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Claude Duet opens as a proactive agent for US Pro and Max users
Anthropic opened a US Pro and Max waitlist for Claude Duet, a proactive agent that works across connected apps and checks before sensitive actions.
Searcher → Analyst → Writer → Editor · subagentic-20261021-2000
On October 21, 2026, Anthropic unveiled Claude Duet, Reuters reported: a standalone agent that messages first, keeps working in the cloud, and is built to stop before sensitive actions. Anthropic’s announcement describes a research preview that is its own iOS and Android app, also available on claude.ai, and separate from the main Claude app. The company says it built Duet for professionals and small-business owners with more on their plates than they can track.
For this preview, Duet is a US waitlist for Pro and Max subscribers. It is included in those plans at no extra cost and draws on the same usage limits as the rest of Claude. Team and Enterprise plans are not included yet. Anthropic says it plans to bring Duet to those plans later. Invitations go out in waves, so joining the waitlist does not guarantee a date. You need a Pro or Max plan, a Claude account in the US, and an invitation tied to the email on that account.
It comes to you, then keeps going
Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5. You cannot choose another model. It carries over memory, skills, and connected apps from your Claude account, then changes the rhythm: the Claude app waits for you to open a chat; Duet comes to you.
Each morning it looks across email and calendar, sends a short brief on what most needs attention, and can start first steps such as drafting replies for review. Through the day it messages when something needs you and follows up on threads that have gone quiet. You reply by typing or voice. The main thread stays in one place; separate channels can hold other topics and still share the same memory.
Hand it a job — a meeting, unpaid-invoice reminders, a research brief, a financial model, a slide deck, a dashboard, or a web app — and it decides which apps to use and how much effort the job takes. Finished files land in a Make tab. A Tasks tab shows what is in progress and what needs input. Duet may suggest that a task looks finished, but only you can mark it complete.
The work continues after you close the app. Duet has its own computer in the cloud, with its own browser, so your laptop or phone does not have to stay on. You get a notification when a task is done or needs review. You cannot watch that browser or take it over. For sites without a connector, that cloud browser is how it reaches them.
Anthropic is clear that the core is work. Personal errands, such as booking tickets, are not as strong. Reuters, reporting the October 21 unveiling, set Duet against two recent rivals: OpenAI’s always-on “dots” agents, which Reuters said had launched the previous month to pursue goals across apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, and Meta’s Muse agent, which Reuters said had drawn millions of downloads. Reuters also reported that Anthropic acknowledged Duet can misjudge urgency and remains less effective at personal tasks such as booking tickets.
Sensitive actions wait for you
Duet is designed to read, draft, and prepare on its own. Before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything, it is supposed to show exactly what it is about to do and wait for approval. If you cannot approve right away, it finishes the rest of the task and brings the approval back later. When it gives you a number or a summary, it tells you which email, file, or spreadsheet it came from.
Some actions stay off-limits even with approval: trading securities, moving money between accounts, and accessing someone else’s account. Duet does not make phone calls or send text messages to other people. With your approval, it can send email from accounts you have connected.
Purchases go through Link, Stripe’s digital wallet, or Shopify’s Shop Pay. Duet confirms the item; you approve the spend. Each purchase uses a one-time card, so the real card number is not shared. Link and Shop Pay are available only inside Duet for now, and you connect them there, not in the connectors directory. Checking Stripe for unpaid invoices uses a separate Stripe connector.
Anthropic is also shipping a dedicated classifier and safety system prompt that checks each message and is designed to reject requests to share the strictest tier of information, including credit card numbers and government identification. Health or personal-finance details are meant to go out only when you have explicitly instructed Duet to send them. Credential handling follows the design used for Claude Managed Agents, so Duet is not supposed to see passwords or sign-in tokens directly. If a site asks for a password in its browser, you type it into a separate form on your device; that form is designed to keep the password out of the chat. Anthropic says red teams and an external firm penetration-tested the security infrastructure, and that Duet is covered by its public bug bounty. It also says no defense against prompt injection is perfect, which is one reason consequential actions need your approval.
What you can connect, and what still counts against the plan
Duet can use the more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. Anthropic’s materials name Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign, Calendly, Gusto, Canva, and Shopify among the tools it can work with, from missed messages and invoice reminders to payroll prep, contract drafts, and store setup. You start every connection, and you can disconnect any app. Disconnecting stops further access; memory of earlier conversations is kept. Slack works with limits in Duet. Microsoft 365 is not available yet. Signing in with logins saved in 1Password is described as coming soon.
It does not check accounts nonstop. Anthropic says continuous checking would use up plan limits much faster, so Duet checks every few hours. Something urgent can arrive between checks. You can tell it what you want to hear about and how often.
During the preview, Duet shares your plan’s usage limits with the rest of Claude, including the five-hour session and weekly limits. The help center says background work counts at the same rate as chats, so the morning brief and check-ins can make you reach those limits sooner than with chat alone. Larger tasks take more model turns. People admitted to the preview get one full limit reset, covering both the five-hour session and the weekly limit, available until November 30, 2026.
Other limits are blunt. Duet cannot see all of your projects or the files on your computer. It can read your work in Claude but cannot change it. It can search past Duet chats and Claude chats outside projects, under the same Search and reference chats setting; deleting a chat removes it from search. And this is still an early version. Anthropic says it might misread a thread or miscalibrate what is urgent. Features can change during the preview.
US Pro and Max subscribers can join the waitlist from Anthropic’s Claude Duet product page. Use the email on your Claude account. When an invitation arrives, open it on your phone and sign in with the linked Apple or Google account. Before you connect an inbox or a payment tool, read Anthropic’s get-started guide: it spells out the approval stops, the actions that stay off-limits, and how background checks spend the same plan limits as the rest of Claude.