FrontierStack for iPhone and iPad is a companion to the FrontierStack server-administration app that runs on your Mac. It is not a separate product you set up from scratch, and it does not run servers itself. It is a small, secure remote control for the Mac app — so the servers, agents and devices you manage from your desk are with you wherever you happen to be.

This short book is the manual for the mobile app only. The full desktop reference — everything the Mac app does, from the web stack to the AI Administrator — lives in the FrontierStack Manual. Here we cover just what you need to pair a phone or tablet, keep it safe, and use it day to day.

1.1What this app is

Think of the Mac app as the brain and this app as a trusted hand. The Mac is where FrontierStack lives: it talks to your servers over SSH, runs the AI Administrator, watches health, and holds your secrets. The mobile app talks only to that Mac, over a signed, encrypted connection. It never reaches out to your servers directly; it asks the Mac, and the Mac does the work.

That design keeps the mobile app simple and safe. There is no fleet to configure on your phone, no SSH keys to carry, no credentials to lose. Everything sensitive stays on the Mac. Your phone holds one private key — its own identity — and nothing more.

1.2What you can do from your phone

The mobile app is a full remote for the desktop — the things you reach for when you are away from your desk, organised into five tabs:

• Fleet. Every pinned server, the local Mac included, each with a status dot. Open one to control its services (start / stop / restart / reload), reboot it, run diagnostics, view logs, open its web UI, or reach Remote Tools and Fleet Run. Your pinned LAN devices sit below in collapsible sections.
• Services. The Mac's services in collapsible sections, kept in sync with the desktop — anything you've hidden there doesn't show here.
• Shell. A real command-line on the Mac or any server, logging in automatically with the Mac's stored credentials (never sent to the phone). Plus your saved and ready-made scripts.
• AI. A multi-turn conversation with the AI Administrator, showing the tools it runs; read-only unless you switch on "Allow changes".
• More. Push alerts, network Locations (switch sites), Fleet Run, temporary Shares, device web UIs, Settings and Help.

Some of these work from anywhere; others depend on your phone being able to reach the right network. We explain exactly which is which in Staying Connected.

1.3Why it needs the Mac

This app does not work on its own — and that is deliberate. The Mac is the brain that talks to your servers, agents and devices. It holds the SSH connections to your fleet, the certificates, the secret vault, the alerting engine and the AI Administrator. Your phone is a secure window onto all of that.

Because the Mac does the real work, three things follow. The Mac must be running and reachable for the app to show live data or send a command. Push alerts are generated on the Mac (and its server agents) and relayed to your phone, so the Mac, or its push relay, needs to be online to notify you. And the permissions that govern what your phone may do are set on the Mac, not the phone — you stay in control from one place.

1.4Install order

Getting set up takes three steps, in this order:

1. Install FrontierStack on the Mac. Download and run the desktop app, and turn on its control server so it can accept connections from your devices. This is the foundation; nothing on the phone works without it.
2. Install this app on your iPhone or iPad. Get FrontierStack Mobile from the App Store. On first launch it simply waits to be paired.
3. Pair the two. On the Mac, generate a pairing QR code under the Paired Devices pane. In this app, scan it. From then on the two are linked, and your phone is enrolled with its own key.

The next chapter, Pairing Your Device, walks through that pairing in full.

1.5How this manual is organised

This little book has two parts. Getting Connected — the part you are reading — covers this welcome, then pairing your device, the security model that keeps the link safe, and staying connected from home, over Tailscale, and away. Using FrontierStack Mobile then walks through the app itself: the tabs — Fleet, Services, Shell, AI and More — and finally settings and troubleshooting, including app lock and what to check when something will not connect.

1.6Platform requirements

FrontierStack Mobile is a universal app that runs on both iPhone and iPad, adapting its layout to each. It needs a reasonably current version of iOS or iPadOS; install it from the App Store, which will tell you if your device is supported. To do anything useful it also needs a Mac running the FrontierStack desktop app, reachable over your network, Tailscale, or a Cloudflare tunnel.

That is the whole picture: a Mac doing the work, a phone or tablet as your secure remote, and a signed link between them. When you are ready, turn to Pairing Your Device to begin.