# Amazon Kira: The New AI-Powered IDE Challenging Cursor and Copilot
Introduction
On July 16, 2025, Amazon unexpectedly launched Kira, a new AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE) designed to compete with popular tools like Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Firebase Studio. Powered by Claude Sonnet 4.0, Kira introduces a novel approach called "spec-driven development", which aims to reduce sloppy AI-generated code by enforcing structured planning before implementation.
But Kira isn’t the only big news in the AI coding space. China’s Kimmy K2, an open-weight agentic coding model, has also entered the scene, rivaling Claude in performance. With AI coding tools evolving rapidly, developers now have more options than ever—but is Kira truly a "Cursor killer"?
The AI IDE Wars Heat Up
The battle for developer tools has intensified over the past year. A few weeks ago, OpenAI attempted to acquire Windsor (another VS Code fork) for billions, but the deal collapsed. Google then poached Windsor’s talent with a $2.4 billion offer, leaving Cognition (the creators of Devin) to scoop up the remaining assets in an all-stock deal.
Meanwhile, Anthropic has been dominating the AI coding market with its Claude Code CLI, skyrocketing from under $1 billion in revenue to over $4 billion this year. Amazon, a major Anthropic investor (with $8 billion poured in), has now entered the fray with Kira, potentially disrupting the status quo.
How Kira Differs from Cursor & Copilot
Kira is built on VS Code (like many competitors) but introduces a structured workflow to prevent AI-generated chaos. Instead of jumping straight into coding, Kira enforces a three-step process:
- Requirements.md – Define user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Design.md – Outline implementation details, testing strategies, and error handling.
- Implementation Plan – Break tasks into actionable steps before generating code.
This spec-driven approach makes Kira ideal for enterprise teams where documentation and consistency matter. However, early users report that it feels slower than Cursor and lacks some features like chat checkpoints.
Pricing & Future Plans
Currently, Kira is free, making it an easy choice for developers to try. However, Amazon’s long-term strategy remains unclear. Given Cursor’s recent pricing controversies, Kira could undercut competitors by offering cheaper Claude-powered coding without middleman markups.
While Kira is closed-source and Claude-only for now, Amazon plans to support multiple AI models in the future.
Conclusion: Is Kira the Future?
Kira’s structured, enterprise-friendly approach sets it apart from the free-for-all nature of other AI coding tools. While it may not replace Cursor for quick prototyping, it could become the go-to IDE for large-scale, maintainable projects.
For developers who want to understand the AI behind these tools, platforms like Brilliant offer hands-on courses in AI and machine learning.
The AI coding revolution is far from over—will Kira dominate, or will another contender rise? Only time will tell.
What do you think? Will you switch to Kira, or stick with Cursor/Copilot? Let us know in the comments!
This article is based on **The Code Report* (July 16, 2025). Watch the full video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6r7iVzP6M&ab_channel=Fireship].*
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