Amazon Cloud Launches Kiro: Redefining Development with AI Collaboration}
Amazon Cloud introduces Kiro, an AI-powered IDE that transforms coding from manual work to structured, collaborative development, marking a new era of human-AI engineering partnership.
On Monday, Amazon Cloud launched the preview version of Kiro, an AI IDE designed to help developers write code, design systems, and manage tasks with minimal manual effort.
Kiro advocates replacing fragmented code generation with structured collaboration, positioning AI as a true engineering partner rather than just a temporary assistant. This approach has garnered widespread attention in the developer community. Unlike traditional code-generation AI tools, Kiro not only writes code but also helps clarify requirements, design architectures, plan tasks, and facilitate efficient teamwork. Its emergence marks a shift of AI from a supportive role to a genuine co-creator in engineering.
From “Code Writing” to “Co-Construction”
Over the past year, generative AI has sparked a “vibe coding” craze among developers—rapidly generating application prototypes from short natural language prompts. However, when these prototypes move into production, issues like missing documentation, vague requirements, and unclear logic often arise.
Kiro was created to address these challenges. It introduces a new paradigm called “spec-driven development,” transforming developer prompts into structured requirement documents, technical designs, and specific tasks. For example, inputting “add a comment system to the product” prompts Kiro to automatically generate user stories covering viewing, creating, filtering, and rating scenarios, with acceptance criteria specified using EARS syntax.
Next, Kiro generates system design plans based on these requirements, including data flow diagrams, database schemas, API interfaces, and further decomposes them into development tasks, each with unit tests, response logic, and accessibility considerations. The entire process is clear, comprehensive, and allows developers to progress smoothly without rework.
AI as a “Senior Partner”
Another key feature of Kiro is its “Hooks mechanism”—which acts like an experienced engineer taking proactive actions at critical points. When developers save files, update interfaces, or prepare to commit code, Kiro automatically triggers preset instructions, such as updating test cases, refreshing documentation, or performing security checks. This helps unify code standards and reduces errors.
Importantly, all these operations run in the background, allowing developers to set up once and benefit continuously without interrupting their workflow.
Driving the AI Collaboration Era
Developed by a small internal team at Amazon focused on AI development experience, Kiro aims not only to improve efficiency but also to fundamentally change how humans and AI collaborate in engineering. It retains familiar workflows like VS Code, supports plugin systems, and integrates deeper intelligent structures—such as cross-file/context understanding and behavior-guidance rules aligned with engineering standards.
From structured development to agent automation, from individual to team collaboration, Kiro is building a truly production-ready AI development cooperation model.
Today, the biggest challenge for developers is no longer “Can AI write code?” but “How to work with AI to complete real engineering tasks?” Kiro offers a complete human-AI co-creation paradigm. In the future, it may evolve from a tool into an always-online, tireless “engineering partner.”