kiro-cli: A Real Partner for Brainstorming Before I Build

Introduction

Before I make anything, I argue with it first. kiro-cli is an AI coding agent that lives in the terminal, made by the Kiro team at AWS. It reads code, runs commands, and asks before destructive actions — but the way I use it most is earlier than that: as a brainstorming partner that helps me think an idea through before a single file exists.

The public repo is an issue tracker; the product source is not hosted there. Docs live at kiro.dev/docs/cli.

Installation

macOS or Linux, one command:

curl -fsSL https://cli.kiro.dev/install | bash

Then sign in — no AWS account required:

kiro-cli login

GitHub, Google, or an AWS Builder ID all work. There is a free tier (Kiro Free, 50 credits), which is enough to try the whole flow below.

Keep it current:

kiro-cli update

Usage

Start with the idea, not the code

cd my-project
kiro-cli chat

Describe the thing you want to make in plain words: what it does, who it is for, what you are unsure about. Ask it to challenge the idea, not just agree with it.

Plan before building

/plan

/plan makes the agent outline steps before acting. For a brand-new thing, I ask for two or three approaches with trade-offs, pick one, and only then let it touch files.

Give it context with @

Inside a session, @ pulls files straight into the conversation:

Review @src/api/routes.ts and tell me what would break if I add offline mode

No tool call, no permissions dance — the file contents land inline.

One question, no session

kiro-cli chat --no-interactive "which config file decides the port in this repo?"

Handy from scripts, or when you want an answer without opening the full UI.