Claude Duet Prompts
Brief prompts
Shape what the morning brief raises and skips.
Task prompts
Inbox, calendar, finance and reports, ready to paste.
Follow-up prompts
Start, check and stop the things Duet watches.
Claude Duet works from plain language, so the quality of what you get depends on how you ask. These 30 Claude Duet prompts are written to be pasted or spoken as they are, then adjusted to your names, apps and deadlines. Each one names its sources, says what done looks like, and where it matters, says what the agent must not touch.
Every prompt respects the preview's built-in guardrail: Duet can read, draft and build on its own, but it will always ask before it sends, pays, signs or deletes.
Updated October 22, 2026
How to write Claude Duet prompts that work
Good Claude Duet prompts share three parts. Early guides converge on the same advice, and it matches what a proactive agent needs to make good calls on its own.
Name sources
Say which inbox, label, channel, calendar or app to use. "My Gmail label Clients" beats "my email". Narrow sources mean fewer mistakes and less usage.
Say what not to touch
Exclusions are as useful as instructions: "do not reschedule anything", "ignore the family calendar", "leave anything from legal alone". Unsupported facts should stay marked unresolved rather than guessed.
Define done
Tell Duet what output you want and where: a list in the thread, a draft per client, a sheet in Drive, a ten-slide deck.
Claude Duet prompts for your morning brief
Use these to tune the morning brief. Send them once; Duet carries the preference forward.
"In my morning brief, show at most five items, ranked by what needs me today. One line each, with the reason."
"Skip newsletters, receipts and automated notifications unless a payment failed."
"Anything from Dana at Northfield or from our accountant always goes to the top."
"Group the brief into: needs my decision, ready for review, done. If you are not sure something is resolved, say so."
"On Mondays, add a short look ahead at this week's deadlines and meetings."
"If a source failed to load, list it at the end of the brief instead of leaving it out."
Claude Duet prompts for tasks
These Claude Duet prompts are grouped by job. For the full walkthrough of each job, see the use cases page.
Inbox
"Read new emails in my Clients label each weekday and tell me which need a reply today. Draft replies for the simple ones. Do not send anything."
"Find every email from the last month where someone is waiting on me and has not had an answer."
"Summarize this thread in five bullets, then draft a reply that agrees to the timeline but asks for the budget in writing."
"Unsubscribe suggestions only: list newsletters I have not opened in 60 days. Do not unsubscribe or delete."
"Draft a polite decline to this request and hold it for me."
Calendar
"Find an hour next week when Priya, Sam and I are all free, and draft an invite. Ask me before sending."
"Before any meeting with an external guest, send me a one-page prep note with our last emails and open questions."
"Flag any double bookings or meetings without an agenda for the next two weeks."
"Block two hours of focus time every afternoon this week where my calendar is free. Show me before you add them."
Finance
"Find invoices more than 14 days overdue in QuickBooks and draft one friendly reminder per client."
"Prepare this period's payroll for review and highlight anything different from last period."
"Tell me about any failed Stripe payments or disputes as soon as you see them at a check-in."
"List subscriptions we pay for that renew in the next 30 days, with the amount."
Reports
"Every Friday, write a one-page summary of sales, costs and anything unusual this week. Put it in my Drive folder Weekly."
"Build a daily dashboard of sales, orders, open roles and churn that is ready before 7 a.m."
"Turn this month's numbers into a ten-slide board update. Message me when it is done."
"Compare this quarter to last quarter and explain the three biggest changes in plain English."
"Each morning, count support tickets that need a human and prepare replies for the easy ones. I will review them before anything goes out."
Requests that tend to go wrong, and better versions
Some requests sound reasonable but leave the agent guessing. These are the patterns we see causing the most disappointment, with a rewrite for each.
| Instead of | Try | Why it works better |
|---|---|---|
| "Handle my email." | "Each weekday, list client emails that need a reply today and prepare answers for the routine ones." | Names the scope and the output, so nothing is left to interpretation. |
| "Pay the bills." | "List bills due in the next seven days with amounts, and prepare each payment for my approval." | Payments always need approval anyway; asking for a list first lets you check before anything is queued. |
| "Tell me if anything important happens." | "Alert me if a customer threatens to cancel, a payment fails, or someone from the landlord writes." | Important means different things to different people. Concrete triggers make alerts useful. |
| "Clean up my inbox." | "Suggest which threads I can archive. Do not archive or delete anything yourself." | Deleting needs approval, and suggestions are easier to review than bulk changes. |
| "Make a report." | "Write a one-page weekly summary of sales and costs from Stripe and QuickBooks, saved to my Weekly folder." | Says what data, what length and where to put it. |
The common thread is specificity. A proactive agent will fill any gap you leave with its own judgment. That judgment is often good, but in a research preview it is worth limiting how much of it you rely on until you have seen how it behaves with your accounts.
Speaking rather than typing? The same rules apply. Say the source first, then the job, then the limits. It is easier for you to remember and easier for the agent to follow.
Claude Duet prompts for follow-ups
Follow-ups are how Duet keeps watching something for you between check-ins. Starting them is easy; remembering to stop them saves usage. The setup tutorial explains why.
Watch a thread
"Keep an eye on the Northfield lease thread and tell me if they reply or if the renewal date gets within 14 days."
"If the candidate has not replied to the offer by Thursday, draft a gentle nudge for me."
"Tell me when the contractor sends the revised quote, and compare it with the first one."
Stop watching
"Stop following the Chicago opening project. Show me any tasks or settings you created for it and confirm they are removed."
"List everything you are currently following for me, with the date you started."
"The date in that thread changed to the 14th. Do a fresh read before you update anything."
Frequently asked questions
What should I ask Claude Duet first?
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Start with a brief-shaping prompt and one inbox prompt. They are low risk and show quickly how Duet reads your accounts.
Can Claude Duet prompts be saved?
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Instructions you give in the thread carry forward through your Claude memory. Keep your favorite Claude Duet prompts in a note so you can reuse the wording.
Do Claude Duet prompts work in Claude chat?
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Most task prompts work in Claude chat or Cowork too. Brief and follow-up prompts only make sense in Duet, because chat does not watch your apps.
How long should Claude Duet prompts be?
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One to three sentences is usually enough, as long as you name sources, the output and anything off limits.
Can Claude Duet prompts use voice?
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Yes. Duet accepts text or voice, so you can speak any of these Claude Duet prompts in the phone app.