Anthropic on Wednesday opened a research preview of Claude Duet, a standalone application that inverts the usual bargain with artificial intelligence: rather than waiting for a prompt, the agent comes to the user first, with a briefing, a drafted answer, or a decision already prepared.
The preview opens by waitlist to United States subscribers on the Pro and Max tiers, available as an iOS and Android app and through claude.ai. Anthropic said it would email waitlisted users as their access becomes ready.
A partner rather than a prompt box
Anthropic describes Duet as a product for professionals and small business owners "with more on their plates than they can track." The application is built around Claude Opus 5.5, and the company's pitch is less about raw capability than about judgment — deciding, in Anthropic's phrasing, "what needs you, what can wait, and when to check with you first."
Each morning Duet sends a short brief covering the most consequential items across the user's connected applications. Through the day it keeps watch over those applications and messages only when something genuinely requires attention. Users can specify what they want to hear about, and how often.
The task surface is wide. Anthropic lists administrative work such as scheduling meetings, alongside heavier lifting: dashboards built from dozens of tools, financial and sales forecasting, prototyping, and web application development. The application inherits the memory, skills, and connected apps of an existing Claude account, and accepts requests by text or voice in a single continuing thread.
The machine keeps working
Duet runs in a virtual machine with its own browser, so work continues when the user's own laptop and phone are off. A task described in a short message is worked out in the background, with a notification delivered on completion or when review is required. Anthropic said it checks connected accounts every few hours, rather than continuously, because constant polling would exhaust the plan's usage limits far more quickly.
The limits themselves are shared with the rest of Claude during the preview, and Anthropic was candid that they are consumed differently from a typical conversation. Background checks count against the same pool, and large assignments — a financial model, a full slide deck — require more model turns and more background work.
Approval gates, and the line around money
Duet reads, drafts, and prepares on its own initiative, but the consequential steps remain with the user. Before sending a message, making a payment, signing a document, or deleting anything, it shows the user precisely what it intends to do and waits for approval. A small set of actions remains unavailable even with approval, among them trading securities and moving money between accounts. Any connected application can be disconnected by the user.
For purchases, Anthropic has integrated Link, Stripe's digital wallet. Duet confirms the item, Link requests approval of the spend, and payment executes through a virtual card so the underlying card number is never shared. Checkout at online stores runs through Shop Pay, and Anthropic said that with the user's permission the application will soon be able to sign in using credentials held in 1Password.
How the safety argument is constructed
Anthropic anchored the release in a framework for trustworthy agents that also governs Claude Code and Claude in Chrome. Credential handling follows the design used for Claude Managed Agents, so the application never directly observes passwords or sign-in tokens. Actions are gated by the auto mode classifier, the same mechanism that prevents Claude and Claude Code from taking unrequested steps. Defenses against hidden instructions and prompt injection come from the company's browser-use research. Red teams and an external firm penetration tested the application, which is covered by Anthropic's public bug bounty programme on HackerOne.
The company also shipped a dedicated classifier and safety system prompt that inspects every outgoing message. Anthropic said the pair is designed to refuse requests to disclose the strictest tier of sensitive information, including card numbers and government identification, while allowing health and personal financial details through only when the user has explicitly instructed Duet to send them. Anthropic said further detail on the safety design would follow.
Where it falls short, and the field ahead
The company was direct about the preview's limits. Duet may misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent. Because its core functionality was built around work rather than personal errands, tasks such as booking tickets are "not quite as strong." It cannot yet show the user its browser, and for now it lives in its own application, separate from the main Claude app — a separation Anthropic said early users' experience will inform.
The preview lands in a crowded field. Meta's Muse has passed ten million users with shopping described as its most common activity, and OpenAI has moved into the same territory with its own personal agent. What distinguishes Duet is the direction of the interaction. The industry assumption of the past two years has been that a person approaches the assistant; Duet inverts that, and asks instead whether the assistant should approach the person.
Whether a user will accept an agent that interrupts is a separate question from whether the agent is competent. Anthropic has asked its first testers, and reserved the right to tune the frequency and character of its messages accordingly.
Corrections and clarifications
This dispatch reflects the announcement as published by Anthropic on October 21, 2026, together with reporting from CNBC and Unite.AI on the same day. Anthropic did not publish benchmarks, pricing for the preview beyond inclusion in existing Pro and Max plans, or a general availability date. The phrase "proactive agent" is Anthropic's own.