Like many developers, I'm always on the lookout for tools that can streamline my workflow, especially in today's AI fast-paced world. Each day, one stumbles upon a new model, a new agent, a new AI IDE. That's how I stumbled upon #Kiro AI IDE, an AI-powered development environment 🧠⚙️ that promised more than just syntax highlighting.
What caught my attention?
📑 The Spec feature allowed me to define my project requirements, designs, task management, and logic in natural language, directly within the IDE. These specs actually act as living documentation and intelligent guidance for the AI. They enable it to generate and refine code that aligns with my intentions by outlining endpoints, describing UI components, and detailing business logic. Well, I intended to build a Reality Checker, which is a WhatsApp and web-based AI tool that will help South African job seekers instantly verify the legitimacy of job ads.
💬 Like all other AI IDEs, #Kiro also has a Chat section that serves as your AI copilot, which enables real-time conversations directly within your coding environment. It has many capabilities, such as explaining the code, generating new functions, or debugging errors. What stands out about Kiro chat is the seamless way of interacting with my coding environment with tasks by just clicking Start task. This interface understood my context and project structure, not just being innovative, but highly relevant.
🪝 Hooks in #Kiro are automated actions triggered by events, for example, saving a file, creating new files, or even running tests. They helped in streamlining my workflow by letting me set up predefined tasks such as formatting, linting, or even deploying without manual intervention. This was making my development process faster and more efficient.
🧭 The Steering feature allows you to guide the behaviour and tone of your AI assistant across the IDE. It makes it easy for the developer to set custom instructions like coding style preferences, project tone, or the level of AI verbosity. This will ensure that the AI aligns with my goals and development style throughout the project.
🧠 Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that standardises how applications provide context to large language models (LLMs). In #Kiro, it keeps the AI assistant deeply aware of my project. It gives the AI access to the codebase, specs, chat history, and project structure to ensure that all responses are not just general, but contextually intelligent. This makes it easier for the AI model to generate, refactor, or explain code with an understanding of the bigger picture.
Immediately after stumbling upon the Kiro AI IDE, the code with #Kiro Hackathon was also published here https://kiro.devpost.com/. The hackathon is a challenge for developers to explore #Kiro AI IDE. At the time this post was published, it had 23 days to go. This hackathon for me was not just about cool tech exploration; it challenged me to solve real-world problems using the Kiro IDE. I wanted to build something that had a social impact, especially here in South Africa, where digital solutions often fail to meet the needs of those most affected.
I brainstormed a few ideas, but one issue kept surfacing:
"What if we could instantly tell whether a job ad is real or a scam?"
And that is how Reality Checker was created, currently being developed to meet its requirements with the help of #Kiro fully
All the features of #Kiro played a crucial role in transforming the Reality Checker project into a functional, intelligent, and scalable tool. The Editor and Spec components helped define and build the core logic efficiently and clearly. Meanwhile, the Hooks automated testing and formatting, ensuring that the codebase remained clean during rapid iterations.
By using 💬 Chat, I resolved various edge-case issues. I received context-aware suggestions in real-time, and with 🧭 Steering, I ensured that the AI assistant aligned with the project's tone and objectives. Most importantly, 🧠 MCP allowed the AI to operate with a comprehensive understanding of the entire project, linking logic, files, and goals. This was crucial for developing a reliable tool to combat job scams in South Africa. #hookedonkiro
Top comments (0)