Anthropic’s Claude Duet is a cloud-based work agent for invited U.S. subscribers, designed to handle tasks across connected apps even when devices are off, while requiring approval before certain actions.
Anthropic’s announcement, dated Oct. 21, introduced a waitlist for the research preview. The company says access is going to invited subscribers in the United States on its Pro and Max plans. Team and Enterprise accounts are excluded for now, and invitations are being sent in waves. EconoTimes previously reported on the U.S. preview rollout.
Duet compiles a morning summary from connected services and revisits those accounts at intervals during the day. Anthropic says the agent runs in a cloud virtual machine and is built around Claude Opus 5.5, enabling it to keep working after a user closes the app or powers down a device. The company lists scheduling meetings, building dashboards, preparing forecasts and making web apps among possible assignments.
Anthropic says Duet can use more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks, Gusto, Docusign, HubSpot and Shopify are among the services it names.
Before taking certain actions, Duet must show what it plans to do and wait for the user’s approval, Anthropic says. Examples include sending a message, making a payment, signing a document or deleting content. The rules prohibit securities trading and transfers between accounts, even with user approval.
Anthropic warns that Duet may misunderstand a conversation or misjudge urgency. Because it reviews accounts periodically, an urgent message could arrive before its next check; users also cannot yet watch or take control of its browser. The company says emails and web pages can contain hidden instructions intended to manipulate an AI agent, and cautions that its safeguards are not perfect. Anthropic says Duet does not directly see passwords or sign-in tokens.
The preview carries no extra fee, but its work uses subscribers’ usual Claude plan allowance. Background monitoring and larger assignments may draw down that capacity sooner. Anthropic says it designed Duet for professionals and small-business owners managing many decisions. The company has not given a date for broader availability.
