When the remote debugging module is loaded, it adds a menu item Remote Listener to the Works > Tools menu. This opens a Remote Listener, either using an existing remote debugging connection or by opening a new connection and using it. By default it will use an existing connection if there is any, otherwise it asks for a hostname and connects to it using dbg:ide-connect-remote-debugging with the default port. It opens a Remote Listener on the connection using dbg:ide-open-a-listener. You can configure the hostname in the Preferences dialog Debugger options Remote tab, so that LispWorks does not need to ask you for it before opening the connection (see 29.4.1 Remote Debugging Client).
The Remote Listener (and the Listener pane in a Remote Debugger window) allows evaluation of forms on the client side. It sends each character that is typed after the Listener pane's prompt to the client side, which performs all of the reading and evaluation, after which the values are printed.
Most Editor commands are executed entirely on the IDE side, with a few exceptions that affect the client side if they add or remove characters after the prompt. Note in particular that symbol completion (Complete Symbol) occurs on the IDE side, and Editor commands that evaluate forms (for example Evaluate Last Form) perform all of the reading and evaluation on the IDE side without interacting with the client side.
There are several Editor commands that always interact with the client side. These commands have the same effect as in an ordinary Listener/Debugger, but they need to interact with the client side to do that.
LispWorks IDE User Guide (Unix version) - 01 Dec 2021 19:37:25