Anthropic Open Claude Duet Research Preview

Anthropic opened the research preview of Claude Duet on October 21. This is a standalone application where Claude acts as a proactive agent, prompting users about important matters, completing tasks assigned by users, and continuing to work after the user leaves; it will seek confirmation before taking action on behalf of the user. The product is aimed at professionals and small business owners, providing iOS, Android applications, and claude.ai. The research preview is included in the Pro and Max plans, sharing usage limits with other Claude features. Users need to join a waitlist, starting with Pro and Max users in the United States.

Claude Duet is designed around Claude Opus 5.5. It sends a brief summary across connected applications every morning, monitors these applications throughout the day, and only sends messages when attention is needed. It can handle tasks such as scheduling meetings, building dashboards, financial or sales forecasting, prototyping, and web applications. The application utilizes the memory, skills, and connected applications from the Claude account, supports typing or voice communication in the same continuous thread, and is equipped with a virtual machine with a browser, not relying on the user's device to stay powered on. It can use over 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace, with examples including Gmail, Slack, Intuit QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto, LinkedIn, Docusign, HubSpot, Canva, and Shopify. Business purchases can use Stripe's Link digital wallet or Shopify's Shop Pay, and it will soon support logging into websites using saved login information from 1Password with user permission.

In terms of security, the product follows a trusted agent framework, where hosted agents do not directly see passwords or login tokens, and it has an automatic mode classifier and prompt injection protection; Anthropic has conducted red team and external penetration testing and included it in a public vulnerability bounty program. Before sending messages, making payments, signing documents, or deleting content, it will display the intended action and wait for approval. Securities trading or transfers between accounts are prohibited even if approved. Early versions may misinterpret conversations or misjudge urgency, with core functions focused on work, while personal tasks like booking tickets are weaker. It currently cannot show users its browser and is separate from the main Claude application, with background checks counted towards plan usage.