# Learn Kiro > A free, beginner-friendly guide to Kiro: what it is, how it evolved, and how to use specs, steering, hooks, MCP, agents, skills, and powers in real projects. Site: https://kirotutorial.com/ Changelog: https://kirotutorial.com/changelog/ ## Start here - [What is Kiro?](https://kirotutorial.com/what-is-kiro/): Kiro for beginners: a plain-language guide to Amazon's agentic AI development tool, its five surfaces, and what it does that a chatbot cannot. - [History of Kiro](https://kirotutorial.com/history/): Kiro's timeline: the July 2025 preview, November 2025 GA, IDE 1.0, Kiro Web GA, Kiro Crew, and how Amazon Q Developer CLI became Kiro CLI. - [Kiro vs. Other AI Tools](https://kirotutorial.com/kiro-vs-other-ai-tools/): Four AI coding tools, four philosophies. An honest overview of Kiro against Cursor, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot, with links to the full comparisons. ## Comparisons - [Kiro vs Cursor](https://kirotutorial.com/kiro-vs-cursor/): How Kiro and Cursor differ on planning, surfaces, automation, and pricing, and an honest guide to which one fits your work. - [Kiro vs Claude Code](https://kirotutorial.com/kiro-vs-claude-code/): Kiro CLI and Claude Code are both terminal agents. Here is how they differ on planning, models, surfaces, extensibility, and cost. - [Kiro vs GitHub Copilot](https://kirotutorial.com/kiro-vs-github-copilot/): Copilot builds AI into the GitHub platform; Kiro builds the plan into your repository. A fair comparison of both, with pricing shapes. - [Kiro Alternatives](https://kirotutorial.com/kiro-alternatives/): The realistic alternatives to Kiro, what Kiro's Free tier actually includes, and what is and is not open source about Kiro. ## Core knowledge - [Core Concepts](https://kirotutorial.com/core-concepts/): The twelve ideas that make up Kiro, each in one paragraph with a link to its full page, plus permissions, checkpoints, compaction, and a surface matrix. - [Kiro Crew](https://kirotutorial.com/kiro-crew/): Kiro Crew is an open-source, always-on Kiro agent that runs on your own hardware. Install paths, running it 24/7, interfaces, apps, and the security model. - [Choosing a Model](https://kirotutorial.com/choosing-a-model/): Every model Kiro offers with context windows and credit multipliers, plus what Auto model selection does, how to change the model, and reasoning effort. - [Credits & Pricing](https://kirotutorial.com/credits-and-pricing/): Kiro's plans and credits explained: Free $0/50, Pro $20/1,000 up to Power $200/10,000, what a credit buys, model multipliers, and how to avoid overage. ## Concepts - [Agentic Development](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/agentic-development/): Agentic development means the AI plans and performs multi-step work. How Kiro's agent loop, autonomy modes, permissions, and checkpoints work. - [Specs](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/specs/): A Kiro spec turns an idea into requirements.md, design.md, and tasks.md before code exists. How EARS notation, workflows, and task execution work. - [Steering](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/steering/): Steering files give Kiro permanent project knowledge. Where they live, the four inclusion modes, how scopes merge, and how AGENTS.md fits in. - [Hooks](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/hooks/): Kiro hooks run an agent prompt or shell command when something happens. Trigger types, where hook files live, and how to scope them so they help. - [MCP](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/mcp/): MCP connects Kiro to external tools and data. Where mcp.json lives, the config keys that matter, precedence rules, and how to approve tools safely. - [Custom Agents](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/custom-agents/): Custom agents are scoped versions of Kiro with their own prompt, tools, and model. File formats, the tools field, scopes, and how to create one. - [Skills](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/skills/): A Kiro skill is a reusable SKILL.md instruction pack the agent loads when relevant. Format, folders, activation by description, and skills vs steering. - [Powers](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/powers/): A Kiro power bundles MCP tools with steering so the agent knows when to use them. What is inside a power, how it loads, and how to install one safely. - [Cloud Sessions](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/cloud-sessions/): Cloud sessions run the Kiro agent in a managed AWS sandbox that any surface can attach to. How to start one, what travels, and the limits to plan around. - [Kiro IDE](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/ide/): The Kiro IDE is a