My Computer by Manus AI - Automate files, apps, and workflows with Manus Desktop

Manus just took a big step forward with My Computer, bringing its AI agent out of the cloud and directly onto your desktop.

Until now, Manus worked in a cloud sandbox. But most of our real work lives locally: files, dev environments, apps, and workflows. My Computer bridges that gap by letting Manus execute command line instructions on your computer to read, organize, edit files, and control local applications.

What makes it interesting is the automation potential. Manus can organize messy folders, rename hundreds of files, build apps through CLI tools like Python, Node.js or Swift, and even run tasks using your machine’s idle compute.

You can also assign tasks remotely, for example, asking Manus to find a file on your home computer and email it through Gmail while you're away.

Key highlights:

• Works directly with local files, tools and apps

• Executes terminal commands with your approval

• Automates repetitive file and workflow tasks

• Can build software projects via CLI tools

• Uses idle compute resources in the background

• Lets you trigger tasks remotely across devices

This seems especially useful for developers, builders, and anyone managing large local workflows who wants automation beyond browser-based AI tools.

It reminds me of what Perplexity is doing with Perplexity Computer, but focused on letting an AI agent directly interact with your own machine and workflows.

What use cases are you thinking with My Computer by @Manus?

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so it's a claude desktop clone?

This looks really interesting . How does Manus handle permissions for local tasks? Do we have fine grained control over what it can and can’t do on our machine, or is it an all-or-nothing approval for commands?

Moving Manus from cloud-only sandboxing to direct local machine access via CLI execution is the natural next step — most real productivity workflows involve local files, dev environments, and desktop apps that a cloud-only agent simply can't touch, so bridging that gap unlocks an entirely different class of automation tasks. The remote task triggering is a compelling feature for power users, but how does Manus handle permission scoping on local execution — is there a granular approval system for different command types, or does the user approve each terminal command individually?

Bringing AI agent capabilities directly to the local desktop is a game-changer. As someone who values local-first workflows, I’m curious about the performance side—does running Manus locally consume significant CPU while it's processing CLI tasks in the background?

Giving this a shot! Looks a lot like Claude desktop, and I am OK with that, happy to see a familiar Ui

Great stuff! So far it runs smoother than Claude's Dispatcher

Moving from a cloud sandbox to direct local execution is the real unlock here. Most “agents” hit a ceiling because they can’t touch the actual environment where work happens—files, CLI tools, dev setups. This closes that gap in a meaningful way.

The remote triggering + idle compute angle is especially interesting. That starts to look less like a tool and more like a persistent background worker tied to your personal machine.

The hard part, though, is control. Once you give an agent CLI-level access, the UX and safety model become the product.

How are you thinking about permission granularity over time—does Manus evolve toward predefined trust scopes (file ops vs system-level commands), or will users always need to approve actions step-by-step?