Anthropic has expanded its Claude Duet help guide with practical rules for connecting apps, approving actions and managing background work. The guidance concerns the research preview announced on October 31, 2026. It is an operating guide for an existing preview, not a fresh launch or a move to general availability.
The useful distinction is between what Duet can prepare, what needs your approval and what remains prohibited. Connecting an account gives the assistant access to work with it; that connection is not blanket authorization to send messages, spend money or sign documents.
Anthropic’s documentation also exposes two less obvious tradeoffs: disconnecting an app leaves previously retained conversational memory intact, and closing Duet does not stop its cloud-based work from consuming plan limits. The details below reflect the company’s published guidance, without independent testing; features and eligibility can change during the preview.
Who Can Access Claude Duet
Duet is available through a waitlist to US users on Pro, Max and Ultra plans. Team and Enterprise subscriptions are not eligible yet. Anthropic says it plans to support those plans later, but the guide gives no rollout date.
Joining the waitlist does not guarantee an invitation by a particular date. Access opens in waves and is tied to the email address submitted.
The setup guide gives prospective users a straightforward checklist:
- Check your plan and region. You need a qualifying individual subscription and a Claude account in the US.
- Use your Claude account email on the waitlist. An address mismatch can prevent access.
- Choose your phone type. The signup process asks whether you use iPhone or Android.
- Open the invitation on your phone. Follow the installation steps using the Apple or Google account linked to the submitted email address.
- Sign in with your Claude account. Anthropic notes that availability can take a few minutes after accepting an invitation.
Duet uses Claude Opus 5.5 without a model picker. It inherits the memory, skills and connectors already configured on your Claude account, so setup includes reviewing existing access, not merely adding new connections.
Connectors and Payment Wallets Have Different Jobs
The guide lists Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, DocuSign and Calendly among supported connectors. Duet can use connections already established in Claude, and you manage their access through Claude settings.
The Stripe connector has a separate operational role: the guide describes checking unpaid invoices and drafting reminder emails for approval. Link, Stripe’s digital wallet, handles purchases. Connecting one does not require connecting the other.
Shop Pay follows the same separation. It pays for purchases, while the Shopify connector works with a Shopify store. A store-management connection and permission to pay are distinct capabilities.
You initiate each connection and can disconnect an app at any time. However, Anthropic says disconnecting stops future access while retaining memory of information from earlier conversations.
That is an important boundary for sensitive work. I would treat disconnection as revoking an access route, not as deleting everything Duet previously learned through it.
How Link and Shop Pay Approvals Differ
Both wallets connect inside Duet, not through the general connectors directory. Open your avatar, select the payment-connection option and choose the service. Anthropic’s Link guide and Shop Pay guide describe these differences:
| Detail | Link by Stripe | Shop Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase approval | Approve a Spend Request and maximum amount through Link | Select “Review in Shop Pay” and approve the purchase |
| Payment credential | One-time card scoped to the merchant and amount | One-time card scoped to the approved amount |
| Availability | US preview users on Pro, Max or Ultra, with a US payment method | US preview users on Pro, Max or Ultra |
| Recurring payments | Explicitly unsupported | The cited guide does not specify recurring-payment support |
| Checkout limitation | A merchant may decline or block checkout after approval | Some sites may block Duet from paying |
The documents describe both integrations as Duet-only for now, unavailable in regular Claude, Cowork or Claude Code.
Duet can see payment-method metadata, including card type, last four digits, nickname, expiration date and shipping addresses. Anthropic says it is not given the full card number or bank account number.
For Link, approving a request may trigger a temporary authorization. The final charge completes only if the merchant completes the purchase, and a failed attempt can temporarily remain pending. Approval therefore authorizes an attempt; it does not guarantee a successful order.
Which Actions Need Approval, and Which Are Prohibited
Anthropic says Duet is designed to ask before it:
- Sends a message.
- Makes a payment.
- Signs a document.
- Deletes an item.
These are approval boundaries around consequential actions. Duet can do preparatory work, such as drafting an invoice reminder, before asking you to authorize the send.
The main guide separately prohibits securities trading, moving money between accounts and accessing someone else’s account. Those restrictions are not presented as actions that become available after a confirmation.
The distinction matters for broad requests. An instruction to clear an inbox should still encounter an approval boundary before deletion. Likewise, permission to buy office supplies should not be read as open-ended spending authority: the wallet guides describe approval for each purchase.
I would review the proposed action itself, including the recipient, document, product, quantity and amount, instead of approving solely because the original request was sensible. An assistant can understand the overall goal while still selecting the wrong detail.
Duet’s Tasks tab shows ongoing work and items needing input. It can suggest that a task appears finished, but only the user can mark it completed. That provides a separate user-controlled completion step after the assistant reports its result.
Background Work Uses Your Existing Plan Allowance
Duet runs on its own cloud computer and can continue after you close the app. Anthropic describes morning briefs assembled from email and calendar information, ongoing updates and follow-ups on quiet threads.
During the preview, Duet is included at no extra cost, but its work counts against your Claude plan’s usage limits. Background checks consume allowance along with other tasks, according to the guide.
“Included” therefore describes the absence of an additional preview charge, not unlimited execution. A persistent task can consume capacity while you are away, leaving less available for other Claude work.
The practical implication is to make recurring assignments specific. A request to check a defined set of unpaid invoices each morning has a clearer scope than an open-ended instruction to keep watching the business. That is a workload-management recommendation derived from the documented background behavior, not a measured comparison of usage.
Frequently Asked Questions
4 questions
1Is Claude Duet available on Team or Enterprise plans?
No. The current US research preview is limited to invited Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers. Anthropic has not provided a Team or Enterprise rollout date.
