Build2 publishers3 min readPublished
Manus 2.0 puts its agents on event triggers and dedicated cloud computers
Manus 2.0 lets agents fire on email and Slack events and stay online on dedicated cloud computers, with a harness Manus says cost 32% less in one test. Manus has not described that test, so the 32% is a figure for its own workload until someone reruns it elsewhere.
The Engineer · Build desk
What happened
- In the same test, Manus says, Cascade used 23.2% fewer tokens and finished tasks 28.2% faster than the system it replaces.
- In an authorized session, Computer Use lets Manus work with approved files, browsers and apps on the user's own machine, directed from a phone.
- Cue, a separate app, gives each personal agent an email address, phone number, wallet and computer, and lets it spend within a budget the user sets.
- The desktop app is now Manus Studio, with Video Editor and Game Dev environments where users can adjust the agent's output by hand.
- Meta bought Manus in late 2025 but had to unwind the deal after Beijing blocked it.
Compiled by The EngineerSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- cost An agent that must stay online now needs a purchased machine on top of its token spend, and the launch reports do not include a Cloud Computer price, so the standing cost of an always-on project cannot be budgeted yet.
- exposure Email triggers let outside senders start agent work, and Computer Use reaches approved local files and apps, so for anyone who enables both, the approval list becomes the security boundary.
- decision Planning spend around the 32% figure means rerunning your own tasks first, because part of that saving came from a lower cost per token that depends on the models and prices behind Manus's test.
- precedent With Meta's Muse also attaching a cloud computer to every user, comparisons between agent products now have to price the machine as well as the model.
Cost fell further than token count in that test. Had the price of each token stayed the same, a 23.2% token cut would have produced a 23.2% cost cut [3]. Manus reports 32% [3]. The gap means the average token also got cheaper, by about 11.5%, because 0.68 divided by 0.768 is 0.885 [1]. Some share of the work moved to cheaper tokens. Manus has not said which share, what task the test ran, or how many runs sit behind the figure, and The Decoder describes it as the result of one tested configuration [4].
The token cut has a stated cause. Cascade loads specialist capabilities only when a task needs them [2]. If leaving unused capabilities out of the working context is where the saving comes from, its size depends on how much of the toolkit a given task skips. A narrow task would gain more than the test did. A task that calls on most of the specialists would gain less. For the 32% to carry over to someone else's work, their tasks would need to use Cascade's specialists in roughly the proportion the test did, and their per-token prices would need to fall the same way [1].
The always-on features add a machine to the bill. Projects that must stay online, including multiplayer games and permanent automations, run on Cloud Computer, a dedicated environment users buy [6]. For multiplayer games, Manus handles hosting and networking on that machine [7]. Triggers cover email, ad-performance changes, calendar events, Slack messages and Notion updates, and the user writes the trigger and the task in a single prompt [5].
Triggers and Computer Use raise an access question when combined. An email trigger begins from text an outside sender wrote [5]. Computer Use extends sessions into approved local files and apps, and Manus's own examples include carrying on while the user is away [8]. If a triggered workflow can open one of those sessions, the approval list is what separates that sender from the user's files. Cue's wallet puts payments into the same pattern [11].
Cue's examples include QR-code restaurant orders and holding a place in line, with several agents coordinating in a group chat [12]. Waiting in a queue is now a job for software. Cue is in limited free early access through the invite code MEETCUE, and iOS access waits on App Store review [13].
I think the Video Editor is the best-engineered part of the release. It lays clips, images, text, motion graphics and audio on an editable timeline, and the user can change any of them before asking Manus to continue [10]. Game Dev follows the same idea for code: users start from playable templates, manage assets and code in an Edit panel, and publish games as playable websites [17].
Meta now backs its own agent, Muse, and The Decoder reports that Muse also gives every user a cloud computer [16]. Manus sells its Cloud Computer as a purchase [6]. Tencent has been negotiating for the largest stake in Manus since the Meta deal was unwound [15].
What to watch
- Manus publishing the Cascade test's task, model routing and run count, or an independent rerun of the 32% claim on a different workload.
- A published price for Cloud Computer, which sets the standing cost of an always-on Manus project.
- Whether Tencent's stake talks close after Beijing blocked Meta's acquisition of Manus.