Demand for Apple’s Mac Mini is surging, especially in China, as the small computer becomes an ideal platform for experimenting with autonomous AI agents such as OpenClaw. A company called Astropad is currently building a remote desktop solution specifically for this use case.
Astropad CEO Matt Ronge on Tuesday announced Astropad Workbench, a remote desktop solution for Apple devices that he touts as being built “for the AI era.”
An AI agent running on a Mac Mini may not need a screen, but its operators (humans) will want to log in from time to time to see what’s going on, to check logs, monitor output, and restart stuck tasks, he says.
New remote desktop solutions offer a variety of features, including high-fidelity streaming. Ability to give prompts and commands by voice. Support for other input methods such as keyboard, Apple Pencil, and touch. There are clients for both iPad and iPhone. The latter essentially puts a remote desktop solution in your pocket, allowing you to access it on the go.
If you’re running an AI agent on multiple Macs, Workbench provides device selection so you can move it between them.
The idea came about because it was something that the team at Astropad themselves and their friends wanted as well.
“At Astropad, we’re doing a lot of AI, we’re using agents, and sometimes we have agents that are doing long tasks and we want to see them,” Ronge said. “There was no great way to do this… There were existing remote desktop tools, but nothing specifically built for this,” he continues. “There are ways to use Terminal and things like Telegram chat, but they’re limited. That means sometimes you need to see what’s going on on your Mac. You need to approve a dialog, save something, or visually see what’s going on.”
Workbench also utilizes the company’s proprietary low-latency display protocol, which it calls LIQUID, to support workflows used by creative professionals. Astropad says it maintains full fidelity even at Retina resolution, with no blurred lines or pixelated data. This protocol is already in Astropad’s other products, including Luna Display, which turns your iPad into a second display, and Astropad Studio, which lets you use your iPad as a professional drawing tablet.
While monitoring AI agents doesn’t necessarily require a high-fidelity solution, Ronge notes that it can be useful, especially when approving designs and mockups created by AI agents.
Of course, remote desktop software has been around for a while. That said, Astropad has established competitors such as Jump Desktop, RustDesk, AnyDesk, Parsec, and VNC-based solutions.
However, Longuet suggests that these are not designed for the specific needs of monitoring AI agents using remote desktop software. Workbench makes it easy to check log status and see the progress of your AI agent to identify issues, restart stopped jobs, or make other changes. Plus, you can do this from your iPhone or iPad.
“We’ve been working on iPad stuff for years, like the whole company has been working on it for the last 10 years, so we have a lot of experience in making great iPad apps,” Longe says. “We know how to make great iOS apps, so we did that and also added a voice model.”
The technology uses Apple’s voice model, so you can simply press the microphone button to speak into your phone and tell the AI agent to do something.
“It’s a very natural way to work with agents. It’s the kind of functionality that existing remote desktop (apps) don’t have. They’re built for a more traditional enterprise-style remote desktop.”
As a new release, there are still some bugs and polish needed, but the team continues to work on the product. Next, we plan to launch support for Windows and Linux and improve the iPhone app.
The new software runs on macOS 15 or later and iOS 26 and is available as a free download that provides 20 minutes of access per day. For unlimited access, the cost is $10 per month or $50 per year.
Astropad is a small, homegrown and profitable technology company with over 100,000 customers, including those who purchase iPad hardware accessories and software. As remote support for AI agents becomes more commonplace, Ronge believes Workbench could help the company reach both AI enthusiasts and enterprises.
“I fully expect businesses to buy it. I mean, I’ve seen the productivity gains from it myself, but it’s completely aimed at businesses. It’s too powerful,” he points out.
