People who have followed my blog for a while know that I have been interested in working while walking, but software development still required too much direct interaction with a computer.
That may now be changing for me because of two developments.
First, coding agents and language models are improving rapidly. They can solve more problems independently, require less guidance and produce better results than they could even a month ago. GPT 5.6 sol is amazing.
Second, I recently turned my Mac into a thin client for Cursor. Most of my work now runs on one powerful remote server. It contains my projects, development tools, Docker environments, VPN access and credentials. I normally connect to it through SSH from my Mac, but, and this is the important part, I can just as easily access the same environment from the Cursor mobile app.
Such a personal cloud agent is more useful to me than a regular Cursor cloud agent. A cloud agent only has access to a specific repository. An agent running on my server has access to my complete working environment and everything it needs to perform real tasks.
As a result, I can now do meaningful work from my phone. I can ask an agent to write code, check my messages, investigate a problem or start sub-agents for separate tasks. I can explain requirements, answer questions, make decisions and set priorities without opening a laptop.
Some tasks still work much better on a computer. Testing desktop interfaces from a phone is inconvenient, and reviewing large pull requests is easier on a large screen.
At the same time, detailed coding and code review are becoming a smaller part of my work. Instead of inspecting every function, I increasingly focus on whether the right problem was solved and whether the architecture still makes sense. Much of this higher-level work can be done through conversation.
In practice, that means a phone is becoming enough for a surprisingly large part of software development. The laptop is still necessary for some tasks, but it is no longer required for every meaningful step.
The main limitation is now the voice interface. The Cursor app supports voice input, but its Dutch support is not good enough for me. Having to formulate everything in a second language interrupts my thinking and wastes energy that should go into solving the problem.
ChatGPT's live voice mode shows how natural this interaction could feel. It supports a continuous conversation instead of simply converting short recordings into text. A similar voice experience inside Cursor, connected directly to the agent running in my remote working environment, would make working from a phone much more practical.
I am very enthusiastic about these developments, but I have doubts too about whether this is the right direction. With this setup, your work is always in your pocket. At the office we have an unwritten rule not to check work email on your phone, so there is a clear separation between work and private life. That distinction gets lost here. On Hacker News I read a comment arguing that if you are out enjoying a walk through nature, you should never want to associate it with work. There is something to that. Still, I am going to try it and see how it feels.