Kiro offers a free tier with paid upgrades available.

What category does Kiro belong to?

Kiro is a AI Code Generation tool with expertise in TypeScript, AI/ML.

How do I get started with Kiro?

Visit the official Kiro website to get started. You can access it through the 'Visit Website' button on this page.

Kiro - AI Code Generation Tool for MVP Building

AI Code Generation • Freemium

Kiro helps developers automate editor workflows with prompt-driven AI hooks in a VSCode-like editor.

kiro.dev

Best for:

• Automating repetitive editor tasks with prompt-triggered actions
• Embedding project-specific coding rules or scaffolds into the editor
• Power users who enjoy tweaking prompts and specs for deterministic outputs

Not for:

• Beginners who want a zero-setup AI assistant
• Teams that require full, guaranteed compatibility with the VSCode ecosystem
• People who prefer one-off chat-style code generation without setup

Kiro is basically a VSCode fork that adds “AI hooks” — you write prompts (rules) and attach them to triggers so the editor executes them automatically. It also pushes a “spec-driven” model for how code generation should work: you describe intent, and Kiro tries to keep changes aligned with that spec. I like it when I want small, repeatable automation baked into the editor: generate tests on save, scaffold a component from a short spec, or enforce a local code pattern via a custom prompt. The trigger/prompt pairing feels unique compared to other AI coding tools — it’s less about one-off chat completions and more about embedding behavior into your workflow. That said, it’s not flawless. The spec-driven approach can be fiddly; you’ll spend time reworking prompts and specs until they behave reliably. There’s a learning curve to designing good hooks, and that upfront cost is annoying if you just need quick, ad-hoc assistance. Also, being a fork of VSCode means you should expect some differences from mainstream VSCode (extensions, updates, edge cases) — test it before committing a team to it. Use Kiro when you want editor-integrated automation and are comfortable iterating on prompts/specs to get deterministic outcomes. Skip it if you need a plug-and-play experience, rely heavily on a huge set of VSCode extensions, or don’t want to invest time tuning prompts. The freemium model lets you try the idea cheaply, but expect some setup work to make hooks reliably useful.

Kiro is basically a VSCode fork that adds “AI hooks” — you write prompts (rules) and attach them to triggers so the editor executes them automatically. It also pushes a “spec-driven” model for how code generation should work: you describe intent, and Kiro tries to keep changes aligned with that spec.

I like it when I want small, repeatable automation baked into the editor: generate tests on save, scaffold a component from a short spec, or enforce a local code pattern via a custom prompt. The trigger/prompt pairing feels unique compared to other AI coding tools — it’s less about one-off chat completions and more about embedding behavior into your workflow.

That said, it’s not flawless. The spec-driven approach can be fiddly; you’ll spend time reworking prompts and specs until they behave reliably. There’s a learning curve to designing good hooks, and that upfront cost is annoying if you just need quick, ad-hoc assistance. Also, being a fork of VSCode means you should expect some differences from mainstream VSCode (extensions, updates, edge cases) — test it before committing a team to it.

Use Kiro when you want editor-integrated automation and are comfortable iterating on prompts/specs to get deterministic outcomes. Skip it if you need a plug-and-play experience, rely heavily on a huge set of VSCode extensions, or don’t want to invest time tuning prompts. The freemium model lets you try the idea cheaply, but expect some setup work to make hooks reliably useful.

Tradeoffs:

The main trade-off is setup time: you gain powerful, repeatable automation but must invest effort tuning prompts and the spec-driven model to avoid flaky results.