Kiro

Kiro is an agentic AI IDE built by AWS that takes developers from prototype to production using spec-driven development workflows. Rather than treating AI as a code-completion or chat tool, Kiro emphasizes writing structured specifications covering requirements, designs, and architectures that the AI uses to plan and execute multi-step development tasks. This produces materially better results for production-quality features than prompt-based approaches, particularly for code that needs to handle edge cases, security, and maintainability. Kiro is a proprietary AWS product built on Code OSS. The public repository at github.com/kirodotdev/Kiro is an issues and samples repository rather than the product source, and it carries no open-source license. Kiro is available as an IDE, a CLI, a web interface, and an iOS app in early access. Model selection spans Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 4.6 and earlier Claude releases, OpenAI GPT-5, and open weight models including Qwen3 Coder Next, DeepSeek v3.2, and MiniMax 2.1. Auto mode selects the model mix for quality, latency, and cost, and models consume credits at different rates. Parallel agents can work across large codebases simultaneously. MCP is supported as a client: Kiro publishes an official server directory with one-click installation, enterprise MCP governance controls, and per-workspace trust settings, and the directory lists third-party servers rather than a server Kiro operates. Integration depth covers AWS-native services with deep awareness, plus GitHub and GitLab for version control and MCP for extensible tool connections. Subscriptions also work in ACP-compatible IDEs and in automation such as code review. Enterprise capabilities include IAM Identity Center authentication, SSO, usage analytics, and company-wide MCP governance policies, arranged through contact-sales. Kiro powers, packaged in an open Agent Plugin format, carry no additional charge. Non-AWS teams on Azure or GCP can use Kiro for general-purpose development. Missing from the current integration set: no native Jira, Linear, or Slack integrations for task assignment workflows. Pricing is public for the self-serve tiers and quoted per user each month. Free is $0 with 50 credits. Pro is $20 per user each month with 1,000 credits, Pro+ is $40 with 2,000, Pro Max is $100 with 5,000, and Power is $200 with 10,000. Paid plans can add credits at $0.04 each, a $20 sign-up credit applies on first upgrade, and credits reset monthly without rollover. Teams wanting centralized billing, SSO and enterprise security controls go through contact-sales, and Kiro states that team billing and management features are coming soon. Pricing in AWS GovCloud regions runs about 20 percent higher and excludes the free tier, which requires a paid plan and IAM Identity Center. Kiro documents the free tier as including Claude Sonnet 4.5 on its pricing page and Claude Sonnet 4.6 in its FAQ. Kiro is not the right fit for developers who prefer a base IDE other than Code OSS. On compliance, Kiro documents HIPAA for the IDE and CLI and publishes no SOC 2, ISO 27001, or FedRAMP of its own, pointing to AWS infrastructure programs instead, with audit reports available through AWS Artifact. Organizations that need a large community of third-party tutorials and pre-built specs will find Kiro's community smaller than more established alternatives, since Kiro launched recently. Teams should also read Kiro's data-handling terms. Content from Free Tier and individual subscribers signing in with a social login or AWS Builder ID may be used for model training unless they opt out. Users on paid tiers who authenticate through IAM Identity Center or an external identity provider are excluded. As of Q3 2026, Kiro has reached general availability with public pricing across five self-serve tiers. Claude Opus 5 arrived in July 2026 and OpenAI GPT-5 shortly before it. The iOS app is in early access alongside the IDE, CLI, and web interface, and recurring task scheduling is available on the web. Recent releases have added Kiro powers under an open Agent Plugin format, global hooks, session search, an introspect subagent, and a V2 to V3 agent migration, with the IDE tracking Code OSS releases. Independent review coverage spans G2, Product Hunt, and Gartner Peer Insights, where Kiro is listed under Enterprise AI Coding Agents.