Kiro
AWS's agentic IDE that turns a prompt into specs, tasks, and code.
Visit Kiro Free tier with monthly agent interactions; Pro from $19/mo
Quick verdict
- Best for
- Teams that want structure around AI-generated code
- Pricing
- Free tier with monthly agent interactions; Pro from $19/mo
- Not ideal if
- Free-tier interaction limits are tight for daily use
What is Kiro?
Kiro is Amazon's AI development environment built around spec-driven development: describe a feature and it writes requirements, a design, and a task list before generating code, with hooks that run agents automatically on save or commit. It is a VS Code fork, so existing extensions and settings carry over.
Key features
- Spec-driven flow: requirements → design → tasks → code
- Agent hooks that trigger on file events like save or commit
- Steering files that give the agent persistent project rules
- VS Code fork with extension compatibility
- MCP support for external tools
Pros
- Specs before code produces more maintainable output than pure vibe coding
- Hooks automate tedious follow-ups like updating tests and docs
- Familiar editor, no relearning
Cons
- Free-tier interaction limits are tight for daily use
- Slower than Cursor for quick edits because of the planning step
- Younger ecosystem than Cursor or Windsurf
Best for
Teams that want structure around AI-generated codeAWS-centric developersAnyone burned by unmaintainable vibe-coded projects
Read more
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