While I don't use the AI part I have a very similar scheme and it is one of the reasons I encourage people to live in the terminal.

The idea is to create a modern "terminal"[0]

My main computer is a Macbook Air, which I carry around with me. It's purpose is for: internet, using Microsoft products when I'm forced to, Zoom/meetings, and SSH (or Mosh).

Most of my work is not done on this Macbook, instead I use it mostly as a terminal. I have a desktop that's sitting behind my TV so that it can be my TV and gaming system (yeah I know Monitor > TV. I'm a filthy casual and I don't care). I have a mouse connected to that computer and instead of using a keyboard I use ydotool (Wayland xdotool) with a shortcut on my iPhone or a script on my android phone or from my Macbook. I don't have to get up from the couch and I don't need a clunky wireless keyboard to clutter my livingroom.

Additionally I have a few pis and an old android phone with Tailscale installed on them. That's come in handy before as a machine's been disconnected and so I couldn't ssh from outside. Also makes it really easy to do a jump if you want to keep a machine off Tailscale or you don't have full control (like my 3D printer).

This setup is very natural feeling if you live in the terminal. I actually started doing this when I started doing HPC work. In a setting like that you're never sitting in front of the computer you're doing most of your work on so it kinda clicked "why was I restricting myself outside work?" Plus there's the side benefits of I always have access to my media, tools, and other stuff. You can do exactly the same thing with a phone but I like having a keyboard and the air is very lightweight and has a long battery life. Any netbook would have done the job tbh.

[0] There's a reason they're called "terminal emulators" rather than just "terminals".

Yeah thin clients [0] make a lot of sense with this kind of workflow. If you only really need text, living in the terminal and browser, it might make sense to use eink for eye comfiness and outdoor readability, something like this hack: https://maxogden.com/kindleberry-wireless. Or one of those eink android tablets.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client

> ... I encourage people to live in the terminal.

I've done this for decades. screen or tmux (although I still confuse the keybindings between the two).

When coding on the move (mostly when I had a long commute or was away from the office visit clients) I'd use the Linux console (Ctrl+Alt+F1-F6) rather than X.

Even in the office I had an old amber/green terminal that connected to my Linux desktop via a serial port.

Nowadays I have a 14" USB-C monitor (ASUS Zenscreen) that sits beneath my main monitors which runs a terminal full screen.

If you've got a Mac in the mix, you should be aware that it can use an Apple TV as a monitor, so you can have a wireless extended desktop to anything that takes HDMI.

Similar, except I use a 10 year old surface pro 3. But I have to have a mechanical keyboard, so it's not exactly portable, but I can work from anywhere

I have no interest in LLM, or vibe code. Even though I miss the capabilities of intellij, nvim can fill the roll in the terminal very nicely, except rust analyzer filling up storage fast,

I also have a spare mobile, which I use to wake the computer up. And I have a python script running on it, to shutdown the computer in case of power failure.

After initial hiccups it working pretty well, except cats turning off the router, well how many can use the excuse that I couldn't finish the work because cat controls your network. LoL

How do you type? I get the ydotool usage but do you have a shortcut for each key then on your phone?

Things are trending this way. I call it the PC counter-revolution.