VS Code-style desktop editor with the agent built in. Platform support, autonomy modes, checkpoints, and context providers. - [Kiro CLI](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/cli/): kiro-cli brings the Kiro agent to your terminal. Install, slash commands, headless CI runs, /compact and /effort, and ACP for JetBrains and Zed. - [Kiro Web](https://kirotutorial.com/concepts/web/): Kiro Web went generally available on September 1, 2026. Plans, GitHub and GitLab support, Automations, autonomous mode, Memory, and config sync. ## Hands-on - [Beginner Tutorial](https://kirotutorial.com/beginner-tutorial/): Install Kiro, have your first agent conversation, and build a tiny real project with a spec, step by step. No experience assumed. - [Advanced Tutorial](https://kirotutorial.com/advanced-tutorial/): A production-shaped workflow that combines specs, steering, hooks, MCP, custom agents, and skills, written for engineers who already know the basics. - [Kiro CLI Guide](https://kirotutorial.com/cli-guide/): Install kiro-cli, drive sessions with slash commands, manage agents and context, and take the agent into scripts and CI. - [Use Cases](https://kirotutorial.com/use-cases/): Nine real jobs, from building and refactoring to reviewing, data work, and headless CI, each matched to the Kiro feature that fits it best. - [Kiro for Data Engineers](https://kirotutorial.com/kiro-for-data-engineers/): How data practitioners use Kiro: specs for pipelines, steering for warehouse conventions, MCP for databases, and cheap models for bulk work. - [Migrate from Amazon Q Developer](https://kirotutorial.com/migrate-from-q-developer/): The dates, the per-IDE steps, and the checklist for moving from Amazon Q Developer to Kiro, including what carries over and what is new. ## Recipes - [Recipes](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/): Twenty-one short, verified how-to guides for Kiro: steering files, hooks, MCP, agents, skills, permissions, checkpoints, CI, cloud sessions, and Kiro Crew. - [Create Your First Steering File](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/first-steering-file/): Create product.md, tech.md, and structure.md in .kiro/steering/, set inclusion modes in front matter, and check that the agent obeys them. - [Use AGENTS.md as Steering](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/agents-md-as-steering/): Kiro reads AGENTS.md files as steering from anywhere in your workspace tree. How they load, what they cannot do, and when to prefer .kiro/steering/. - [Run Tests on Save With a Hook](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/hook-run-tests-on-save/): Create a Kiro agent hook that runs the right tests when you save a source file, scope the trigger narrowly, and avoid noisy hook loops. - [Keep Docs in Sync With a Hook](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/hook-update-docs/): Create a Kiro hook that checks your documentation against changed source files and proposes an update, without letting the hook rewrite its own trigger. - [Add an MCP Server](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/add-mcp-server/): Add an MCP server to .kiro/settings/mcp.json or the global file, understand agent, project, and global precedence, and keep autoApprove empty. - [Add a Power](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/add-a-power/): What a Kiro Power bundles, where Powers live, how to install one from the marketplace, a folder, or GitHub, and why cloud Powers appear read-only. - [Create a Custom Agent](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/create-custom-agent/): Create a Kiro custom agent as a Markdown file in .kiro/agents/, set its tools field, and switch to it mid-session or with kiro-cli --agent. - [Build a Read-Only Reviewer Agent](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/read-only-reviewer-agent/): Create a Kiro agent that can read your codebase but cannot write or run commands, then back the ceiling with deny rules in permissions.yaml. - [Write a Skill](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/write-a-skill/): Write a Kiro skill as a SKILL.md file in .kiro/skills/, give it a description that triggers reliably, and invoke it as a slash command. - [Fix a Bug With a Bugfix Spec](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/bugfix-spec/): Use a Kiro bugfix spec so the analysis lands in bugfix.md, a regression test comes before the fix, and the reason for the bug survives in the repo. - [Run Kiro CLI Headless in CI](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/headless-cli-in-ci/): Run kiro-cli chat --no-interactive in a pipeline: authenticate with KIRO_API_KEY, trust the smallest tool set, and fail fast when MCP servers are missing. - [Set Up