James Washington
writing about archive utils free game ideas replays
Technique

Prefer device/remote auth flows over localhost OAuth

Logging in to tools should work when you're only holding your phone.

Reaching me on my phone

how it works

Use device-code/non-interactive flows; where a localhost callback is unavoidable, front it with tailscale serve and a one-tap page (gog-reauth).

Technique: A pattern or hard-won lesson, written down so it isn't learned twice.

The code for this one lives in a private repo. This page explains the idea so you can build your own.

iosoauthtailscaletechnique

related

  • gog-reauth: phone-friendly OAuth Command-line tool Re-logs in a Google CLI tool from the phone with one tap instead of copying a giant link.
  • Give phone-reachable URLs, never localhost Technique When the AI shares a link, it should be one that works from your phone.
  • View local HTML on iPhone by serving it Technique iPhone's Files app won't run interactive web pages, so serve them from the computer instead.
  • Taildrop pitfalls: false success and iOS jetsam Technique Sending files to your phone can say 'sent' when it wasn't, and big files can knock the phone off the network.
  • tailscale-acl and tailscale-webhook Automation Network access rules kept in git, and alerts to Telegram when the private network changes.
← everything I've built
© 2026 James Washington
github twitter rss