Claude Duet Works on Its Own Cloud Computer While Your Devices Are Off

An agent that checks in so you do not have to

Anthropic has launched Claude Duet, a standalone app where Claude acts as a proactive agent instead of waiting for your next prompt. The Neuron reports that Duet sends you a morning brief, checks your connected apps every few hours, and messages you only when something actually needs you.

Duet is a research preview for Pro and Max subscribers in the United States, rolling out by waitlist. It is built around Claude Opus 5.5, it counts against your normal Claude usage limits, and it carries over your Claude memory, skills, and connected apps. Anthropic lists more than 6,000 connectors, including QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto, Docusign, HubSpot, and Shopify.

It runs on its own computer, not yours

The detail that changes the offer is where Duet lives. It runs on its own virtual machine, a small cloud computer with a browser, so it keeps working when your phone is in your pocket and your laptop is closed. The Rundown gives the shape of the work: morning briefs, calendar tracking, and booking meetings, handled in the background.

That is a real shift. A chatbot waits inside a window you open. Duet is closer to a staff member with a desk of its own, checking the inbox and the calendar on a schedule and bringing you the short list.

The brakes are the product

An agent that acts while you are not looking raises one obvious question: what stops it from doing something costly or embarrassing? Anthropic answer is a stack of brakes, and The Neuron lists them plainly:

• Duet shows exactly what it is about to do and waits for your approval before sending a message, making a payment, signing a document, or deleting anything
• Trading securities and moving money between accounts are off limits, even with your approval
• Credentials follow the Managed Agents design, so Duet never sees your passwords or tokens and has nothing to leak
• A classifier blocks sharing the most sensitive information, like card numbers and government IDs, and health and finance details go out only when you say so

It can pay, within the approval screen

On payments, Duet can use Link, the Stripe wallet, with a one time virtual card, and Shop Pay. The Rundown notes the same guardrail: deletion, payment, signature, and outgoing messages all need your sign off first. An AI can now buy things for you, which makes reading the approval screen a genuine job skill.

Anthropic is also candid about the weak spots. Duet can misread a thread or misjudge urgency, it is weaker at personal errands than at work tasks, and it cannot yet show you its browser while it works.

The number that decides whether it lasts

The Neuron names the metric that matters: the ping threshold. Ping too often and Duet becomes the coworker you mute. Ping too rarely and you miss the showing, the deadline, or the client who needed an answer today. Urgency judgment is the weak spot Anthropic itself admits to.

There is a second cost. Background checks and big tasks count against your usage limits, so the assistant that never sleeps also spends your quota while you do. Track two numbers in the first month: how many pings were worth attention, and how much usage the background work consumed.

What this means for anyone who directs work from a phone

Duet is the clearest sign yet that the job is moving from doing tasks to directing and approving them. The valuable human is no longer the fastest typist. It is the person who sets the brief and reads an approval screen with care.

Start narrow if you get access. Give it one job with a clear finish line, like a morning brief, and judge it on whether its interruptions earn their place. Widen the brief only after the pings prove themselves.