Latest news with #NikhilSwaminathan
Techday NZ
18-07-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
AWS brings vibe coding to the Enterprise with spec-driven Kiro IDE tool
AWS has introduced Kiro, an "agentic IDE" designed to bridge the gap between the excitement of prompt-based prototyping and the practical demands of production software. According to Kiro product lead Nikhil Swaminathan, the tool aims to bring structure, rigour and automation to the modern, AI-powered coding process. Swaminathan describes the appeal of recent AI tools, saying, "Prompt, prompt, prompt, and you have a working application. It's fun and feels like magic. But getting it to production requires more." He outlines the typical stumbling blocks: "What assumptions did the model make when building it? What edge-cases did it cover? How did it handle errors? Requirements are fuzzy and you can't tell if the application meets them." Kiro is designed to solve these problems by introducing what its creators call "spec-driven development." As the team puts it, "Kiro is great at 'vibe coding' but goes way beyond that - Kiro's strength is getting those prototypes into production systems with features such as specs and hooks." Swaminathan explains how it works: "Start with a prompt: 'Add a review system for products.' Kiro translates this into a set of user stories with EARS-style acceptance criteria." He says Kiro then generates artefacts including "a data-flow diagram, TypeScript interfaces, a database schema, and API definitions." The system's approach includes automatically specifying essential features for each user story. Swaminathan writes, "Kiro automatically includes requirements like mobile responsiveness, accessibility, loading states, and tests in the spec." Tasks are then "sequenced correctly and connected to requirements." Importantly, the specs remain in sync as the code evolves. Swaminathan notes, "Developers can author code and ask Kiro to update specs or manually update specs to refresh tasks. This solves the common problem where developers stop updating original artifacts during implementation." To automate repetitive work, Kiro introduces "agent hooks." These are "event-driven automations" that "trigger based on events like file saves or deletions." As Swaminathan puts it, "When you save a React component, hooks update the test file. When you modify API endpoints, hooks refresh README files. When you're ready to commit, security hooks scan for leaked credentials." He describes the benefit: "It's like having an experienced developer catching things you miss or completing boilerplate tasks." These hooks are also collaborative by design. Swaminathan explains, "Once this hook is committed to Git, it enforces the coding standard across my entire team - whenever anyone adds a new component, the agent automatically validates it against the guidelines." Kiro is built on top of Code OSS, meaning it is "compatible with existing VS Code settings and Open VSX plugins." It supports "Model Context Protocol (MCP)," agentic chat, and multiple context providers, including "files, URLs and document uploads." Looking ahead, Swaminathan and AWS VP of Developer Experience & Agents Deepak Singh set out an ambitious vision for Kiro. They write, "We want to tackle the root causes of pain in software development - clarity of design, alignment with requirements, technical debt, code reviews, and knowledge sharing." Kiro is available in a preview release for Mac, Windows and Linux, supporting most programming languages. Swaminathan invites developers to experience its approach: "We invite you to try Kiro and share feedback. We're just getting started, and your input will help shape the future of agentic development." By combining the "magic" of AI-powered coding with structured specs and event-driven automation, Kiro is positioning itself as a tool for developers seeking to move quickly without sacrificing discipline or reliability.
