Cue by Manus: Set Up Your First AI Agent (2026 Guide)

Cue by Manus is the invite-only app that gives each AI agent its own email address, phone number, wallet and computer — and since its 28 September 2026 launch, the fastest way in has been a three-step routine: get an invite code, create one narrow agent, and lock down its permissions before it touches anything real. This guide walks through all three.

Quick answer: Cue by Manus: each agent gets its own email, phone, wallet and computer. This 2026 guide shows how to get an invite code and set up your first Cue agent safely.

If you are still deciding whether Cue is worth the effort, start with our Manus Cue explainer, which covers what the app is and how it differs from Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s Dots. This guide assumes you already want in and shows how to set up correctly. It is desk-researched from Manus’s own materials and independent coverage read on 21 October 2026 — early access is invite-only, so we could not hands-on test a live Cue account.

What does a Cue by Manus agent actually get?

Each Cue agent gets its own email address, phone number, wallet and computer, so it can keep working after you close the app.

That is the core idea. A normal chatbot replies inside a chat window. A Cue agent has an identity: Manus’s launch post says it can send messages, take calls, pay within a budget you set, and finish multi-step work on its own machine. Several agents can also join one group chat with a shared goal, handing tasks to each other while you make the final call.

Two caveats worth knowing up front. First, Manus’s own Google Play listing, updated 8 October 2026, softens the identity promise: “Depending on availability, an agent can have its own phone number, email address, wallet, and dedicated computer.” So the full identity set is not guaranteed on every agent at every moment. Second, independent coverage is thin — the app only launched on 28 September, alongside Manus 2.0, and most of what we know comes from Manus itself. Treat every capability below as what Manus says, not what an independent lab confirmed.

How do you get a Cue by Manus invite code?

There are three routes, all still invite-gated as of October 2026 — nobody can just download and log in.

  1. Use Manus’s launch code. The Introducing Manus 2.0 post of 28 September 2026 publishes an invitation code (MEETCUE) for a limited number of early users, first come, first served. Coverage at launch described the pool as capped — NerdHeadz reported the first 1,000 users. Treat the code as possibly exhausted and move to route two.
  2. Go through the Manus app. Manus’s help centre says existing Manus users click the Agents (Cue!) tab in the Manus sidebar, scan a QR code to download the app, and enter the code when signing in; a copy may also arrive by email. This route needs a Manus account.
  3. Get a code from someone inside. Manus’s launch post says everyone who gets access also receives extra invite codes to share, so the practical fastest route is knowing a current user.

Download-wise, the platforms have filled in since launch. The launch promised web, desktop and mobile, with iOS after App Store review. By 9 October 2026, third-party trackers reported macOS and Windows downloads available, the Google Play listing showing 10,000+ downloads with a 4.7 rating from 1,830 reviews, and an App Store listing live at #180 in Productivity, free with in-app purchases. Manus’s own launch wording still says iOS follows App Store review, so check the current state on the App Store yourself if you are on iPhone. Cue.im remains the app’s home on the web.

Step-by-step: set up your first Cue agent

Do the whole setup in one sitting, but give the agent nothing important until day three. Here is the plan we recommend.

Step 1 — Install and claim your identity

Download the app for your platform, sign in with your invite code, and create your first agent. Note which of the four identity pieces it actually received — email, phone, wallet, computer. If the phone number is missing, do not assume one is coming soon: Manus describes the number as a separate Cue subscription, purchased separately from any Manus membership, with phone use counting toward your Cue weekly allowance. Check what that allowance is in the app before making promises to yourself about call handling.

Step 2 — Name it and give it one job

Name the agent for its job (“Trip Wrangler”, not “Agent 1”) and write a single-sentence brief: “Monitor flight prices for my Delhi–Jaipur trip and summarise options under ₹4,000.” One job, one measurable outcome. Group-chat teams and multi-agent handoffs exist, but your first agent should prove itself alone before it gets teammates.

Step 3 — Connect only what that job needs

Cue’s messaging and service integrations include Gmail, Slack, Notion, Trip.com, Oura and MyFitnessPal, per third-party documentation of Manus’s materials. Connect only the ones the job requires. If the job is flight monitoring, that means Trip.com and email — not Slack, not Notion, not your fitness app. Every unnecessary connection is a permission you would have to audit later.

Step 4 — Climb the permission ladder (see below)

Start at Level 0 or 1. Set the wallet ceiling to zero until the agent has delivered correct summaries for a week. Then raise it in small steps, with approval on for every spend.

Step 5 — Read the activity log on day one

Whatever Cue shows you as the agent’s trail of actions, read all of it. The honest test from our explainer still applies: does the agent contact the right person, spend on the right thing, and stop when it should? If the log is hard to find or hard to read, that is a red flag — do not widen permissions on an agent you cannot audit.

The permission ladder: from read-only to a funded wallet

This is the original setup framework we recommend — climb one rung at a time, and never start with a funded wallet.

