Anthropic has opened a waitlist for Claude Duet, a new app that lets its AI assistant keep working in the background while users are away.
The company announced the research preview on 21 October, adding to the growing competition to build AI agents that can handle tasks with less supervision.
The preview is available to Pro and Max subscribers in the US, through iOS, Android, and claude.ai. It is included in existing subscriptions at no extra cost, although work done by Duet counts towards the same usage limits as other Claude features.
Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5 and operates in its own virtual environment, complete with a browser. That means users do not need to leave their computers or phones running while it works.
According to Anthropic, the agent can check connected apps every few hours, send a morning summary, and contact users when it needs a decision.
It also carries over the memory, skills, and app connections from a user’s existing Claude account. Anthropic says Duet supports more than 6,000 integrations, including Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, HubSpot, and Shopify. Users can ask it to schedule meetings, prepare sales forecasts, or build simple web apps.
The agent still needs permission for sensitive actions. Before sending messages, making payments, signing documents, or deleting files, it shows users what it plans to do and waits for approval.
It blocks trading securities and transferring money between accounts altogether. Moreover, users can make purchases through Stripe’s Link wallet or Shop Pay using a virtual card.
Anthropic has also outlined some limitations. Duet can misjudge how urgent a message is, and personal errands such as booking tickets are still a work in progress. Users cannot yet watch the agent’s browser as it works.
Early reviewer Dan Shipper of Every, who had access before the launch, described Duet as a professional tool but found its email drafts weaker than those produced by a competing agent. Voice features are also limited for now.
“There’s no real voice mode yet, just transcription,” Shipper wrote.
Duet enters a market where other AI companies are also trying to build independent assistants. OpenAI introduced its Dots personal agent in September, while Meta has launched a similar product called Muse.
Anthropic, which recently signed a $45 billion computing deal, said it would share more details about Duet’s safety design in the coming days.