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Month 01 / 06
1

Foundations & Workspace Mastery

AWS Kiro IDE · Amazon Bedrock · Cloud Resource Linking

Beginner 7 Sessions Hands-on Labs

Getting Started with AWS Kiro

Welcome to the first session of Kirotic Builders! In this comprehensive guide, we will dive deep into the world of AWS Kiro IDE and Agentic AI.

About Our Program

Kirotic Builders is a 6-month hands-on engineering program designed to transform developers into Agentic AI architects. Led by the AWS User Group Dubai, this program prioritizes real-world building, sustainability, and cloud-native integration using Amazon Bedrock and AWS Kiro.

What is Agentic AI?

Agentic AI moves beyond traditional chat interfaces. It involves AI systems capable of autonomous reasoning, tool usage, planning, and multi-step execution. Rather than just answering questions, Agentic AI acts on your behalf—writing code, provisioning infrastructure, and solving complex architectural problems with minimal human intervention.

Agentic AI is Already Here

With the explosive growth of Amazon Bedrock and AgentCore, AWS is powering the next generation of intelligent applications. Recent stats show a massive shift towards autonomous workflows in enterprise cloud environments, driving up efficiency while reducing manual operational overhead.

Meet AWS Kiro

AWS Kiro is an Agentic IDE built natively for the cloud. It seamlessly blends your workspace with Amazon Bedrock foundation models, allowing you to architect, debug, and deploy AI agents directly from your editor. It bridges the gap between infrastructure and intelligence.

Why AWS Built Kiro

Developers were struggling to unify their local IDE workflows with cloud-based LLM architectures. Context switching between terminals, AWS consoles, and local editors caused friction. AWS built Kiro to provide a single, unified control plane where AI agents have direct, secure, and context-aware access to your codebase and AWS resources.

Spec-Driven Deployment

Forget manual point-and-click configuration. Kiro operates on a Spec-Driven Deployment model. You define your agentic workflows, LLM tool bindings, and AWS infrastructure in declarative Kiro specs. Kiro compiles these specs into deployable cloud assets automatically.

Define Spec
Kiro Parses Intent
Agent Generates Code
Deploy to AWS

Anatomy of a Kiro Spec

A Kiro Spec outlines the LLM model (e.g., Nova Pro), the tools the agent can use, memory configuration, and IAM least-privilege roles. It acts as the DNA for your Agentic system.

Two Modes: Vide vs. Spec

Vide Mode (Interactive)

The visual, drag-and-drop canvas. Ideal for whiteboarding agent architectures, observing real-time MCP context streams, and conversational debugging. Best for rapid prototyping.

Spec Mode (Declarative)

Code-first mode where infrastructure and agent logic are defined via YAML/JSON. Built for GitOps, CI/CD integration, and robust production-ready deployments.

Agent Hooks & Steering Files

Agent hooks allow you to intercept LLM requests mid-flight to inject live AWS telemetry or override decisions. Steering files act as universal system prompts, enforcing guardrails, coding standards, and security mandates across your entire workspace.

Supercharge Kiro with MCP Servers

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) enables Kiro to dynamically stream local file context, database schemas, and API documentation directly into the model's context window. This gives the AI absolute awareness of your project.

Kiro vs Other IDEs

Feature AWS Kiro Traditional IDEs
Cloud Native Integration Native Bedrock & IAM Binding Requires external plugins & CLI
Agentic Capabilities Built-in orchestration & MCP Basic autocomplete / Chat only
Deployment Spec-driven one-click to AWS Manual CI/CD setup

Kiro Pricing

Unlike subscription-based AI editors that charge a flat $20-$30/month, AWS Kiro utilizes a pay-as-you-go model tied directly to Amazon Bedrock inference. You only pay for the exact tokens your agents consume. For efficient developers, this often results in costs well under $5/month.

What You Can Build with Kiro

From autonomous code-reviewing bots and automated infrastructure remediators, to multi-agent RAG systems querying Amazon OpenSearch. If it can be imagined as an API, Kiro can build an agent for it.

What a Kiro Spec Looks Like

# kiro.yaml
version: "1.0"
agent:
  model: "amazon.nova-pro-v1"
  role: "Full-Stack Architect"
  tools:
    - "aws:s3:ListBuckets"
    - "mcp:local-workspace"
steering: "rules/security-first.md"

3 Ways to Access AWS Kiro

🎯 Key Takeaways

  • ✅ Kiro unites the IDE and the Cloud into one agentic workflow.
  • ✅ Spec-driven design replaces brittle scripts with declarative logic.
  • ✅ You control costs precisely via Bedrock's token-based pricing.

🛠️ How to Build Your First AI Project Using AWS Kiro

Now it's your turn. You will initialize a new Kiro Workspace, link it to your AWS account, configure a base kiro.yaml spec, and command the agent to build a simple serverless "Hello World" API on AWS Lambda.

Project 1 Setup
$ kiro init project-1
$ cd project-1
$ kiro bedrock link --role-arn arn:aws:iam::...
$ kiro agent start --mode vide