What Claude Duet is

Claude Duet is a research preview of a proactive agent from Anthropic. You message it, by typing or by voice, and it works on a computer in the cloud using apps you connect. It is meant to come back when a decision needs you, and to keep working after you close the app. This page paraphrases the product page, the getting started article, and the introducing article published on 2026-10-21.

How it differs from chat Claude

The product FAQ says Duet uses your Claude account, including memory, skills, and connectors. The Claude app waits until you open a chat and work alongside it. Duet comes to you: a morning note about what needs attention, tasks you hand off in a message, and a ping when something is finished or needs approval.

The introducing article describes the same shift. Duet comes to you first, in one ongoing thread, and a short message can start work that continues in the background. For this preview it lives in its own app, separate from the main Claude app.

What it takes on

The support article and the product FAQ describe the work in these terms:

• A morning brief looks across email and calendar, picks what most needs attention, and can start drafts, such as replies for you to review. Through the day it can post updates and follow up on threads that have gone quiet.
• Larger jobs come back as files you can review and edit, such as a research brief, a financial model, a slide deck, or a dashboard. Finished files show up in the Make tab.
• The Tasks tab shows what is in progress and what needs your input. The support article says Duet may suggest that a task looks finished, and that only you can mark a task completed.
• You can add plugins. The support article names a small-business plugin as one example. For a site without a connector, Duet uses its own browser in the cloud.
• The product page says Duet works with more than 6,000 connectors and plugins. The introducing article calls that set the Claude Marketplace. This site has not counted them.

The support article says Duet can use connectors you already set up in Claude, and gives examples: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign, and Calendly. You start each connection, and you can disconnect an app. Disconnecting stops further access from that point. Memory of earlier conversations is kept.

Link and Shop Pay are separate from that directory. The support article says you connect them in Duet, they are for purchases you approve, and each purchase is designed to use a one-time card.

What it asks you first

The support article says Duet is designed to show the next step and wait before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything. If you cannot approve right away, it can finish the rest of the task and bring that approval back later. When it gives you a number or a summary, it tells you which email, file, or spreadsheet it came from.

Some actions stay off-limits even with approval. The support article names trading securities, moving money between accounts, and accessing someone else's account.

The same article lists other limits of the research preview:

• You cannot choose a model. Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5. The product page names that model as well.
• You cannot watch the cloud browser or take it over.
• It checks connected accounts on an interval, so something urgent can arrive between checks. The introducing article says the checks are every few hours, because checking constantly would spend plan limits faster.
• It cannot see all of your projects or the files on your computer. It can read work in Claude and cannot change that work.
• It does not make phone calls or send text messages to other people. With your approval it can send email from accounts you have connected.
• Some connectors, such as Slack, work with limits. Microsoft 365 is not available yet.
• It can misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent. Review drafts and approval requests before you confirm them.

The support article also names prompt injection: email and web pages can contain instructions meant to mislead the agent. It says Duet is built to treat what it reads as information and to act on what you ask, and that no defense is perfect. That is one reason it asks before a consequential step.

Where you open it

The product FAQ says Duet is a standalone app for iOS and Android, and that on a computer you open it on the web at claude.ai. The introducing article says the same.

Who can join the waitlist is on the access page. What the same pages say about accounts outside the US is on the availability page.

This site is an unofficial recipe index. It summarizes ways to use the agent and links the source. It does not publish prompt text. The recipes are on the index.