AWS has released a new AI coding tool called Kiro in preview. This IDE for agent apps is described by some as a vibe coding platform. However, AWS says Kiro “goes way beyond,” getting prototypes into production systems with features such as specs and hooks. In fact, Kiro was designed specifically to reduce issues common to vibe coding, the process of creating software using AI agents reacting to natural language prompts. This makes it popular among non-coders, resulting in an often chaotic process that Kiro attempts to professionalize. Available for free during preview, Kiro supports most popular programming languages.

In a post on X, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says Kiro could “transform how developers build software,” going on to detail its special attributes, including a spec-driven approach that helps developers “express their intent clearly through natural language specifications and architecture diagrams for complex features,” resulting in “better results with fewer iterations.”

Additional details about Kiro features, with use-case examples, is shared in a blog post by Product Lead Nikhil Swaminathan and VP of Development Experience and Agents Deepak Singh, who write that the product aims “to solve the fundamental challenges that make building software products so difficult — from ensuring design alignment across teams and resolving conflicting requirements, to eliminating tech debt, bringing rigor to code reviews, and preserving institutional knowledge when senior engineers leave.”

“As well as helping with coding, Kiro can also automatically create and update project plans and technical blueprints, solving one of the most troublesome issues for developers who are still getting to grips with the potential AI brings,” reports TechRadar.

PCMag describes a typical vibe coding process as “talking to an AI until you are satisfied with its output,” emphasizing a process that is “relatively unstructured, and not always effective,” citing a study that found for experienced software engineers the agentic approach increased completion time by 19 percent.

“Kiro offers a more professional approach that starts with project planning,” PCMag adds, noting “developers can enter specifications for each component of their project, and then vibe code to meet the requirements.”

Both Amazon and Google “are jumping deeper into so-called vibe coding, the process of directing computers to create software with minimal human direction,” writes CNBC.

Referencing a Kiro FAQ, CNBC writes that “vibe coding in its current form can be overly complex,” but Kiro streamlines the process by helping “to keep track of all the decisions that were made along the way, and document them for your team.”

After the preview ends, both free and premium tiers of Kiro will be available.

Related:
AWS Announces New Innovations for Building AI Agents at AWS Summit New York, Amazon, 7/16/25
Enabling Customers to Deliver Production-Ready AI Agents at Scale, Amazon, 7/16/25
AWS on Agent Push, Adds Claude Enterprise in Marketplace, ETCentric, 7/17/25