Claude Duet: Anthropic's Background Agent That Asks Before Acting
Anthropic wants you to stop opening the chat. Claude Duet works in the background on its own virtual machine, sends you a morning brief, and only interrupts you when it needs approval to pay or send something.
What Claude Duet is and who it's for
It is Anthropic's bet on agents that do real work instead of answering questions. The app runs on iOS, Android and the web through claude.ai, as a research preview for Pro and Max customers, with a waitlist. The stated audience is professionals and small businesses: people who need their tasks organized, not a table booked.
That distinction matters. Duet isn't meant for errands or travel management, and it doesn't show its browser use live while it happens. What it does is the daily briefing, dashboards built from your data, and suggested actions, delivered proactively while it tracks the tasks it is working on.
An app, not one more tab
The habit change it proposes is concrete: instead of writing a prompt and waiting, you hand off the task and come back later. If the agent gets stuck or reaches a sensitive point, it tells you.
How it works underneath
Duet is built on Claude Opus 5.5 and runs tasks on its own virtual machine, so your computer doesn't need to stay on or busy while the work moves forward. That is the piece that separates an agent from an assistant: the work continues after you close the window.
More than 6,000 connectors
The app plugs into over 6,000 connectors and plug-ins from the Claude Marketplace. That is the practical difference between an agent that "reasons" and one that is useful: access to email, calendar, accounting, files. Without connections, an agent can only talk about whatever you pasted into the chat.
Purchases with approval, not a blank check
Duet can buy things online using Stripe Link or Shop Pay. Sensitive steps, such as a payment, require user approval. There are hard limits too: it won't trade securities or move money between accounts. Those are the two tasks where a mistake doesn't get fixed with an apology.
The limits Anthropic set on purpose
An agent with access to your email and your card is also a leak risk. Anthropic added a classifier that reviews every message to keep sensitive information from slipping out, and by default the agent declines requests for card numbers and government IDs. The filter isn't perfect, but it sets the mental model: the agent is not a cashier for your data.
How it compares with what already exists
The market filled with names in a matter of weeks: Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots, Hark, Instinct, Grok Bot, Fo. Almost all start from the same idea and differ on two things: how autonomous they are and how much access you grant them. Duet took the conservative route on money and the aggressive one on operations: heavy integration, few irreversible decisions without permission.
The agent race already has two camps
The same day as the announcement showed the clash of criteria across the industry. According to press reports, several US banks began detecting and blocking third-party agents operating inside customer accounts without verified authorization. On the opposite side, Walmart opened an Agent Gateway, an MCP server that lets approved agents shop on its site under their own profiles and terms.
In other words: retail is opening the door to agents while banking is closing it. For developers, the question stops being whether your product will have an API for agents and becomes who is accountable when the agent gets it wrong.
What's still missing
Duet is a research preview behind a waitlist, so there is no public data on real usage or time saved yet. Pricing and a date for leaving the waitlist are unknown. What is clear is the direction: Anthropic stopped selling only a model and started selling a place where the model works.
Conclusion
Claude Duet is Anthropic's attempt to turn Claude into a workmate with its own machine, connectors and handbrakes. The fair question isn't whether the demo works, but whether an agent that asks permission to pay is useful enough to replace the chat tab. Until that gets answered, the waitlist is the only way in.
