Meta’s ex launches agent rival to Meta’s Muse

Manus, formerly a Meta subsidiary, has unveiled Manus 2.0, a revamped AI agent platform that competes with Meta's own Muse app. The new version features an overhauled architecture, new products, and enhanced capabilities. Key additions include a new agent harness called Cascade, dedicated execution environments, automated event-triggered tasks, an upgraded desktop app called Manus Studio, and Cue, a standalone app for personal agents.

Cue grants each agent its own identity, resources, and capabilities, allowing them to operate independently and collaborate within groups. Manus also introduces Cascade, an agent harness designed to manage project costs and efficiency. The release adds a persistent execution environment called Cloud Computer, which provides continuous operation for long-running projects.

Manus 2.0 expands automation beyond scheduled tasks to include event-driven workflows, with triggers based on email, Slack messages, calendar events, and more. The desktop app, now dubbed Manus Studio, supports various document, code, and media formats, alongside new environments like a Video Editor and Game Dev module. Manus 2.0 also enables remote control capabilities within a user's computing environment, with user approval to access files, applications, and browser data.

This autonomy introduces governance challenges for enterprises, requiring robust isolation, approval gates, telemetry, and narrow authority definitions. Analysts suggest enterprises evaluate agent platforms based on system access, retained states, recovery capabilities, and credential management to ensure secure and efficient operations.