---
title: Pair a machine
group: Use Escanor
order: 4
summary: Pair your phone with a machine running Escanor Desktop using a short code, then chat with it, check on it and approve what it asks.
updated: 2026-10-06
---
A **machine** in the phone app can be a laptop or desktop running [Escanor Desktop](/docs/desktop). Pairing links the two so the phone can talk to that machine from anywhere.

## Pair a phone with a machine

1. Sign in to the **same Escanor account** on both.
2. On the machine open **Machines** and read the pairing code (and QR).
3. On the phone open **Machines**, choose **Add**, then scan the QR or type the code.

The code is single use, expires after five minutes and locks after wrong guesses. Pairing needs only the code, with no IP address, and works on any network.

## How the phone reaches the machine

- **On the same Wi-Fi:** directly, through the machine's local gateway (fast).
- **Anywhere else:** through the Escanor relay. Everything is sealed end to end with a key only your two devices hold, so the relay stores and forwards ciphertext and cannot read it.

The phone prefers the local route and falls back to the relay by itself.

## What you can do from the phone

Each machine opens to these tabs:

- **Assistant:** talk to that machine's assistant. Chats are kept per machine, and **New chat** starts a new conversation.
- **Activity:** what the machine has done, loaded in pages.
- **Permissions:** which groups of capabilities the phone is allowed to use.
- **Approvals:** things waiting for your OK.
- **Settings:** rename it, see how it is paired, forget it.

## Permissions

Capabilities are grouped (files, shell, apps, background jobs, system control and so on), each with a risk level. **Shell, file, app-install and OS-control groups are off for phones by default.** To use one, the phone asks and the machine's owner approves it on the machine. Only the machine itself can approve pairing and permission requests; the phone cannot.

When something is blocked the phone says which switch to flip and offers "Ask my machine to allow it".

## Forgetting a machine

Choose **Forget** from the machine's menu on the phone. The phone stops controlling it; you can pair again with a new code. Nothing on the machine changes. To remove a phone from the machine's side, open **Machines** on the machine.