Techday NZ
18-07-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
AWS brings vibe coding to the Enterpise with spec-driven Kiro IDE tool
AWS has introduced Kiro, an "agentic IDE" designed to bridge the gap between the excitement of prompt-based prototyping and the practical demands of production software. According to Kiro product lead Nikhil Swaminathan, the tool aims to bring structure, rigour and automation to the modern, AI-powered coding process. Swaminathan describes the appeal of recent AI tools, saying, "Prompt, prompt, prompt, and you have a working application. It's fun and feels like magic. But getting it to production requires more." He outlines the typical stumbling blocks: "What assumptions did the model make when building it? What edge-cases did it cover? How did it handle errors? Requirements are fuzzy and you can't tell if the application meets them." Kiro is designed to solve these problems by introducing what its creators call "spec-driven development." As the team puts it, "Kiro is great at 'vibe coding' but goes way beyond that - Kiro's strength is getting those prototypes into production systems with features such as specs and hooks." Swaminathan explains how it works: "Start with a prompt: 'Add a review system for products.' Kiro translates this into a set of user stories with EARS-style acceptance criteria." He says Kiro then generates artefacts including "a data-flow diagram, TypeScript interfaces, a database schema, and API definitions." The system's approach includes automatically specifying essential features for each user story. Swaminathan writes, "Kiro automatically includes requirements like mobile responsiveness, accessibility, loading states, and tests in the spec." Tasks are then "sequenced correctly and connected to requirements." Importantly, the specs remain in sync as the code evolves. Swaminathan notes, "Developers can author code and ask Kiro to update specs or manually update specs to refresh tasks. This solves the common problem where developers stop updating original artifacts during implementation." To automate repetitive work, Kiro introduces "agent hooks." These are "event-driven automations" that "trigger based on events like file saves or deletions." As Swaminathan puts it, "When you save a React component, hooks update the test file. When you modify API endpoints, hooks refresh README files. When you're ready to commit, security hooks scan for leaked credentials." He describes the benefit: "It's like having an experienced developer catching things you miss or completing boilerplate tasks." These hooks are also collaborative by design. Swaminathan explains, "Once this hook is committed to Git, it enforces the coding standard across my entire team - whenever anyone adds a new component, the agent automatically validates it against the guidelines." Kiro is built on top of Code OSS, meaning it is "compatible with existing VS Code settings and Open VSX plugins." It supports "Model Context Protocol (MCP)," agentic chat, and multiple context providers, including "files, URLs and document uploads." Looking ahead, Swaminathan and AWS VP of Developer Experience & Agents Deepak Singh set out an ambitious vision for Kiro. They write, "We want to tackle the root causes of pain in software development - clarity of design, alignment with requirements, technical debt, code reviews, and knowledge sharing." Kiro is available in a preview release for Mac, Windows and Linux, supporting most programming languages. Swaminathan invites developers to experience its approach: "We invite you to try Kiro and share feedback. We're just getting started, and your input will help shape the future of agentic development." By combining the "magic" of AI-powered coding with structured specs and event-driven automation, Kiro is positioning itself as a tool for developers seeking to move quickly without sacrificing discipline or reliability.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon Enters AI Vibe Coding Race With Launch of Kiro Preview
Amazon (AMZN, Financials) is stepping deeper into the AI software game; on Monday, its cloud division rolled out a preview of Kiroan AI-powered tool aimed at helping developers code, design systems, and manage tasks with minimal manual effort. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with AMZN. Kiro is part of the broader vibe coding movementan emerging field where developers delegate much of the software-building process to AI agents. It's a space that's heating up fast; just last week, Google announced it was acquiring talent from startup Windsurf in a $2.4 billion licensing deal to boost its own Gemini developer tools. Microsoft, meanwhile, has been pushing agent mode updates in Visual Studio Code. Kiro, for now, speaks only English; but more languages are on the roadmap. It's designed to work alongside developers by defining software specs upfrontbefore a single line of code is written. It also draws on models from Anthropic, an Amazon-backed AI lab, though AWS says other options will be integrated later. AWS product lead Nikhil Swaminathan and VP Deepak Singh say Kiro can automatically diagram data flow and generate collaborative task lists; that's meant to reduce the cognitive sprawl developers face when tracking decisions across long development cycles. The company added that once Kiro is fully released, it will come with both free and paid tiers; and while paying users' content won't be used to train models, free-tier users will have the option to opt out. CEO Andy Jassy, posting on X, said Kiro has a chance to transform how developers build software; that's a bold claimbut in a market where everyone from OpenAI to Cursor is racing to reshape coding itself, Amazon is clearly throwing its full weight into the next phase of AI development. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Indian Express
