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Kiro: A new agentic IDE

kiro.dev

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Re: Kiro: A new agentic IDE

#41

Post by postalcoder »

NathanKP wrote: post #5

Hello folks! I've been working on Kiro for nearly a year now. Happy to chat about some of the things that make it unique in the IDE space. We've added a few powerful things that I think make it a bit different from other similar AI editors. In specific, I'm really proud of "spec driven development", which is based on the internal processes that software development teams at Amazon use to build very large technical pr…

I don't know if this is feedback for Kiro per se or more feedback for this category of applications as a whole, but I've personally noticed that the biggest barrier holding me back from giving an earnest look at new coding agents are the custom rules I've set up w/ my existing agents. I have extensively used Copilot, Continue, Cursor, Cline, Aider, Roo Code, and Claude Code. I've just finished porting my rules over to Claude Code and this is something I do not want to do again [even if it's as simple as dragging and dropping files].

Companies would benefit a lot by creating better onboarding flows that migrate users from other applications. It should either bring in the rules 1:1 or have an llm agent transform them into a format that works better for the agent.

Re: Kiro: A new agentic IDE

#42

Post by cmrdporcupine »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #22
TimMeade wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every 6 months? It's turning into every two weeks. Sticking with claude code. Its working beautifully for us.

I have a question. I do not like the concept of "agent mode" for AI. I'm a control freak and I want to control every line that gets committed because I am responsible for it and need to understand/visualize/memorize every part of codebases I work on. Is Claude Code good for the "ask" flow? No, right? The old flow before agent mode got added. Select some code, ask questions about it or give an instruction on editing i…

It could be better. I think the PMs and investors and decision makers at these companies are running with a "we want to replace / automate developers" philosophy, while these tools are actually best at augmenting developers. And so they're sorta builing with this "I'll do everything and ask you for confirmation" (and basically encourage you to give me blanket permission).

In reality these tools would be best if they took a more socratic method, a more interactive pair programming approach. So instead of giving you a blanket diff to accept or refuse or "No, and here's some changes" -- it should be more dialog oriented.

Of all of them so far though, I think Claude Code is closest to this. IF you prompt it right you can have a much more interactive workflow, and I find that most productive.

Re: Kiro: A new agentic IDE

#44

Post by dangus »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #22
TimMeade wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every 6 months? It's turning into every two weeks. Sticking with claude code. Its working beautifully for us.

I have a question. I do not like the concept of "agent mode" for AI. I'm a control freak and I want to control every line that gets committed because I am responsible for it and need to understand/visualize/memorize every part of codebases I work on. Is Claude Code good for the "ask" flow? No, right? The old flow before agent mode got added. Select some code, ask questions about it or give an instruction on editing i…

> As I understand (I could be wrong), with agent mode, it edits the file for you, no way for you to accept before it does, so you have to manually check the diff, roll back parts you don't want, etc.

You’re sort of technically correct but I wouldn’t really describe it this way exactly. You have to proactively accept or reject all changes to your files in some way.

It is almost impossible to accidentally commit code you don’t want.

It’s not really an edit in the same sense as an unstated change. It doesn’t even really do that until you accept the result.

It’s basically saving you a UI step compared to ask mode with basically no downside.

Re: Kiro: A new agentic IDE

#46

Post by suralind »

angelmm wrote: post #28

Many companies are considering IDEs the way to reach developers. Atom started the trend of next generation IDEs and VSCode consolidated most of the market. With the AI raising, people are looking to get usage, gathering data, and positioning models. An IDE provides you all of that. AI seems to be a way to engage happy users to try new things. Kiro joins a growing list of projects: - Kiro (AWS) - VSCode + Copilot (Mic…

I love Zed as an editor/IDE without ANY AI/LLM features. I think the AI support in Zed is actually pretty decent and I'm still using it out of habit (actively trying to use more TUI for AI).

But at the same time, it's my biggest worry that they will continue on the AI and pollute the project with too much junk. I gotta trust the smart minds behind it will find a way to balance this trend.

Re: Kiro: A new agentic IDE

#47

Post by eulers_secret »

suralind wrote: post #12

Here my problem with this: I don't want to be jumping an editor/IDE every 6 months, learning new key bindings and even more importantly, getting used to a completely new look. In a space that moves as quickly as "AI" does, it is inevitable that a better and cheaper solution will pop up at some point. We kinda already see it with Cursor and Windsurf. I guess Claude Code is all the rage now and I personally think CLI/T…

YUP! This is why I've settled on Aider and it's "IDE integration" (watches all files for comments that end in "AI!", which then invokes the AI). I can then use it with whatever editor I prefer. I view the vscode mono-culture as a bad thing. I also like I can use any AI backend I like, which is really how it should be: Vendor lock-in tools are bad, remember?

I guess you lose tab-completion suggestions, but I am not a fan of those compared to 'normal' tab-complete (if backed by an lang server). If I want AI, I'll write a short comment and invoke the tool explicitly.

EDIT: Of course, it really depends an your usecase. I maintain/upgrade C code libs and utils; I really cannot speak to what works best for your env! Webdev is truly a different world.

EDIT2: Can't leave this alone for some reason, the backend thing is a big deal. Switching between Claude/Gemini/Deekseek and even rando models like Qwen or Kimi is awesome, they can fill in each other's holes or unblock a model which is 'stuck'.

Re: Kiro: A new agentic IDE

#49

Post by NathanKP »

clbrmbr wrote: post #19
NathanKP wrote: post #5

Hello folks! I've been working on Kiro for nearly a year now. Happy to chat about some of the things that make it unique in the IDE space. We've added a few powerful things that I think make it a bit different from other similar AI editors. In specific, I'm really proud of "spec driven development", which is based on the internal processes that software development teams at Amazon use to build very large technical pr…

Nicely done. I particularly like the emphasis on writing specs which really is something new in the space and makes Kirk not just “Cursor clone”. This is something missing in Claude Code… the user needs to remember to ask Claude to update the specs. How does Kirk deal with changes to the requirements? Are all the specs updated?

Currently specifications are mostly static documents. While they can be refreshed this is a more manual process, and if you do "vibe coding" via Kiro it can make code changes without updating the specs at all.

I find the best way to use specs is to progressively commit them into the repo as an append only "history" showing the gradual change of the project over time. You can use Kiro to modify an existing spec and update it to match the new intended state of the project, but this somehow feels a bit less valuable compared to having a historical record of all the design choices that led from where you started to where you now are.

I think in the long run Kiro will be able to serve both types of use: keeping a single authoritative library of specs for each feature, and keeping a historical record of mutations over time.

Re: Kiro: A new agentic IDE

#50

Post by namanyayg »

postalcoder wrote: post #41
NathanKP wrote: post #5

Hello folks! I've been working on Kiro for nearly a year now. Happy to chat about some of the things that make it unique in the IDE space. We've added a few powerful things that I think make it a bit different from other similar AI editors. In specific, I'm really proud of "spec driven development", which is based on the internal processes that software development teams at Amazon use to build very large technical pr…

I don't know if this is feedback for Kiro per se or more feedback for this category of applications as a whole, but I've personally noticed that the biggest barrier holding me back from giving an earnest look at new coding agents are the custom rules I've set up w/ my existing agents. I have extensively used Copilot, Continue, Cursor, Cline, Aider, Roo Code, and Claude Code. I've just finished porting my rules over t…

in the early days of building something like that, would love to talk for 10 minutes and get your advice if you have the time? I couldn't find your email but mine is in my profile.
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