Claude Duet and the shift from chat assistants to background agents

Anthropic announced Claude Duet on October 21, 2026: an agent that reaches out to the user first instead of waiting for a prompt.

A few architecture details stand out for anyone building or evaluating agents:

• It runs in a cloud VM, so it keeps working after you close the app or end your session.
• It works through connected apps such as email and calendar, and sends a short summary of important items every morning.
• When a site has no connector, it uses its own cloud browser to interact with it.
• Tasks range from scheduling meetings to building dashboards, financial forecasts and web app prototypes.

It's a research preview for now, limited to Pro and Max subscribers in the US via a waitlist.

Full story on Tadna:
https://www.tadna.com/en/news/anthropic-unveils-claude-duet-a-proactive-agent-available-in-preview-for-us-subscribers?utm_source=dev&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tadna