Kiro#

Kiro is an agentic IDE by aws for software development. It has three main surfaces:

Kiro IDE#

Interactive, synchronous collaboration on your local machine. Pair programming, suggestions, real-time code iteration. Spec-driven development.

Kiro CLI#

Custom agents as configuration files that customize Kiro’s behavior for specific workflows. Define tool access, permissions, and context. Pre-approve tools, reduce interruptions, optimize for specific tasks.

CLI 2.0 (April 2026)#

Headless mode: API key + environment variable → programmatic access for CI/CD pipelines, build scripts, deployment automation. Full tool/agent/capability access without human presence.
Windows support: Native install, no WSL required.
Subagent monitoring: ctrl+g shows per-agent traces and status. Permission approvals visible in both agent monitor and main screen.
Task lists: Real-time progress tracking as agent works through steps. Auto-used on larger tasks.

Headless mode moves Kiro from interactive tool to infrastructure component — the first wiki source showing a concrete “developer tool → CI/CD automation” path for an agentic coding tool.

Kiro Autonomous Agent#

A frontier-agent that works asynchronously in the background on complex, multi-step development tasks. Key capabilities:

Takes high-level task descriptions and plans implementation autonomously
Writes code across multiple repositories
Runs tests and creates pull requests (never auto-merges)
Runs in isolated sandbox environments
Maintains persistent context across tasks, repos, and sessions
Learns from code review feedback
Coordinates specialized sub-agents

Tasks assigned from kiro.dev or GitHub, not from within the IDE.

Status: Preview — rolling out to Pro, Pro+, and Power users.

Kiro Powers#

kiro-powers — specialized packages that enhance agents with prebuilt expertise. Contain curated MCP servers, steering files, and hooks.

Team Integrations#

Jira, Confluence, GitLab, GitHub, Teams, Slack (during preview).