Anthropic said its Claude Duet research preview became available Oct. 21 through a waitlist to U.S. Pro and Max subscribers, offering an agent that monitors work apps and continues assignments when devices are offline.
The company is pitching Duet to professionals and small-business owners. The preview is available on iOS, Android and claude.ai, and Anthropic says feedback from early users will help shape how the agent works with the main Claude app.
Each day, Duet prepares a summary of important items from connected services. It also reviews those accounts every few hours and messages users if it finds something that needs attention, Anthropic said.
The agent is built around Claude Opus 5.5. Its tasks run in a virtual machine with a browser, allowing work to continue if a user’s phone or computer is off. Anthropic says Duet can access more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace, including Gmail and Slack.
Users can ask it to schedule meetings, prepare financial forecasts, build dashboards or create web apps. Anthropic also says Duet can make purchases using Stripe’s Link digital wallet or Shopify’s Shop Pay. It pauses for approval before sending messages, making payments, signing documents or deleting items. Trading securities and moving money between accounts are prohibited, even if a user approves.
Duet draws on the subscriber’s existing Claude plan limits. Background checks count toward that allowance, and more demanding assignments can consume additional model turns and processing, Anthropic said. The usage cost therefore falls on subscribers’ regular plan capacity, which frequent checks can use more quickly.
The company cautioned that the preview may misread message context or judge urgency incorrectly. It is less effective at personal errands such as booking tickets, and users cannot yet see its browser.
The launch follows other announcements about proactive AI agents. OpenAI introduced its dots agents on Sept. 29, while Meta announced its Muse agent on Sept. 8.
