How Kiro Helped Me Build “VibeForces”: Timed Web-App Battles for Real Devs
Forget copy-pasting snippets. This hackathon, I built something that actually tests real developer skills and I owe a lot to Kiro’s spec-driven, agentic IDE.
If you dev, you’ve probably been “vibe coding” for a while—those flow-state rushes where you ship quick prototypes but maintaining or scaling them turns into a maze of TODOs and broken docs. For the Code with Kiro Hackathon, I needed something different: a platform where devs face off in timed, real web-app challenges—runnable projects, not just code snippets.
Enter VibeForces:
Timed web-app contests and async challenges.
Live leaderboard and Elo-style ratings.
Bounties and forums for real discussion, not just likes.
Submit zipped or git-linked projects that run through real end-to-end tests (Playwright/Puppeteer).
Editorials with code walkthroughs and actual runnable demos.
The MVP?
Multi-problem contests, challenge statements with test specs, automated judging, runnable submissions, scoreboards, bounties, and discussion forums. (Even a seed dataset, because you want it demo-ready out of the gate.)
Why Kiro—And Not “Just Another AI IDE”?
I’ll be honest: most AI code tools today are autocomplete on steroids. They’ll finish your sentence, but they won’t organize, spec, and test your whole project for you. Kiro, though, is all about structured, spec-first workflows. It’s more like a... project manager crossed with your sharpest junior dev.
Three features really changed the game for me:
Spec-Driven Everything
Kiro forced me to clarify every contest flow—statements, test cases, point allocation, bounty rules—before the first React/Node line was even generated. The “Specs” system let me convert bare ideas into requirements, then into data models, tasks, and actual code, keeping everything in sync as the build evolved. I never had to go chase lost acceptance criteria after my focus broke.Agent Hooks & Automation
When my workflow hit that test-and-repeat grind (think: “run project, hit Playwright, check what broke”), Kiro hooks let me automate sanity checks, test runs, even security linting. It’s less babysitting, more building. If something broke like a runner failing a test on someone’s zipped submission the hook flagged and documented it without any prompt.Steering & Context-Passing
Kiro’s “Steering” is wildly underrated: I plugged in repo-specific docs (challenge formats, leaderboard update policies) and, magically, every codegen respected my conventions and didn’t overwrite critical glue logic. It felt like my own private context engine instead of battling autocomplete resets every time.
Subtle Features That Actually Helped
Real-time Chat Panel: Not just helpline fluff. The inline chat let me debug, explain, and summarize chunks without breaking flow.
Agentic Editors: Splits for side-by-side file editing while mapping out contest/judge logic.
Security & Sandboxing: I was paranoid about user code—Kiro’s docs and default containerization made it straightforward to keep test runners safe and isolated.
Could I Have Built “VibeForces” Without Kiro?
Probably, but it would’ve taken longer, left a thousand TODOs, and shipped much buggier. Honestly, the spec-to-test-to-code feedback loop is what let me deliver a demo that actually works—not just “runs on my machine.”
If you’re tired of AI-dev tools that only make you type faster, and want something that lets you think, organize, and automate whole workflows—Kiro’s worth a spin. I’m excited to see what the rest of the hackathon ships.
Built for the Code with Kiro Hackathon, 2025.
Thanks to AWS, Kiro Team and hackathon managers for conducting this hackathon and providing with generous usage limits of this new AI Code editor.
Top comments (0)