Manus introduces My Computer, a Windows and macOS app that enables its general AI agent to interact directly with the user's local files, tools, and apps
Until today, Manus has lived entirely in the cloud. — The cloud sandbox has served Manus well. Inside an isolated, secure environment …
Manus
Context & Ripple Effects
Manus is extending its agent beyond the isolated cloud sandbox that defined its earlier deployment, placing it closer to the files, tools, and applications where users do their work. The move follows its push into higher-volume agent execution through Wide Research's parallel-agent workflows.
The shift matters because Manus is no longer confined to producing results in a separate environment: its agent can now operate across a user’s own desktop resources. That makes dependable execution especially important after early reports of waits, errors, and looping behavior.
First-order effects
Windows and macOS users can give Manus’s general agent direct access to local files, tools, and apps rather than limiting tasks to its cloud sandbox.
Manus expands the scope of work its product can attempt, while taking on the practical challenge of making local-resource access trustworthy and controllable for users.
Second-order effects
Agent providers competing for complex workplace tasks face greater pressure to connect with the desktop applications and files that hold the underlying work, rather than operate only in browser or cloud sandboxes.
The value of Manus’s prior parallelized-agent capabilities may rise when research and execution can be paired with local tools, though weak reliability would be more consequential in a user’s live work environment.
Third-order effects
If this model gains adoption, general-purpose agents may increasingly compete to become an operating layer across existing software instead of a destination chatbot or isolated automation service.
The durable differentiator shifts toward permissions, reliability, and workflow integration: the providers that can safely act across fragmented desktop work surfaces could gain more strategic control over how tasks are completed.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift from cloud-contained AI agents toward workflow-native assistants that can act across the user’s actual computing environment.
Today, we're taking Manus out of the cloud and putting it on your desktop. Introducing My Computer, the core feature of the new Manus Desktop app. It's your AI agent, now on your local machine. [video]
Four companies launched OpenClaw competitors in three weeks. Manus may have just just dropped the most interesting one. “My Computer” can now access your local files, run terminal commands, build native apps, train ML models on your idle GPU, and operate your machine remotely [vi…
Can anyone explain this to me? First Claude Workspace, then Perplexity, now Manus - they keep using words like “my”, “personal”, and “local” in a way that suggests local information isn't being sent to a remote LLM or RAG system for evaluation. But if no local LLM is actually
i've been using manus for a while and i have to say i'm incredibly impressed. they seem to have made a real breakthrough on memory and it just gets the job done. huge unlock having it running on my machine.
this is wild! every major AI company is shipping something new every week. >Manus now runs directly on your desktop. it has full local machine access. files, apps, terminal, everything. a direct competitor to Openclaw, Claude Cowork, and Perplexity's computer agent. [video]
My Computer in action: 👉Organizing thousands of unsorted photos 👉Renaming hundreds of invoices 👉Build desktop apps in swift, entirely on your computer. No code written manually. 👉Combine with existing Connectors to create seamless automated workflows. 👉Create local
Manus Desktop is here! this has been a long time coming. Now @ManusAI can work directly on your computer. some of my fav things you can do: 👉finally organize that folder of 1000s of random photos 👉build and run a python script without opening a terminal 👉get a weekly
Worth noting that this company is owned by Meta and the blog post doesn't say one word about privacy or what happens to any of that data [embedded post]
Counting the seconds until Microsoft sues 'cause they used My Computer in Windows first — then counting the milliseconds until Manus has to shut down because their agent wiped their own servers