Kiro IDE

The Kiro IDE is a desktop code editor built on Code OSS, the open-source core of VS Code, with the agent woven into it. If you have used VS Code your hands already know the layout, and on first run you can import your settings and extensions rather than starting over.

What is the Kiro IDE?

It is the surface most people start on, because it is the one that shows you everything. What the IDE adds over a plain editor:

• The agentic chat panel, with Autopilot and Supervised modes
• The specs experience: create, review each phase, execute tasks
• Steering and hook panels
• MCP server management with a status view and a logs channel
• Visual diff review of every agent change
• Agent Focus, an experimental chat-first view from the 1.0 release that runs several agent sessions in parallel across workspaces
• Checkpoints, and a searchable session history panel

Platform support is worth checking before you plan a team rollout: macOS on Intel and Apple silicon, Windows 10 and 11 on 64-bit x86 with no ARM support, and Linux with glibc 2.39 or newer (Ubuntu 24+, Debian 13+, Fedora 40+, Arch, Mint 22+). Sign-in works with Google, GitHub, AWS Builder ID, or organization identity and SSO.

Why it exists

An agent that edits your files needs somewhere to show you what it did. Chat interfaces can describe a change; only an editor can put the old and new versions side by side, let you accept one hunk and reject the next, and jump you to the file. Most of the IDE’s Kiro-specific surface exists to make agent work reviewable rather than to make it possible.

The choice to build on Code OSS follows from the same logic. Nobody wants to relearn keybindings to try an agent, so the editor half is familiar on purpose and the new half is the panels.

How it works

Choosing an autonomy level. Settings → Agent → Agent Autonomy, stored as kiroAgent.agentAutonomy, selects between two modes. Autopilot works end to end: creating files, modifying code, running commands, everything viewable and revertible. Supervised pauses after each turn that edits files and hands you the diff for hunk-by-hunk accept or reject. Permissions are additive on top of both, not a replacement for them.

Checkpoints. Kiro creates a checkpoint automatically on every prompt, snapshotting the files the agent changed with its built-in tools. Restoring puts those files and the agent’s context back and discards the chat after that point. The IDE also has a “revert last turn” action, which the CLI does not.

Context providers. The # menu is the feature people skip and then complain about the results. #codebase, #file, #folder, #git diff, #terminal, #problems, #url, #code, #repository, #current, #steering, #docs, #spec, and #mcp each feed the agent precise, current material. Pasting a snippet gives the agent a stale copy with no path; #file gives it the file.

Recent releases worth knowing. v1.0.395 (August 27, 2026) made third-party extensions work alongside Kiro, added support for the latest MCP protocol revision with more reliable sign-in, reduced extension host crashes during large agent responses, and kept agent turns alive through brief network drops. v1.0.437 (September 1, 2026) added cloud configuration across IDE surfaces, so agents, MCP servers, powers, steering, skills, and hooks defined in Kiro Web appear locally as read-only previews, with cloud-synced powers listed among your installed ones. Earlier in August, v1.0.337 kept ignored files out of search results and tightened filesystem and command permission rules.

Common mistakes

Pasting code into chat. It costs context, arrives without a path, and goes stale the moment you edit the file. The fix: use #file and #folder. For a change in progress, #git diff is usually the single most useful provider on the list.

Leaving Autopilot on for everything. Autonomy is cheap when tests can catch the mistake and expensive when only careful reading can. The fix: switch to Supervised for unfamiliar code, and back for work with a safety net.

Treating checkpoints as version control. They only track edits made with the agent’s built-in file tools. Manual edits, formatter runs, MCP writes, and anything a shell command changed are not captured. The fix: commit before a long run.

Assuming your machine is supported because a teammate’s is. The IDE and the CLI have different requirements, and they are asymmetric: the IDE supports Windows 10 where the CLI needs Windows 11, and the CLI runs on older Linux (glibc 2.34) where the IDE needs 2.39. The fix: check both before committing to a surface.

Permissions and safety

Permissions in the IDE are capability-based and checked on every file read, command execution, and MCP call. When a rule says ask, the approval prompt offers Allow, Deny, Always allow, and Always deny, and your choice persists to all workspaces, this workspace, or this session. Rules land in ~/.kiro/settings/permissions.yaml for you and ~/.kiro/workspace-roots/<hash>/permissions.yaml for a workspace, kept outside the repository on purpose. The effects rank as deny > ask > allow, with deny always winning.

Alongside permissions, .kiroignore keeps paths out of reach entirely. The IDE has full .kiroignore support, including the kiroAgent.agentIgnoreFiles setting, and since v1.0.337 ignored files stay out of search results too.

Where it fits

The IDE is the surface with the most local affordances, which makes it the natural home for specs, diff review, checkpoints, and .kiroignore. The CLI is the surface for servers, SSH, and CI. Kiro Web is the surface for repository work with no install. Cloud sessions connect the IDE to work running elsewhere, through Agent Focus mode. Kiro Crew is the always-on layer beside all of them.

Every building block on this site works in the IDE: specs, steering, hooks, MCP, custom agents (as Markdown files), skills, and powers.

Learn more

• Beginner Tutorial installs the IDE and builds a first feature.
• Checkpoints and rewind covers the undo model properly.
• Keep secrets out with .kiroignore is a ten-minute safety win.
• Permissions in permissions.yaml goes deeper than the prompts.
• Troubleshooting has the install and sign-in symptom tables.