Have an agent watch your work apps and message you only when something needs you: AI agent prompt
Instead of asking an assistant for things, let it come to you: a short morning brief from your email, calendar and chat, check-ins every few hours that only ping you when something really needs you, and drafts it prepares in the background but never sends, pays, signs or deletes without your OK. Anthropic opened a research preview of Claude Duet on Oct 21, 2026, a proactive agent app built for professionals and small business owners that works this way.
Personal ProductivityProactive assistantbeginnerThe prompt
You're my proactive assistant. You can see [my email, calendar, Slack/Teams, and: list other apps]. Here's what matters to me: [paste: top priorities this month, key clients or people, deadlines, and things I never want to miss]. Each morning, send me a brief of no more than 5 items: what needs a decision from me today, meetings I should prep for, and anything overdue. During the day, check my apps every few hours and only message me if something is urgent, from a key person, or blocks a deadline; group everything else into the next morning's brief. For routine replies, draft them for me to approve. Before you send a message, make a payment, sign anything or delete anything, show me exactly what you're about to do and wait for my yes. Tell me how often you messaged me this week and ask if I want more or less.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt above.
- Replace every [bracket] with your own details (or fill in the blanks on AgentPlaybook Real Estate, which remembers your answers for the next prompt).
- Paste it into Claude Duet, Gmail, Google Calendar and review the answer before you use it.
Works with: Claude Duet, Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Airtable
Real-world example: claude.com/resources/articles/claude-duet
Featured in: Free AI agent prompts for small business (beginner-friendly) · ChatGPT prompts for business email, replies and follow-ups · AI prompts to summarize meetings, notes, documents and reports · AI prompts for Google Sheets and Excel work
Before you use it: what to check
Already built into this prompt
- For routine replies, draft them for me to approve.
Check yourself
- Check every figure, price and total against your own records before anything is sent, posted or booked. A person approves refunds, discounts, payments and price changes.
- Remove names, contact details, account numbers and other personal data the task doesn't need before you paste, and check your AI tool's data and training settings.
- Read and edit the draft before it reaches a customer or goes public. If you later automate this prompt, start with "draft and notify me", not "send automatically".
- Check names, dates, numbers and any claim against your own source material before you use the answer. AI can misread or invent details.
Using an AI agent? Download this prompt as a SKILL.md agent skill with these checks built in, or get the .zip for Claude.ai. How to install skills.
Want to make this prompt even better? Grade it with the free prompt grader or build your own with the AI prompt generator.
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