Anthropic announced a research preview of Claude Duet on October 21, 2026, describing it as a proactive AI agent that identifies work needing attention and continues tasks in the cloud after a user steps away.
The company said the waitlisted preview is for Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the United States. Anthropic lists web access and standalone mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Connected apps and cloud tasks
Anthropic says Duet sends a morning brief highlighting important items across connected apps, then checks for developments throughout the day and alerts users when their attention is needed. The company designed it for professionals and small business owners managing more work than they can track.
Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5, according to Anthropic. It draws on the memory associated with a user’s Claude account, while existing skills and app connections also carry over. Its main conversation remains in an ongoing thread.
The company says Duet works on its own cloud computer and uses a browser to access websites without a connector. Its stated capabilities range from scheduling meetings to building web apps.
Approval safeguards and preview limits
Anthropic says Duet is designed to seek approval before taking consequential actions, including:
- Sending a message.
- Making a payment.
- Signing a document.
- Deleting a file.
The company says its credential-handling design keeps passwords and sign-in tokens out of the agent’s direct view. It also says a dedicated classifier and safety system prompt check messages for potential disclosures of sensitive information. The company acknowledges that defenses against malicious instructions in external content are imperfect.
Anthropic also warns that Duet can misread conversations or misjudge urgency. Because it checks accounts at intervals, an urgent item can arrive between checks. Users cannot watch or take over its cloud browser during the preview.
Duet shares the usage limits of a subscriber’s existing Claude plan, Anthropic says. Background activity, including morning briefs and check-ins, counts toward those limits.
The company said invitations would be issued in waves, with no guaranteed access date for people joining the waitlist. Team and Enterprise plans were excluded from the initial preview.
