Honest comparison
Happy is a free, open-source app for running Claude, Codex and Grok, with a phone app that mirrors your sessions. Pushary plugs into the agents you already run and sends you only what needs you, so you can approve from your iPhone lock screen with Face ID, or deny with one tap.
If you want to read and steer whole sessions from your phone, for free, Happy is excellent. If you want your agents to stop only for the decisions that need you, and to answer them in seconds, Pushary is the better fit.
A Happy permission notification shows a fixed "Permission request" label and the session name, with no buttons, so every approval means unlock, open the session and tap. Pushary's notification says what the agent wants to run. On iPhone you approve with Face ID from the lock screen, and Deny is one tap on iPhone and Android. Risky commands still open the app.
With the happy CLI you start sessions with happy instead of claude, and permission prompts reach your phone only after you take the session over from the phone. Happy Desktop goes further and replaces Claude Code with its own harness, where an AI reviewer decides by default. Pushary plugs into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and Devin CLI, so the agent you already run asks your phone.
Happy's "don't ask again" lasts for the session. In Pushary you can allow a command for the session, or a tool like Bash for the repo or the whole workspace, from the approval, and risky shell commands like rm -rf still ask. Fewer buzzes tomorrow, not just today.
Happy is free, open source under the MIT license, self-hostable and end-to-end encrypted, with a phone app that shows the whole session, diffs and files, and a voice agent. If you want to read and drive whole sessions from your phone at no cost, Happy is the better pick. Pushary does less on the phone and focuses on getting you to the decision fast.
| Feature | Pushary | Happy |
|---|---|---|
| Approve from the lock screen without opening an appLOCK SCREEN | iPhone (Face ID) | |
| Deny from the notification | ||
| Notification says what the agent wants to do | ||
| Keep typing claude or codex, with nothing to launch first | ||
| Approvals in Cursor and Devin CLI | ||
| Always allow for a repo or workspace, not just the sessionRULES | ||
| Stop all agents at once (blocks their tool calls for an hour) | Per session | |
| Record of every question and answer | Yes (export on Agent Pro) | |
| Start a session from your phone | ||
| Whole session on your phone: transcript, diffs, files | Summaries and approval details | |
| Message an idle agent | Pushary-started sessions, up to 10 min idle | |
| Voice | 20 free min/mo, then $19.99/mo | |
| End-to-end encrypted and self-hostable | ||
| Open source | ||
| Price | $9.99/mo | Free (MIT) |
Checked against Happy's site, docs, app listings and open-source code in October 2026. An empty cell means no documented or public feature at that time, not a guarantee of absence.
Happy (happy.engineering) is a free, open-source app under the MIT license for running Claude, Codex and Grok on the subscriptions you already pay for, with phone and web apps that show your sessions, end-to-end encrypted. Its newer Happy Desktop runs its own agent harness. The original happy CLI, which wraps claude and mirrors it to your phone, is now in maintenance mode. Voice is 20 free minutes a month, then $19.99 a month.
Happy puts the whole session on your phone so you can read and steer it. Pushary plugs into the agents you already run and sends you only the decisions that need you, so you can approve from an iPhone lock screen or deny from any notification, without opening an app. Pushary also keeps rules that last beyond one session, a Stop button that blocks every agent's tool calls for an hour, and a record of every decision.
No. A Happy permission notification has no Approve or Deny buttons: tapping it opens the session in the app, and a request for lock-screen buttons was opened on Happy's GitHub in October 2026. Happier, a fork, has Allow and Deny buttons, but they open the app first. Pushary lets you approve from an iPhone lock screen with Face ID, and deny with one tap on iPhone or Android.
Happy is free and open source. Only its hosted voice costs money: $19.99 a month after 20 free minutes. Pushary's Agent plan is $9.99 a month with a 3-day free trial.
Both are private, in different ways. Happy is end-to-end encrypted, so its relay only ever sees encrypted data, but there is no server-side audit trail to query or export. Pushary splits the paths. Decision text and tool names stay queryable for the audit trail. Pushary-launched transcripts sync by default after local redaction and encryption; the owner's phone can decrypt them, and authorized Pushary compliance admins can recover an exact session for a documented legal obligation. You can disable sync on the agent machine. Happy maximizes provider-inaccessible encryption. Pushary combines encrypted transcripts, compliance recovery, and auditable decisions.
Happier (happier.dev) is an independent fork of Happy, also MIT licensed and end-to-end encrypted. It supports 18 agents, can be self-hosted with single sign-on, and its notifications have Allow and Deny buttons that open the app. Its remembered approvals last for the session.
Yes, they are independent. You could use Happy to read whole sessions on your phone and Pushary for lock-screen approvals and lasting rules. If both handle approvals for the same Claude Code session, expect both to ask, so pick one of them for approvals.
Approve from your iPhone lock screen and deny from any lock screen, on iPhone or Android, and keep the rules you set. Works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Antigravity CLI and Devin CLI. 3-day free trial.
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