# MiniMax Agent **MiniMax Agent is basically [[Claude Cowork]] + [[OpenClaw|Clawdbot]] in a single app** (Clawdbot is the old name of [[OpenClaw]]). It comes from MiniMax, the Chinese AI lab behind the MiniMax M-series models and the Hailuo video models. Their tagline: "Minimize Effort, Maximize Intelligence." It tries to be three kinds of agent at once: local file work like Cowork, an always-on assistant you reach from your chat apps like OpenClaw, and fire-and-forget cloud tasks like [[Manus]]. ## What it does - Runs on your computer and in the cloud. The desktop app (macOS and Windows, launched January 20, 2026) works on your local files, and since September 2026 a running task can move from local to cloud and finish there - Agentic and batch work: point it at a folder, describe the job, and it runs on its own. It also does deep research, builds full apps (auth, database, Stripe payments) and takes multimodal input - A built-in browser plus Browser Control, so it clicks through websites instead of only searching them - A skills library in the spirit of [[AI Agent Skills]], next to [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] servers and integrations (GitHub, Figma, Slack) - Expert agents, added with web v2.0: you define a persona (personality, behavior, domain expertise) and share it with others - [[AI Agent Memory|Memory]] at three levels: User, Agent and Project - Parallel [[AI Subagents|sub-agents]], and since May 2026 Agent Teams, where several agents work together on long-running jobs - Scheduled tasks written in plain language, a Quick Launch hotkey (Alt+A / Option+A) and access through messaging apps - Checkpoints: roll back to any step and re-run from there. Since August 2026 you can also branch or rewind a conversation ## Timeline - January 2026: desktop app for Mac and Windows - February 2026: Daily Dose of Data Science calls it "the most complete AI desktop agent right now" - May 2026: an upgraded experience named "Mavis", plus Agent Teams - July 2026: core rebuilt (first-token latency down by more than 90%), remote control from your phone, Coding and Work modes, [[Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)|bring your own model keys]], and Goal Mode for long-running work - August 2026: Plan mode, MCP server configuration, H3 video generation - September 2026: local-to-cloud task handoff, infinite canvas, voice input, custom Mini Apps. On September 30, v3.1.0 brought a rebrand and the "M Plan" subscription with the full MiniMax model lineup There's also a companion CLI, MiniMax Code, which is MiniMax's answer to [[Claude Code]]. ## My take The expert-agents pitch ("Upgrade your tools and mindset. Everyone is an Agent Designer.") matches what I see with skills: you write down how to do a job once, and other people can run it. An app that does all of this runs on your machine, drives your browser and touches your accounts. That's a lot of surface, and the permission and trust questions are the same as with OpenClaw. I'd give it one folder and a narrow job before handing it anything more. ## References - https://agent.minimax.io - https://agent.minimax.io/docs/changelog - https://blog.dailydoseofds.com/p/minimax-agent-clawdbot-cowork-and - https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-agent-team-long-running-1779893953 - https://www.aibase.com/news/24803 ## Related - [[Claude Cowork]] - [[OpenClaw]] - [[Manus]] - [[AI Agents]] - [[AI Agent Skills]] - [[AI Subagents]] - [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - [[Claude Code]] - [[Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)]] - [[Claude Code Agent Teams]] - [[Claude in Chrome]]