Butterfly Effect, the developer of the AI agent Manus, released Manus 2.0 to users outside of China on September 28th. Simultaneously, Cue—a new autonomous application for personal agents—was introduced. The company's official WeChat account announced the formation of a team to develop a product for the Chinese market, as well as stable advancement in cooperation with local model developers and ecosystem partners, although the release date for the internal version has not been specified.
The company describes Manus 2.0 not as another update, but as an entirely new architecture. At the core of this architecture is Cascade—the latest version of the internal Manus agent framework. Cascade is designed to support project lightweightness from the outset, connecting specialized capabilities only when required to perform a task. According to Manus tests, in one configuration, Cascade allowed for 23.2% fewer tokens, completed tasks 28.2% faster, and reduced launch costs by 32% compared to the previous system.
The architecture is accompanied by two key infrastructure features. Users can now purchase a Cloud Computer—a dedicated environment for projects such as a multiplayer game server or automation that must run continuously even when the user's laptop is closed. Automations have expanded beyond simple scheduled tasks and can now be triggered by event triggers: receiving a new email, changes in ad metrics, a calendar event, a Slack message, or an update in Notion can initiate a workflow configured with just one command.
The desktop application transforms into Manus Studio—a collaborative workspace that loads only the tools necessary for the project, covering documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, presentations, websites, code, games, and videos. The new Video Editor creates a draft version of short videos, such as product commercials, after which it provides the user with an editable timeline featuring separate clips, images, text, graphics, and audio. The Game Dev function combines video, image, and coding models, allowing games to be published as websites or made multiplayer via Cloud Computer. Thanks to Remote Control and Computer Usage capabilities, Manus can operate on the user's own computer in an authorized session, using only approved files, browsers, and applications.
The Cue application functions on both mobile and desktop, utilizing the same infrastructure. Each agent receives its own email address, phone number, wallet, and computer, enabling it to send messages, make payments within a set budget, answer calls, and compile summaries. Multiple agents can participate in group chats and pass work to each other; an agent can also order food at a restaurant after the user scans a QR code. Cue is available in a free, invitation-only early access mode, while the iOS version awaits review in the App Store. Founder Xiao Hong shared on the social network Jike his view that something possessing its own phone number, email, payment methods, computer, and sufficient intelligence can be called a personality.
