Content Studio — Refine with Manus

Chat with the same Manus task that generated your article to iterate on it — tighten an intro, add a comparison table, rewrite a section, without regenerating from scratch.

What is it?

Refinement is a chat-style drawer in Content Studio that lets you send follow-up instructions to the Manus AI task that produced the current article. Because Manus agent tasks are stateful, each message adds to the existing conversation — Manus remembers the article, the sources it found, and everything you've asked so far.

It runs fire-and-forget: send a message, close the drawer, navigate away, come back when ready. The response shows up in the drawer when it arrives, usually within 5–10 seconds.

When should I use it?

The article is 90% right but the intro is generic and you want it more data-driven.
You want to add a section, a table, or a specific example without losing what Manus already got right.
You want to change tone, shorten the piece, or tighten the conclusion.
You want Manus to find one more authoritative source and weave it in.
You're unhappy with a specific paragraph and want it rewritten in place.

How to use it

Open a Manus-generated draft in Content Studio. The Refine button appears in the right-panel action bar — only visible for drafts where the Manus badge is present.
Click Refine to open the drawer on the right side. The page shifts left so the article stays visible.
Type an instruction into the input box. Short and specific works best — "Make the intro more data-driven" beats "improve the writing".
Click Send or press Enter. The drawer shows Manus is thinking… with an elapsed timer. The timer keeps counting even if you close and reopen the drawer.
When the response arrives, Manus posts the revised text in the chat. If it looks like a full article, a green Apply Changes button appears under the message.
Click Apply Changes to replace the article content in the preview. The new and changed paragraphs are highlighted in green so you can scan what moved. The previous version is stashed for Undo — click it any time before leaving the page to revert.

Selecting text to refine a specific part

Highlight any passage in the article preview with your mouse. The drawer auto-opens with that selection pre-populated into the input ("Regarding this section: …"). Then type what you want done and send.

Using suggested prompts

On an empty drawer, six prompt chips appear (e.g. Make the introduction more data-driven, Shorten by ~30%, Add a comparison table). Click any chip to pre-fill the input, then edit or send as-is.

Tips and best practices

Send one intent per message. If you want three changes, send three messages — the diffs are easier to review.
Reference sections by heading name ("In the 'Application Best Practices' section…") — Manus picks this up reliably.
If the response is conversational ("I've updated the article below…") and you click Apply Changes, the extractor strips the preamble and only replaces the article body. No manual cleanup needed.
Use Compact mode (the ◀ toggle in the drawer header) when you need more horizontal space for the article.

Gotchas and limits

Each refinement costs credits. Expect ~5 credits per round on a typical article. The exact number appears next to each assistant message.
Only available for Manus-generated drafts. Gemini-generated drafts don't show the Refine button (a parity plan exists but isn't shipped yet).
Manus tasks can expire. If you get This Manus task has expired, the article is too old to refine — regenerate to start a fresh task.
Refinement history lives on the draft document. Everyone who opens the same draft sees the same conversation.
Viewer role can open the drawer but the input is disabled — they can read the history but can't send new messages.
The response format depends on what you ask. Rewrites return a full article; small edits return just the changed paragraph. Only full-article responses show the Apply Changes button.