust to inspect what is local, what is shared, which backend is active, and which permissions apply.
Mobile and desktop capabilities
| Capability | Desktop | Android |
|---|---|---|
| Edit files and open a project | Yes | Yes, through the document tree |
| Dart analysis | Yes | Yes |
| Git and project panels | Yes | Yes, where supported by the project |
| Embedded terminal | Yes | Yes, app-local sh |
| Ollama / compatible endpoint | Yes | Yes, when reachable |
| Cloud agent providers | Yes | Yes |
| P2P sync | Yes | Yes |
| Session transfer | Yes | Yes |
| Review and approval surfaces | Yes | Yes |
| Paired desktop supervision | Host | Approve and monitor |
Desktop can run Ollama locally. Android can use an Ollama or compatible endpoint when it is reachable from the device; the app-local sh terminal is available without a desktop connection. Mobile can also use configured cloud providers, connect to trusted peers, and supervise work on a paired desktop when that is the better fit.
Continue work across devices
Session transfer can carry open tabs, cursors, unsaved buffers, agent draft/context, and selected project state. Use it when you want a deliberate handoff between machines. P2P sync is for keeping selected open project files aligned across trusted peers.
These are different workflows: transfer is a one-time handoff, while sync keeps an open project aligned. Pairing and approvals remain explicit actions.
Supervise a paired desktop
When a task needs a desktop SDK, terminal, or build tool, Android can connect to a paired desktop control session. The phone can inspect the desktop's advertised capabilities, choose the available build or operation, approve the request, watch progress, review diagnostics, and retrieve the resulting artifact. A VPN or other trusted network path makes this practical from a train, hotel, or anywhere your connection reaches; local editing, review, and queued work remain available when you are offline.
The desktop does not receive an arbitrary shell string from the phone. Requests are scoped to the workspace and the configured operation permissions, and each execution requires explicit approval. If the connection drops, the mobile app retains the local record and explains what needs attention when you return.
Work offline and understand the boundary
Core local editing, saved context, quick capture, and queued work do not require a hosted service. Networked model providers, peer connections, and some handoff paths do. The mobile Home and Privacy & Trust surfaces distinguish local-only, offline, queued, blocked, and remote work so you can choose the next action with the actual connection state in view.
For the full setup flow, see Getting started, P2P sync, Session transfer, and AI agent.