Launch HN: Omnara (YC S25) – Run Claude Code and Codex from anywhere

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Use case and value proposition

  • Omnara targets developers who want to manage Claude Code/Codex coding agents from a phone without keeping a laptop open or wrangling SSH/tmux/Tailscale.
  • Claimed advantages over ad‑hoc setups: native mobile/web UI, model and harness selection, worktrees, viewing diffs and tool calls, preview URLs, voice-agent support, and managed sandboxes.
  • Main pitch: seamless handoff between laptop and phone, including continuing work when the local machine sleeps by syncing to a cloud sandbox.

Comparisons to existing tools and DIY

  • Many commenters note they already use Happy, OpenCode, OpenChamber, Hapi, VibeTunnel, OpenClaw, or their own Tailscale+tmux setups.
  • Some say these free/OSS tools are “good enough” and question paying for Omnara, especially when they already pay for Claude/Codex.
  • Others report that Omnara feels more reliable, with lower latency and better UX, and appreciate not having to maintain their own tunnels and infra.
  • There’s discussion about being “harness agnostic,” future ACP support, and moving away from fragile terminal-output parsing by using official agent SDKs.

Security and data handling

  • Lack of end‑to‑end encryption is a major concern for some; Omnara stores chat content server-side (encrypted at rest) for sync, notifications, sandboxes, and cloud-based voice agents.
  • Repo operations stay local unless cloud sandboxing is explicitly enabled.
  • Happy is cited as offering E2EE but with trade‑offs around what can be run in the cloud; debate ensues about how E2EE limits features.

Pricing debates

  • $20/month (on top of Claude/Codex plans) is widely viewed as high for something many engineers feel they can DIY “in a couple of hours.”
  • Some soften their view once they realize the price includes remote sandboxes and hosted infra; suggestions arise for a cheaper “local-only, no sandbox/voice” tier.
  • Several argue the free tier’s 10 sessions/month is too limited for heavy users and may push them toward free competitors.

Product feedback, YC, and market doubts

  • Early users praise the UI, onboarding, and “just works” experience; they offer minor feature requests (branch from arbitrary branches, better mobile text behavior, smarter worktree names, token usage display).
  • Some lament removal of the earlier 1:1 CLI mirroring.
  • A vocal group is skeptical this warrants a startup or YC funding, calling it a wrapper that labs could replicate, and questions the depth of need for “vibe coding” from phones. Others see the crowded space as validation, with differentiation expected via UX and infrastructure.