Anthropic has opened a research preview of Claude Duet, a new app where Claude works as a proactive agent instead of waiting for you to start a chat. It reads your connected apps, sends a morning brief, and messages you when something needs a decision.
Anthropic announced Claude Duet on October 21, 2026. Access is by waitlist and limited to Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US. Team and Enterprise plans are not included yet.
Claude Duet Sends a Morning Brief, Then Stays Quiet Until Something Needs You
Each morning, the app sends a short brief on the most important items across your connected apps. During the day it keeps tabs on those apps and messages you only when something needs your attention. It checks your accounts every few hours instead of nonstop, since constant checking would drain your plan limits much faster.
You can also hand it tasks by text or voice in one ongoing thread. Those range from scheduling meetings to building dashboards, financial or sales forecasts, prototypes, and web apps. Claude Duet runs on its own virtual machine with a browser, so your phone or laptop does not need to stay on while it works.
The app is built around Claude Opus 5.5, which launched in September. Your memory, skills, and connected apps carry over from your Claude account, so setup is quick. You get a notification when a task is finished or needs your review.
Claude Duet Works With More Than 6,000 Connectors and Plugins
The app uses the connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. Anthropic points to several business uses.
- Finding missed Gmail and Slack messages and drafting replies
- Checking Intuit QuickBooks or Stripe for unpaid invoices and drafting reminders
- Preparing payroll in Gusto with hours, bonuses, and reimbursements filled in
- Sending agreements for review and signature through Docusign
- Drafting follow-up emails from contact and deal history in HubSpot
- Turning a product launch into a social campaign in Canva
- Setting up, designing, and managing a Shopify store
Claude Duet can also buy things for your business with Link, Stripe’s digital wallet. It confirms the item with you, Link asks you to approve the spend, and payment goes through a virtual card so your real card number stays private. Shop Pay from Shopify handles checkout at online stores, and sign-in with logins saved in 1Password is coming soon.
Claude Duet Asks Before It Sends, Pays, Signs, or Deletes
The app reads, drafts, and prepares work on its own. Before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything, it shows you what it is about to do and waits for your approval. Trading securities and moving money between accounts stay off limits even if you approve.
Anthropic added a dedicated classifier and safety system prompt that checks each message for leaks of sensitive information. It rejects requests to share credit card numbers or government identification. Health details and personal finances go out only when you explicitly tell the app to send them.
The app never directly sees your passwords or sign-in tokens. Anthropic says its red teams and an outside firm ran penetration tests on it.
Anthropic is upfront that this is an early version. It can misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent, and personal errands such as booking tickets are weaker than work tasks. It also cannot show you its browser yet, and it lives in its own app, separate from the main Claude app.
Usage counts against your existing Claude plan limits, including the background checks. Larger jobs like building a financial model or a deck use more of that allowance. Claude Duet will be available as a standalone app on iOS and Android, and on the web at claude.ai.
Our Take
I like that Anthropic put approvals ahead of autonomy. An agent that can read your inbox and pay invoices has to ask first, and the ban on moving money between accounts is a sensible limitation.
The every-few-hours check cadence will frustrate anyone expecting instant alerts. Claude Duet now competes with OpenAI’s Dots. I would start with the brief and invoice reminders before handing it anything that touches payroll.
