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AWS profile image Ricardo Sueiras
Ricardo Sueiras for AWS

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The essential guide to installing Amazon Q Developer CLI on Linux (headless and desktop)

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Update: On November 17th Amazon Q CLI became Kiro CLI - functionally, they work the same. I have updated this post to reflect the name changes and update links

Kiro CLI is supported on 64-bit x86_64 and ARM aarch64 versions of recent distributions of Fedora, Ubuntu, and Amazon Linux 2023.

I spend most of my time in the command line. It is my happy place. Kiro CLI is a perfect companion for me, made even more compelling with its agentic capabilities.

Whilst I do spend most of my time on my Mac, I wanted to dive into how I could get access to Kiro CLI on various Linux distributions. If you spend much of your time in Linux, including headless systems, then this post is for you. I wanted to share what I had learned in doing this to help simplify life for you.

I am going to cover a couple of different scenarios:

  • GUI Linux systems - my daily Ubuntu machine, running desktop
  • Headless Linux systems - typical Linux distributions you might use on AWS (for example, Ubuntu or Amazon Linux 2023)

Setting up your Builder ID

Before we begin the installation, lets first create our Builder ID. We will need this after we install Kiro CLI, and we will use it to login so we can use it for free. All you need to do is register for your Builder ID using an email address, and you are good to go (there are lots of other benefits of having a Builder ID too, so make sure you check those out too).

Installing on local Linux distributions

Before proceeding with the installation of Kiro CLI, it is worth noting some of the requirements you will need to have the "full experience". The requirements are documented in the Kiro CLI installation docs for handy reference - if you are running a modern/new-ish distro, you are most likely going to be ok.

There are actually two ways you can install the Kiro CLI onto your Ubuntu desktop, so choose the one that fits your preference.

Note! There is another installation method, where Amazon Q Developer CLI is distributed via a zip package. This is intended for headless installations, and whilst it will run on a GUI installation, logging in will hang.

Via AppImage

AppImages are becoming more popular as they package up everything in one file which you can then execute. Here is how you can get it up and running in just a few minutes:

1/ Install dependencies (this is only needed for Ubuntu)

sudo apt install libfuse2
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2/ Grab the AppImage

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://desktop-release.q.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest/kiro-cli.appimage -o kiro-cli.appimage
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3/ Make it executable

chmod +x kiro-cli.appimage
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You can now run the installation program by opening the file from the GUI file manager, or running "./kiro-cli.appimage" from the command line. You should see the Kiro CLI appear.

For the latest updates on the installation procedure, check out the Kiro CLI docs

You will have noticed that it did not ask me to login with my Builder ID as I had already created it before hand and had logged in.

Via the Debian package

1/ Install dependencies (this is only needed for Ubuntu)

sudo apt install libfuse2
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2/ Download the debian package

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf wget https://desktop-release.q.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest/kiro-cli.deb -o kiro-cli.deb
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3/ Install the package

sudo dpkg -i kiro-cli.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
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4/ Open up a new bash shell and from the terminal type:

kiro-cli
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This will bring up the GUI tool. Follow the instructions, and after logging in with your Builder ID you should be good to go.

Uninstalling

If you need to remove/uninstall Kiro CLI, then its pretty straight forward. If you used the AppImage when installing, then you can run the following command:

kiro-cli uninstall
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If you installed via the debian package, then you can use the following command:

sudo apt purge kiro-cli
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Installing on headless (remote) Linux distributions

In this setup we are going to install Kiro CLI on a remote, headless Linux system.

Log in to your remote Linux system. You will need to have system level privileges as we will making changes and restarting services.

Dependencies

Kiro CLI needs glibc 2.34 or later on the host you are going to be installing it on. You can check by running this command

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-29-188 ~]$ ldd --version
ldd (GNU libc) 2.34
Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

If you have an older Linux distribution, fear not. There is a separate download file, referred to as the musl build, which should allow you to get up and running.

1/ The first thing you are going to need to do is make an update to the sshd_config ( /etc/ssh/sshd_config) file adding the following lines to the end of the configuration:

    AcceptEnv Q_SET_PARENT
    AllowStreamLocalForwarding yes
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You should restart sshd using

sudo systemctl restart sshd
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Disconnect and reconnect back to the Linux host. You are now ready to deploy the Kiro CLI binaries.

2/ Install dependencies (this is only needed for Ubuntu)

sudo apt install libfuse2
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3/ Download the zip file

The version of the zip file you need will depend on whether your current Linux system is running older versions of glib.

If you are running a system that has glibc 2.34 or newer, then this is your download file

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf 'https://desktop-release.q.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest/kirocli-x86_64-linux.zip' -o 'kirocli.zip'
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If you are using Arm based systems, use "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf 'https://desktop-release.q.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest/q-aarch64-linux.zip' -o 'kirocli.zip'" instead.

Using musl builds for older Linux distrubutions

If you have an older system, then you should download the musl builds, using this link:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf 'https://desktop-release.q.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest/kirocli-x86_64-linux-musl.zip' -o 'kirocli.zip'
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4/ Unzip the file once verified

unzip kirocli.zip
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7/ Run the installation script

chmod +x kirocli/install.sh
./kirocli/install.sh
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And then follow the prompts.

? Select login method ›
❯ Use for Free with Builder ID
  Use with Pro license

Confirm the following code in the browser
Code: PNDN-QVKB

Open this URL: https://view.awsapps.com/start/#/device?user_code=PNDN-QVKB
▰▰▱▱▱▱▱ Logging in...
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Open up a web browser in your local machine, and use that URL. After logging in with your Builder ID and following the prompts, when it completes when you return back to the command line you should see.

Logged in successfully
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8/ You can now validate that Kiro CLI is up and running by running the "kiro-cli doctor". Open a new bash terminal, and then type:

kiro-cli doctor
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Uninstalling

The process to remove Kiro CLI from your Linux host is pretty straight forward:

  1. Delete the binaries that you copied
  2. (optional) Update the bash/zsh scripts to remove the .local/bin directory if you are not using it for anything else
  3. Remove the entries you added from the sshd configuration file (/etc/ssh/sshd_config) and restart

Conclusion

In this post I introduced different ways you can install Amazon Q Developer CLI on your Linux environments. Whether they are your local desktop environments or remote headless systems, you can install and have Amazon Q Developer CLI available to you wherever you work.

Get started with Kiro CLI today

This blog post showed how you an easily get Kiro CLI up and running on your Linux system. Check out the official docs here.

You can try Amazon Q Developer CLI for free today, by signing up for a Builder ID and then downloading it from here.

Until next time folks!

Made with 🧡 by DevRel!

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