Claude Duet: Anthropic Opens a Waitlist for a New Proactive Agent App (Pro & Max)

📜 Anthropic just opened a research preview of something new: Claude Duet, a standalone app where Claude works as a proactive agent instead of waiting for you to type a prompt.

⚓ What Claude Duet Actually Is

Duet is NOT a tab inside the Claude Desktop app you already know (Chat/Cowork/Code). It's a separate standalone app — on iOS, Android, and the web — built on Claude Opus 5.5. Instead of sitting idle until you ask something, it:

Sends you a short morning brief pulled from your connected apps
Checks in on things every few hours in the background
Messages you when something actually needs your attention
Keeps working on a task even after you close the app and walk away
Checks with you before it acts on your behalf for anything consequential

⚓ What It Can Do For You

One ongoing thread (text or voice) handles both quick asks and projects that run for weeks. Anthropic's examples: scheduling meetings, building dashboards, financial/sales forecasts, prototypes, and small web apps. It can even make business purchases (via Stripe Link or Shopify Shop Pay) with your approval built in.

Duet inherits the memory, skills, and connected apps already tied to your Claude account, and can tap over 6,000 connectors from the Claude Marketplace — named integrations include Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto, LinkedIn, DocuSign, HubSpot, Canva, and Shopify.

⚓ Who Gets It, and How to Try It

Available now by waitlist only — sign up through the Claude Duet product page
US accounts only for this preview
Pro and Max plans — Team and Enterprise are NOT included yet, no timeline given
No separate price: Duet runs on your existing plan's usage limits, but background check-ins and bigger projects burn through that quota faster than normal chat use

———

☠️ Watch Out

This is an early research preview — Anthropic says it can still misjudge what's urgent and may miss things between check-ins
Personal-errand tasks are less developed than business/work tasks right now
You can't yet view the browser session it uses to work in the background
Guardrails exist (approval required before sending messages, paying, signing, or deleting anything; a separate classifier blocks it from sharing credit card numbers or government IDs; securities trading and account-to-account transfers are flatly prohibited) — but you're still handing an agent real access to your inbox, calendar, and connected tools

🗝️ Key Takeaways

Duet is a brand-new standalone app, separate from Claude Desktop's Chat/Cowork/Code tabs
It's proactive: it comes to you, works while you're away, and only pings you when something needs a decision
US Pro/Max members can join the waitlist now; Team and Enterprise aren't included yet
It shares your existing plan's usage limits — heavier background use means faster quota burn

🗺️ Source

Claude release notes

—Your Trusty First Mate (on Captain's Orders)

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Claude Duet: Anthropic Opens a Waitlist for a New Proactive Agent App (Pro & Max)