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Anthropic is working on Orbit, its upcoming proactive assistant

Anthropic is working on Orbit, its upcoming proactive assistant

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Anthropic is preparing to launch Orbit, a proactive AI briefing tool that automatically generates personalized insights from developer and productivity tools like GitHub, Figma, Slack, and Gmail.
What: Orbit is an upcoming feature for Claude and Claude Cowork that will proactively generate daily briefings by pulling insights from connected work tools including Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Calendar, Google Drive, and Figma. Evidence of the feature has appeared in recent builds as a settings toggle, indicating late-stage preparation.
Why it matters: Proactive AI assistants are becoming competitive table stakes after OpenAI launched ChatGPT Pulse last September, with Google and Perplexity also developing similar features. Anthropic's focus on GitHub and Figma integration positions Orbit specifically for developer and creative workflows rather than just email management.
Takeaway: Watch for a potential announcement at Anthropic's Code with Claude developer conference starting May 6 in San Francisco.
Decoder
  • Claude Cowork: Anthropic's collaboration-focused version of Claude designed for team productivity and work tools
  • Proactive assistant: An AI that generates insights and briefings automatically on a schedule rather than waiting for explicit user prompts
  • Connectors: Integrations that allow Claude to access and analyze data from external services like Gmail or GitHub
Original article

Anthropic appears to be lining up a new proactive assistant called Orbit, with evidence pointing to an upcoming release. Across recent web and mobile builds, more references and supporting scaffolding have surfaced, though for now the tool only manifests as a toggle in the settings panel, a typical pattern for a feature being staged before a broader rollout.

Empty setting in Cowork that represents "Orbit"

Based on the descriptions found in code, Orbit is positioned as a proactive briefing and insights system spanning both Claude and Claude Code. The setup would be opt-in and time zone-aware, producing personalized briefings with actionable insights drawn from connected work tools. The initial connector list reads like a knowledge worker's daily stack: Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Calendar, Drive, and Figma.

Your deployed Orbit apps. Pin favorites for quick access.

Anthropic's Code with Claude developer conference kicks off in San Francisco on May 6, with London and Tokyo dates following on May 19 and June 10. Whether Orbit lands as a quiet rollout or gets formally unveiled on stage remains uncertain, but the build activity is consistent with a feature in late preparation rather than early experimentation.

Claude Cowork will get its own proactive assistant called "Orbit".

Users will get personalized insights from Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Calendar, Drive, Figma, and other apps, which Claude will generate proactively.

There are also mentions of "Orbit" apps.

The broader context matters too. OpenAI shipped ChatGPT Pulse last September as its first proactive, asynchronous assistant, generating overnight briefings stitched from chats, memory, and Gmail and Calendar connectors. Similar groundwork has been spotted inside Google's Gemini and Perplexity, suggesting proactive briefing layers are becoming table stakes across major AI assistants.

Anthropic's twist seems to be the explicit inclusion of GitHub and Figma alongside the standard productivity suite, fitting its growing positioning around developer and creative workflows. Paired with the Claude Code integration, Orbit looks less like a Pulse clone and more like a workflow-aware briefing surface aimed at people who ship things, not just read email.

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