Security tools usually feel cold, strict, and intimidating. During the Kiroween Hackathon, I wanted to turn that experience upside down — what if security scanning could feel fun? What if vulnerability reports didn’t feel like homework, but instead felt like discovering and exorcising ghosts hiding in your codebase?
That idea became GhostOps, a spooky GitHub security scanner built entirely with Kiro. This project blends AI-assisted development, real GitHub flows, beautiful animations, and a Halloween theme into a surprisingly powerful developer tool.
This blog post is about how Kiro actually changed the way I build software — not just the final app, but the development experience itself.
🎃 The Idea: Security, but Make It Fun
GhostOps started with one simple thought:
“Vulnerabilities are like ghosts haunting your repository… what if we visualized them that way?”
Instead of yet another serious dashboard, GhostOps gives repos:
- A Haunted Health Score
- Floating ghosts during scans
- Animated “spectral findings”
- A terminal that talks back in spooky metaphors
This “fun first” idea carried through the entire build.
But the real transformation came from using all five Kiro features to build the app extremely fast while keeping everything consistent.
🧠 How Kiro Changed My Development Workflow
Before this hackathon, my workflow looked like:
- Plan the structure manually
- Search docs
- Write boilerplate
- Fix routing
- Repeat
With Kiro?
The entire workflow became a conversation.
Here’s how each Kiro feature shaped the build:
1️⃣ Specs — Turning Chaos Into a Blueprint
I wrote detailed specs inside .kiro/specs/, which Kiro used as a living architectural guide.
This eliminated backtracking and clarified what every feature should do.
The spec defined:
- Haunted health score formula
- Scan result structure
- Remediation workflow
- Dashboard → detail page → PR creation flows
Impact:
I didn’t waste time rewriting components. Kiro always understood the big picture and created code consistent with the architecture.
2️⃣ Hooks — Automated Safety Nets
I set up multiple Kiro hooks to catch issues automatically, like:
- Type-checking on file save
- Security reminders for API routes
- Style consistency for UI components
- Theming reminders to keep tone spooky
These hooks made development feel proactive, not reactive.
I got instant feedback without even opening the browser.
3️⃣ Steering — Teaching Kiro the “GhostOps Personality”
This was arguably the most fun part.
I created three steering docs:
- spooky_tone.md
- finding_explainer.md
- remediation_writer.md
These taught Kiro how GhostOps should speak.
Once loaded, every Kiro output automatically:
- Used ghost metaphors
- Added spooky messages
- Followed Halloween-themed UI text
- Explained vulnerabilities with structured, security-accurate detail
I never had to say “use ghost emojis” again — the behavior was embedded.
4️⃣ MCP Servers — Supercharging AI With Real Data
Using MCP, Kiro could:
- Fetch GitHub API documentation
- Pull CVE or OWASP examples
- Check signature verification patterns for webhooks
- Access filesystem context
This made GitHub OAuth and webhook verification shockingly fast to implement.
Kiro wasn’t guessing — it was using current, real-world documentation.
5️⃣ Powers — The Productivity Multiplier
Kiro’s powers helped generate:
- Mock repository data
- Scan results
- Consistent health scores
- PR templates
- Activity logs
For example, I asked:
“Add mock repos with findings and matching dashboard stats.”
Kiro generated a fully consistent 200+ line mock system:
- 3 repos
- Vulnerabilities
- CVE-style examples
- Computed haunted scores
- Activity logs
- Scan history
All the data interconnected perfectly — something that normally takes hours.
🏗️ Building GhostOps: A Quick Look
Frontend
- Next.js 14
- Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui
- Framer Motion animations
- Interactive terminal with xterm.js
Backend
- Next.js API routes
- GitHub OAuth
- Octokit for repo operations
- Webhook handler with secure HMAC verification
UX
- Haunted dashboard
- Spooky loading animations
- Smooth page transitions
- Real-time scan simulation
🧪 What Surprised Me Most
🔥 Kiro understood context across multiple files
I could modify a component and then ask Kiro to update related API routes — and it remembered everything.
👻 The theme consistency was perfect
Steering docs made every generated message instantly “GhostOps-themed.”
⚡ Speed
Most core features were completed in hours, not days.
GhostOps would never have reached this level of polish without Kiro accelerating architecture, UI, and logic at the same time.
🚀 Final Thoughts — Kiro Made Me Build Differently
GhostOps wasn’t just a fun idea; it became a demonstration of how AI can act as a real engineering partner.
Kiro gave me:
- Structure (Specs)
- Automation (Hooks)
- Voice (Steering)
- Real-world intelligence (MCP)
- Speed (Powers + Vibe Coding)
Instead of wrestling with boilerplate or docs, I focused on creativity, experience, and security logic.
GhostOps is the most “alive” (or undead 👻) project I’ve built — and Kiro made that possible.
🧵 Try GhostOps
GitHub Repo:
https://github.com/monodox/ghost-ops
Hackathon Entry:
https://kiroween.devpost.com
🎃 Final Note
This blog post was created for the Kiroween Hackathon — and built with lots of 👻, 🎃, and 💜.
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