Kiro
Spec-driven agentic IDE from AWS — preview launch July 2025. Codifies the AI-coding workflow as Requirements / Design / Tasks files generated before code ("specs"); also persists "steering" files and Hooks. Built as a VS Code fork; runs Anthropic Claude models and Amazon-Nova by default. AWS positions it as an enterprise-grade alternative to Cursor/Windsurf with native IAM, Bedrock-routing, and an emphasis on durable specs over chat scrollback.
At a glance
- Type
- Agentic IDE; spec-driven dev (Requirements → Design → Tasks)
- Tier
- T1
- Section
- Agent IDEs & coding harnesses
- Created
- 2025-07
- Latest release
- not applicable — not OSS
- License
- not applicable — not OSS
- GitHub
- not applicable — no GitHub repo
- Pricing
- Free preview tier + Pro/Pro+ tiers ($19/$39 mo) announced post-preview
- Funding
- AWS internal product — no external round (Amazon-owned)
Taxonomy
- storage
- file
- retrieval
- injection
- persistence
- cross-session
- update
- user-edit
- unit
- document
- governance
- inspectable
- conflict
- human-arbitrate
When to use
Optimised for: spec-driven development — durable specs as the memory artifact
Anti-fit: not for non-coding tasks; preview-tier maturity
Pros & cons
Pros
Reframes "memory" as durable specs under git rather than an opaque session store; AWS distribution + IAM integration make it the enterprise-Cursor candidate.
Cons
Preview-only; AWS lock-in (Bedrock-routed); VS Code fork means re-learning extensions; spec workflow is heavyweight for one-off changes.
Claims & capabilities
Built by Amazon Web Services; launched preview 2025-07-14 with Claude Sonnet 3.7/4 and Amazon Nova; positions "specs" as durable replacements for chat-based AI coding.
Technical surface
- API surface
- Desktop IDE (VS Code fork); no public API as of launch
- Backend storage
- local workspace + .kiro/ directory (specs, steering, hooks)
- Deployment
- Cloud (desktop client; backend via AWS); no self-host
- Embedding model
- not applicable — not a memory product
- Multi-tenancy
- single-tenant per user workspace; cloud session state per-account
- MCP
- native — Kiro supports MCP servers
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Similar systems
Other agent ides & coding harnesses in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Bedrock AgentCore (AWS) T2
AWS Bedrock AgentCore — managed runtime to deploy + scale + observe agents. Multi-component: Runtime, Identity, Memory, Gateway, Browser, Code Interpreter, Observability. Distinct from Bedrock Agents (older fixed-config product); AgentCore is the 2025 framework-agnostic runtime for any agent (LangGraph, CrewAI, Strands, OpenAI Agents SDK).
- Claude Code (Anthropic) T1
Anthropic's official agentic coding CLI — runs Claude as a long-running coding agent in the developer's terminal. Memory layer = CLAUDE.md (project + user scoped), agent skills, MCP servers. Released GA October 2024; widely adopted as the reference harness for Claude-as-coder. Plan Mode and Compute Use surfaces extend it from coding to broader desktop automation.
- GitHub Copilot (Agent Mode) T1
The original AI coding assistant (Copilot in editor; 2021). 2025 evolved into a full agentic surface: chat, completions, Agent Mode (multi-step), and Copilot Workspace. Backed by Microsoft. Distinct row from Workspace — this row covers the everyday in-editor + agent mode product, Workspace covers the hosted spec-driven workflow.
- Aider (harness) T2
OSS terminal coding agent by Paul Gauthier — one of the original AI-pair-programmer CLIs (2023). Architect/Editor modes; repo-map for context; uses any LiteLLM-compatible model. Memory via CONVENTIONS.md and .aider.conf.yml — author-edited markdown. Distinct from the separate Aider memory-row in "Coding-agent memory"; this row characterises the harness itself.
- Amazon Q Developer T1
Amazon's developer-focused agent — formerly CodeWhisperer (renamed 2024-Q4). Available as IDE plugins (VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Eclipse), in AWS Console, and CLI. Strong AWS-tooling integration: Q can read CloudWatch, troubleshoot IAM, suggest AWS-SDK code. Companion to Kiro for spec-driven flows.
- Anthropic Computer Use T1
Anthropic's API-surface capability that lets Claude control a virtual desktop — see screenshots, type, click. Launched 2024-10 as a public beta. Not a finished IDE itself; it's the substrate that other harnesses (and Anthropic's own Claude apps) use to operate a computer.
Related systems
References (2)
- Anthropic Claude (foundation models) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: AWS Bedrock (model routing); Anthropic Claude + Amazon Nova
- Bedrock AgentCore (AWS) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: AWS Bedrock (model routing); Anthropic Claude + Amazon Nova