# Happy Coder Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/happy/ 16 people recommended Happy Coder in Hacker News comments, 9 had mixed feelings and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 12 months, in 11 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Lets you drive Claude Code sessions from a phone or browser, free and open source. Critics cite bugs, possible abandonment and requests for API tokens. Summary written by Claude from 29 comments. ## Why people recommend it - Open source, free, MIT-licensed (4 comments in the sample): "has decent mobile clients and is currently MIT-licensed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46992024)) "actually started out open-source and stayed that way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46993193)) "open source, free, local alternative" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334327)) - Control coding sessions from phone (3 comments in the sample): "when it works oh boy. I've designed and executed full performance benchmarks on clusters while I was walking through the park." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45789069)) "I can even see in real time how happy coder in my browser's conversations progress as well as on my phone, in parallel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46994524)) "I use this everyday, and even have the Happy server on my home Mac to skip the cloud relay." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46992608)) - Works well with Claude Code (2 comments in the sample): "Happy seems to be working pretty well for Claude Code but is also supposed to support Codex. It's a bit rough around the edges" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47968164)) "Happy was the best but needs some updates as I’ve started getting blocking errors now with some of the recent CC updates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47456438)) - Improving since recent upgrades (2 comments in the sample): "since we upgraded it is much much better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46994871)) "things have picked up significantly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46757485)) ## What people warn about - Asks for API tokens or usage data (3 comments in the sample): "that wanted my Anthropic API token for itself (!) which is a no-no" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47152596)) "end up asking for suspiciously powerful API tokens" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46786153)) "they collect your usage data in the iOS app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997823)) - Possibly abandoned or stalled development (2 comments in the sample): "Happy is an abandonedware unfortunately. It's a great app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002305)) "I believe Happy has been abandoned." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002215)) - Buggy and unstable with updates (2 comments in the sample): "I think there is a ton of potential with some stability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767975)) "Happy is buggy af and is in the middle of a rewrite" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47171618)) - Rough edges and clunky workflow (1 comment in the sample): "the workflow itself is rather clunky" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48143790)) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Happy Coder", https://hackerapproved.com/p/happy/ (16 recommend, 9 mixed, 6 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.