Rung What the agent can do When to move up
0 — Read-only Researches and summarises. No sending, no calls, no spending. It cites the right sources and handles two or three real briefs cleanly.
1 — Draft-only Drafts emails, call scripts and shortlists for your approval. You press send. You would send its drafts unchanged most of the time.
2 — Capped with approval Small wallet ceiling, your confirmation for every payment, outbound call or sent message. It asks before it acts, every time, for at least a week.
3 — Bounded autonomy Routine, reversible tasks run alone inside the cap, with a daily summary and an instant pause. Only after Rungs 0–2 hold for weeks. Keep irreversibles at Rung 2 forever.

The ladder matters more for Cue than for a normal agent because the wallet and the phone are the agent’s own, not yours. A budget cap limits how much is at risk; it does not stop the agent paying the wrong invoice or calling the wrong person. Salt Labs disclosed on 24 September 2026 a since-patched flaw in which hidden instructions in an email let attackers run code in a Manus environment and reach connected-app tokens — a reminder that any agent reading email can be targeted by prompt injection in the messages it reads. Our AI agent permissions guide walks through the same least-privilege audit (one job, one folder, read-before-write, expiring grants) that applies to every agent you give real access to.

Also compare before you commit: our Muse vs Dots vs Cowork comparison puts Cue’s rivals side by side on isolation, admin controls and cost. Cue’s closest rival is Meta’s Muse — free consumer errands with approvals — while Cue’s edge is the per-agent identity and the group-chat teams.

Free early-access limits checklist

Everything below was verifiable on 21 October 2026; re-check before you rely on any of it, because early-access terms move fast.

What should your first agent actually do?

Pick from this list in order — each task is safer and easier to verify than the last.

  1. Flight-fare watching (Rung 0). “Watch Delhi–Jaipur fares for 12–15 December and summarise anything under ₹4,000.” Uses Trip.com plus email, no spending, results easy to verify.
  2. Missed-call triage (Rung 1). Cue’s own example: forward a call, the agent finds out who called and why, then files a summary — airline and hotel items first. Forward one low-stakes call and check the summary.
  3. Restaurant shortlist (Rung 1). The launch example again: research venues for an event, shortlist, draft the deck — in a group chat if you want to test multi-agent handoff.
  4. QR-code service agent (Rung 2, approval on). At supported cafes and restaurants, scan the business QR code to create an agent for that venue; it can explain the menu or book a table, with payment confirmed by you.
  5. Scheduled routine (Rung 2). Automations can start from a supported event — for example, a fare dropping below a set level — not only on a schedule.

Notice what is not on the list: paying vendors on your behalf, managing your inbox unsupervised, or giving a team of agents your work chat on day one. Those are Rung 3 moves at the earliest.

Where Cue is weak right now: honest caveats

Three gaps matter enough to say plainly before you invest setup time.

First, the post-launch news cycle moved faster than the product details. On 8 October 2026, Manus raised $500 million in funding, reported by Reuters, AFP and TechNode — a long-run balance sheet that makes early-access freebies sustainable, but also a reminder that pricing, regions and phone-number countries are the gaps the next release has to fill.

Second, Cascade’s headline efficiency numbers — 23.2% fewer tokens, 28.2% faster, 32% cheaper in one tested configuration — are Manus’s own test results, unverified by any outside lab. They describe the Manus 2.0 engine underneath Cue, not your Cue agent’s real-world cost.

Third, the wallet’s payment rails, refund process, per-transaction approval flow and transaction audit trail are still undocumented by Manus. Until those are written down clearly, our standing advice holds: keep a human in the loop for anything irreversible, and treat the wallet cap as a damage limit, not a safety system.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cue by Manus?

Cue is a standalone early-access app from Manus for personal AI agents, launched 28 September 2026 alongside Manus 2.0. Each agent can get its own email, phone number, wallet and computer so it can message, call, pay within a budget you set and keep working after you log off — “depending on availability”, per Manus’s own listing.

Is Cue by Manus free?

Yes, during early access, which needs an invite code. Manus has published no post-early-access price. A phone number is a separate Cue subscription with its own, unpublished price, and phone use counts toward an unpublished weekly usage allowance.

How do I get a Cue invite code?

Three routes: Manus’s launch code MEETCUE (first-come, first-served, possibly exhausted); the Agents (Cue!) tab inside the Manus app, which needs a Manus account; or an extra code from someone who already has access — every admitted user receives codes to share.

Is it safe to let a Cue agent spend money?

Treat it cautiously. Start with a zero or tiny cap, keep your confirmation on for every transaction, connect only the accounts the job needs, and review the activity log daily. A cap limits exposure but cannot stop a wrong purchase, and a September 2026 disclosure showed email-reading Manus agents were once exposed to prompt injection — since patched.

How is Cue different from Meta’s Muse or OpenAI’s Dots?

Cue gives each agent its own identity (email, phone, wallet, computer) and team group chats, aimed at personal life. Muse is Meta’s free consumer errands agent with per-action approvals; Dots is OpenAI’s managed team agent with admin-set boundaries. Our full comparison of all three is at the link above.

Sources and methodology

Methodology: this guide rests on Manus’s 28 September 2026 launch materials as reported by the independent sources above, plus Cue’s Google Play and App Store listings and release history, all checked 21 October 2026. Early access is invite-only, so no hands-on testing was possible; every capability is framed as what Manus says, and every unverified figure is labelled. Internal links point to our own reporting for follow-up reading.

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