15-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
AWS debuts Kiro, its new AI agent-driven IDE platform for ‘better' vibe-coding
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced a new agentic Integrated Development Environment (IDE), named Kiro that would work alongside developers in their journey from prototype to production. For the uninitiated, an IDE is an application that brings together various tools needed for software development which includes code editors, debuggers, and compilers on a single user interface. IDE essentially streamlines the software development process by offering a conducive working space for developers. AWS has been creating tools to make software deployment easier for developers, and Kiro is in line with the tech giant's broad vision. The new offering from AWS enables developers to go from concept to prototype instantly through conversations about the requirements in terms of designs and specifications. 'I'm excited to announce Kiro, an AI IDE that helps you deliver from concept to production through a simplified developer experience for working with AI agents. Kiro is great at 'vibe coding' but goes way beyond that—Kiro's strength is getting those prototypes into production systems with features such as specs and hooks,' read the blog published by AWS executives Nikhil Swaminathan and Deepak Singh on Monday, July 15. When a user interacts with Kiro, it creates these specifications and designs which later makes for reliable and robust code over time, Singh said. Kiro is in line with Amazon Connect, AI-based customer service system, and AWS Transform that uses AI agents to modernise applications, he added. The IDE was launched ahead of AWS Summit 2025 in New York, United States, where it is expected to introduce developments related to AI agents. With Kiro, AWS is looking to make its mark in a rapidly growing market for AI coding tools with the presence of startups such as Windsurf and Cursor. Kiro is dropping at a time when 'vibe coding' appears to be all the rage. It is the practice of using natural language prompts to generate apps. Vibe-coding has gained attention as more and more developers have adopted tools that can respond to instructions in natural language with functional code. However, this phenomenon has also made some enterprises unsure of adopting AI coding tools into workflows owing to the lack of accuracy and possibility of hallucinations. Kiro is reportedly addressing the issue of absence of structure in AI-generated code with something introduced by AWS known as spec coding – a practice that maintains the intuitive nature of AI-assisted development along with the accuracy sought by enterprises. According to AWS, Kiro, which is said to be great at vibe-coding, goes beyond that with features like specs and hooks. In Kiro, specs are artifacts that come in handy when a developer needs the essentials to get to production. On the other hand, Kiro hooks act like an experienced developer catching things that one misses or complete boilerplate tasks in the background. Kiro essentially comes with all the features that come with a typical AI code editor such as Model Context Control (MCP) support for connecting specialised tools, rules to guide AI behaviour across projects, agentic chat for ad-hoc coding tasks with file, URL, and Doc's context providers. 'Kiro is built on Code OSS, so you can keep your VS Code settings and Open VSX compatible plugins while working with our IDE. You get the full AI coding experience, plus the fundamentals needed for production,' read the blog.
CNBC
14-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Amazon jumps into AI vibe coding with preview of Kiro
Amazon's cloud unit said Monday that it has released a preview of Kiro, a program that developers can use to write code with help from artificial intelligence. In a post on X, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Kiro "has a chance to transform how developers build software." The introduction comes days after Google said it's hiring staffers of AI coding software startup Windsurf as part of a $2.4 billion technology licensing deal. Google said it plans to make its Gemini AI models more useful to software developers. Amazon and Google are jumping deeper into so-called vibe coding, the process of directing computers to create software with minimal human direction. Microsoft has also bolstered its Visual Studio Code editor with an agent mode for automated software development. Windsurf competes with Cursor, whose parent company Anysphere was reportedly in talks to raise money earlier this year at a $10 billion valuation. OpenAI looked at acquiring Windsurf and Cursor. Amazon Web Services, the leading provider of cloud infrastructure, said on the frequently asked questions page of the Kiro website that vibe coding in its current form can be overly complex. "When implementing a task with vibe coding, it's difficult to keep track of all the decisions that were made along the way, and document them for your team," the site says. "By using specs, Kiro works alongside you to define requirements, system design, and tasks to be implemented before writing any code." Kiro can make diagrams to show how data will flow through a proposed application, and create task lists, so that people can see what's missing, Nikhil Swaminathan, product lead at AWS, and Deepak Singh, the group's vice president of developer experience and agents, wrote in a blog post. Kiro currently can only chat with people in English. Support for additional languages will come later. The program draws on AI models from Amazon-backed Anthropic, but alternatives will follow, AWS said. Free and premium tiers of Kiro will be available after the preview ends. Content from paying users won't be used to train models, and free users can opt out, AWS said.
