Pair a Device

Share a live session with another browser on another device using a one-time 6-digit code. Useful when you want to hand a session off to a library computer, a colleague's laptop, or any other device — without email, QR scanning, or sharing your login.

What this does

The other device gets full interactive access to one session you started. Unlike relay share (read-only, view-only), pairing lets the other device type into the terminal.

Guest access is bounded:

• 30-minute idle timeout — the grant expires after 30 minutes of no activity.
• Explicit logout — the guest can log out at any time. The owner can kick them from the pair dialog.
• Scope — the guest can only see and interact with the one session that was shared. They can't list other sessions, open the file browser on arbitrary paths, or spawn new sessions.

How to pair

On the device running the session:

1. Open the session's info panel.
2. Tap Pair Device.
3. Read the 6-digit code (e.g. 384 291). It expires in 5 minutes.

On the other device:

1. Go to /pair on your relay-tty domain.
2. Enter the 6-digit code.
3. The page redirects you straight into the session.

Managing guests

The pair dialog on the owner's device shows every connected guest with their IP and connection time. Tap the × button next to any guest to kick them.

The guest's header shows a Guest · log out chip. Tapping it clears the grant cookie on both client and server and returns to the /pair page.

Security notes

• Codes are single-use and expire in 5 minutes.
• Rate limit: 5 redemption attempts per IP per minute.
• Grant cookies are HMAC-signed with JWT_SECRET and verified server-side on every request.
• Grants are in-memory — restarting the server logs out all guests (owner sessions survive because they run in separate pty-host processes).

Related

• Sharing & QR Codes — read-only share via JWT-signed URL, includes QR code generation.