Manus Ships Branch to Let AI Agents Fork Sessions Without Losing Context

Manus just shipped a feature that addresses one of the most frustrating friction points in long-running AI agent sessions: the moment you realize you need to go in two directions at once. The new Branch feature lets you fork any conversation at any point, spinning up a parallel session that inherits your full context , files, instructions, and history , while leaving the original completely untouched.

The problem with linear AI sessions

Most AI tools force work into a single forward-moving thread. That works fine for short tasks, but it breaks down fast when a session grows complex. A single research report can become API documentation, a user manual, a flowchart, and a slide deck , an initial idea radiates outward into many parallel tasks of different types. If you try to produce all of those in the same session, the conversation grows long and the model's focus drifts. The only alternative until now was starting over, which means losing all the accumulated understanding the agent built up.

Branch treats that understanding as a reusable asset. Click the branch icon beneath any message and Manus opens a parallel session that inherits everything up to that point , your instructions, your files, and the full history. The original stays exactly as it was. The key insight: you can spend the same context many times without depleting it.

How it actually works

When you branch, the new session inherits your files, your instructions, and the full conversation history up to that point. You don't need to re-upload or re-explain anything. Your original session stays untouched. A "Branched from" breadcrumb ties every new session back to its origin, so navigation stays manageable as your workspace grows. You can also branch from a branch, enabling deep decision trees without losing your place.