Kiro

What Kiro is

Kiro is an AI-powered IDE from AWS. It uses a spec-driven model: natural language prompts become detailed requirements, system designs and task lists, and agents then carry out code generation, documentation maintenance, unit testing and performance optimisation.

It adds agent hooks for event-driven automation, steering files to control AI behaviour, native MCP support, and compatibility with VS Code plugins and settings. The site describes it as being in preview with core features free.

What you can do with it

• Turn a request into specs and tasks
• Let agents write code, docs and tests
• Control behaviour with hooks and steering files
• Connect external services through MCP

Who it is for

• Software developers
• Tech leads and architects
• Teams wanting stronger engineering constraints

What to watch out for

• It is in preview, so features and terms can change
• Agent hooks that run on file events can act before you notice; review what is configured
• Generated specs still need a human to confirm they match intent
• MCP connections widen what the environment can reach