Real AI agent use cases, with sources and setup prompts

Get a phone ping when your coding agent is blocked and answer over SSH

During paternity leave a developer built pocketty, an iPhone and iPad SSH terminal that knows whether each agent pane is working, needs you or done, so they could keep agents moving from the couch over Tailscale.

See pricing page30 minutesBeginnerSource linked

Source

lukeed on Hacker News · 2026-10-08 · Project link

Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-16.

What they did

During paternity leave a developer built pocketty, an iPhone and iPad SSH terminal that knows whether each agent pane is working, needs you or done, so they could keep agents moving from the couch over Tailscale.

Result (as claimed)

Used daily for months; 32 points on Show HN.

Tools they used

Tailscale

Cost: Pricing depends on the tools you pick; check each official pricing page.

Set it up

  1. Pick a contained repo or task

    Start on a branch or side project where mistakes are cheap.

  2. Install and configure

    Set up Tailscale. Read what it can run on your machine and limit permissions where possible.

  3. Run it on a real task

    Give it a well-scoped issue and let it work. Review the diff like any pull request.

  4. Add guardrails

    Keep tests and CI in the loop, and never let an agent push to main or touch production secrets unattended.

Copy the full setup prompt

Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.

You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code.

Goal: Get a phone ping when your coding agent is blocked and answer over SSH
What the original author did: During paternity leave a developer built pocketty, an iPhone and iPad SSH terminal that knows whether each agent pane is working, needs you or done, so they could keep agents moving from the couch over Tailscale.
Reported result (as claimed by the author): Used daily for months; 32 points on Show HN.
Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50009634
Tools they used: Tailscale
Category: Dev & ops

Please:
1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like).
2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure.
3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data.
4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.

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