permissions.yaml](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/permissions-yaml/): Control what Kiro's agent may do with permissions.yaml: the capability list, the deny over ask over allow order, match and exclude globs, and the six scopes. - [Keep Secrets Out With .kiroignore](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/kiroignore-secrets/): Write a .kiroignore file so Kiro's agent never reads .env, keys, or customer data, and know which surfaces honour it today. - [Undo With Checkpoints and Rewind](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/checkpoints-and-rewind/): Restore a Kiro checkpoint in the IDE, rewind a CLI conversation into a new session, and know exactly which edits checkpoints do not track. - [Compact a Long Session](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/compact-long-session/): Use /compact in Kiro CLI, understand what automatic compaction keeps and summarises, and tune compaction.excludeMessages before you hit a context limit. - [Set the Reasoning Effort](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/set-reasoning-effort/): Set Kiro's reasoning effort from low to max, in the IDE effort panel or with /effort and --effort in the CLI, and set defaults in chat.modelDefaults. - [Use Kiro CLI in JetBrains or Zed](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/cli-in-jetbrains-zed-acp/): Run kiro-cli acp so JetBrains AI Assistant and Zed can drive Kiro's agent, with the full binary path and where CLI sessions are stored. - [Schedule a Web Automation](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/schedule-web-automation/): Schedule a recurring Kiro Web automation on an hourly, daily, or CRON schedule, with up to five schedules, a 10,000-character prompt, and a PR as output. - [Start a Cloud Session From the CLI](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/cloud-session-from-cli/): Run kiro-cli --cloud so the agent works in a managed AWS sandbox, attach a repository, and reattach from another machine with --resume-id. - [Run Kiro Crew 24/7](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/run-kiro-crew-24-7/): Install Kiro Crew, run the setup wizard, start the gateway, and keep it running with service install, systemd, launchd, or Docker on a remote host. - [Change the Default Model](https://kirotutorial.com/recipes/change-default-model/): Change Kiro's model in the IDE chat input or the CLI, understand what Auto does, and set effort defaults in chat.modelDefaults. ## Practice - [The Workspace Game](https://kirotutorial.com/game/): An interactive game that drills Kiro's core concepts: 18 setup decisions from a 31-question pool, a repair round for misses, and a per-concept mastery map. - [Practice Exercises](https://kirotutorial.com/exercises/): Nine guided exercises (three beginner, three intermediate, three advanced), each with objectives, tasks, expected outcomes, hints, and stretch challenges. - [Quizzes](https://kirotutorial.com/quizzes/): Two interactive quizzes, beginner and advanced, with instant feedback and a full answer key with explanations. ## Reference - [Cheat Sheet](https://kirotutorial.com/cheat-sheet/): Kiro on one page: file paths, CLI commands, slash commands, permissions, the five surfaces, and the mistakes that bite, in scannable card form. - [Troubleshooting & FAQ](https://kirotutorial.com/troubleshooting/): Fixes for Kiro's common errors: improperly formed request, context limit exceeded, connection interrupted, sign-in, MCP, credits, and cloud sessions. - [Common Mistakes & Don'ts](https://kirotutorial.com/common-mistakes/): The traps that catch Kiro beginners and veterans alike: wrong assumptions, trust failures, security slips, and over-automation. - [Interview Questions](https://kirotutorial.com/interview-questions/): Thirty-six Kiro interview questions with concise model answers, from basic definitions through workflows and architecture to real job scenarios. - [Revision](https://kirotutorial.com/revision/): Every chapter's key takeaways on one page: the fastest way to refresh before a quiz, an interview, or a return to Kiro after time away. - [References & Updates](https://kirotutorial.com/references/): The official Kiro sources this site is built from, secondary community references, and how to keep your knowledge current. - [Glossary](https://kirotutorial.com/glossary/): Every Kiro term explained in one or two sentences, in alphabetical order, each linked to the chapter that covers it in full. ## About this site - [About](https://kirotutorial.com/about/): Who made this site, why it exists, and the other projects from the same maker. - [Contact](https://kirotutorial.com/contact/): How to reach the maintainer with corrections, suggestions, or collaboration ideas.