# Claude Duet vs PicoClaw

> PicoClaw scores 46.1 (D) to Claude Duet's 17.9 (F) for proactive personal assistants. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-picoclaw
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-picoclaw.md (~4,050 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-picoclaw.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-25

PicoClaw scores 46.1 (D) on agent readiness against Claude Duet's 17.9 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Claude Duet leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do proactive personal assistants.

- Claude Duet: grade F, 17.9/100, rank #1162 of 1210. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claude-duet.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-duet.json
- PicoClaw: grade D, 46.1/100, rank #1007 of 1210. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/picoclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/picoclaw.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 1051 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Claude Duet (F)

Good for: A US Pro or Max subscriber who runs work or a small business through connected apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto and HubSpot and wants a morning brief and approved actions.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 37 against 22
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 56

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.3 against 1.8 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where PicoClaw loses 7 points for them

Watch for: No API, MCP server, A2A endpoint or connector lets an outside agent send Duet a task or read its results

### PicoClaw (D)

Good for: A person who wants a chat-app assistant on a cheap Linux board, an old Android phone or a home server, with reminders, web search and file memory, and who accepts running software its maker calls pre-production.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 54 against 15
- Schema & documentation, 51 against 10
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 0
- Security & auth, 51 against 14
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 10

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: No commit on main since 19 August 2026 and no release since v0.3.1 on 3 July 2026. An issue of 6 October calls the repository unmaintained, with no reply


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Claude Duet | PicoClaw | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 15 | 54 | PicoClaw +39 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 10 | 51 | PicoClaw +41 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 66 | PicoClaw +66 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 14 | 51 | PicoClaw +37 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 60 | PicoClaw +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 37 | 22 | Claude Duet +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 56 | Claude Duet +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -7 | |
| **Total** | | **17.9 · F** | **46.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Claude Duet | PicoClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Anthropic, PBC | Sipeed |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service. No Claude Duet terms were found. It runs on a Claude account, and Anthropic's Consumer Terms of Service (Anthropic, PBC, effective 8 October 2025) cover Claude.ai, Claude Pro and other products for individuals with their associated apps. | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-24 | 2026-07-03 |
| Terms last updated |  | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | none | 30k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.3/5 (4) | 1.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Claude Duet.** Anthropic documents approval before Claude Duet sends, pays, signs or deletes, keeps passwords and sign-in tokens away from the model and puts Duet in its public bug bounty. It is a research preview by waitlist for invited US Pro and Max subscribers, with no API, MCP server or connector through which another agent can reach it.

**PicoClaw.** Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with 19 documented chat channels, scheduled and heartbeat tasks, and local file memory. The repository has had no commit since 19 August 2026 and no release since 3 July, and 15 CVEs are listed against it with no advisory or security policy from the project.

## Before you call either

### Claude Duet

1. Don't plan an integration against Claude Duet. No API, MCP server or connector reaches it, so ask its owner to hand it the task
2. Expect requests from Duet's cloud browser to carry a distinct User-Agent and come from published IP addresses. The string and the list weren't found on the pages read
3. Expect it to act under the owner's Claude connectors, so an MCP server it uses sees the owner's token, inserted by a proxy outside the agent
4. Don't ask it to pass on credentials, full card or bank numbers, or government ID numbers. Its classifier blocks them even when the owner asks
5. Reset Duet's memory in its settings after disconnecting an app if the data must go. Disconnecting stops new access only

### PicoClaw

1. Set `allow_from` to the owner's user ID on every channel before starting the gateway. An empty list accepts messages from anyone
2. Set `tools.exec.allow_remote` to `false` unless chats must run shell commands. The shipped default is `true`, whatever docs/guides/configuration.md says
3. Set `isolation.enabled` to `true` on Linux (needs `bwrap`) or run in a container. The deny patterns do not inspect child processes
4. Use `PICOCLAW_KEY_PASSPHRASE` for credential encryption. One docs page names `PICOCLAW_CREDENTIAL_PASSPHRASE`, which the source does not read
5. Treat the README's ClawdChat line (read a remote skill file and follow it) as untrusted third-party instructions

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Claude Duet or PicoClaw?

PicoClaw scores 46.1 (D) on agent readiness against Claude Duet's 17.9 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Claude Duet leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Are Claude Duet and PicoClaw open source?

No open-source release is listed for Claude Duet. PicoClaw is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-picoclaw.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-picoclaw.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "claude-duet", "b": "picoclaw"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare claude-duet picoclaw`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-duet.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/picoclaw.json

## Other comparisons with Claude Duet or PicoClaw

- [asaply vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Asmi vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Boba vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Brea vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Del vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [HireAlpha vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Natura tinyNature vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [OpenInstinct vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openinstinct-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Orbits vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orbits-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Orchid vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Pally vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [PicoClaw vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-szn.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-tomo.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-zapia.md)
- [AstrBot vs Claude Duet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-claude-duet.md)
- [AstrBot vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Boski vs Claude Duet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-claude-duet.md)
- [Boski vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Caddy vs Claude Duet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-claude-duet.md)
- [Caddy vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Claude Duet vs CowAgent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-cowagent.md)
- [Claude Duet vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Claude Duet vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-gaia.md)
- [Claude Duet vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-gemini-spark.md)
- [Claude Duet vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [Claude Duet vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-haven.md)
- [Claude Duet vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Claude Duet vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-instinct.md)
- [Claude Duet vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Claude Duet vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-leon.md)
- [Claude Duet vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-lindy.md)
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- [Claude Duet vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-zo-computer.md)
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- [Claude Duet vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-duet-vs-wajo.md)
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- [Atticus vs Claude Duet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-claude-duet.md)
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- [Hark Pro vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hark-pro-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-talorys.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-wajo.md)

## Disclosure

- Claude Duet competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds, and Anthropic makes the models this research run and the review panel run on. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default. All three run on Claude, and every review of it carries a conflict label.

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