For years, Ben Dixon maintained a Proxmox-powered secondary coding environment—Debian LXC containers running tmux and Neovim—accessible via Termius on mobile devices. Designed as an emergency backup, the setup theoretically offered freedom from laptops but proved impractical for serious work. As Dixon notes:

"Don’t get me wrong, Vim works using an iPhone keyboard but only in the same way a bicycle ‘works’ for off-roading."

The breakthrough came with integrating Claude Code directly into his terminal workflow. This AI coding agent transformed the clunky mobile experience into a potent primary development environment:

  1. Constraint Breeds Proficiency: Forced to rely on Claude via a painful mobile interface, Dixon rapidly mastered the AI interaction model—mirroring his earlier immersion learning with Vim.
  2. Unblocking Side Projects: The frictionless AI assistance revived stalled initiatives—blog redesigns, local LLM optimizations, and experimental simulations flowed effortlessly from his phone.
  3. Paradigm Shift: What began as a backup solution became his preferred environment: "I’ve created more and had more fun doing it than any time I can remember."

This approach highlights a critical evolution in developer tooling: AI agents mitigate traditional input limitations, making constrained environments unexpectedly productive. Dixon advocates immersive adoption:

"Ban yourself from your editor and work only through an agent for a few weeks. I never looked back from Vim and I can’t imagine ever looking back from this."

The experience underscores how AI isn’t just augmenting code—it’s redefining where and how development happens, turning mobile devices into viable terminals for complex creative work.

Source: Ben Dixon (@talkingquickly)