Spec-Driven Development with Kiro
Please note that this is not a prep course for any AWS certification!
This document contains links mentioned in the “Spec-Driven Development with Kiro” course, and additional material on the same topics.
Module 0: Course Introduction
Full name: Spec-Driven Development with Kiro
Product code: 200-MLDVKR-10
These links are based on the course version 1.0.4.
The official course outline: Spec-Driven Development with Kiro (PDF)
The official course material: eVantage Bookshelf (VitalSource)
Lab environment: AWS Builder Labs
The tool itself: Kiro, Kiro documentation, Kiro changelog, Kiro blog
Additional material on AWS Skill Builder related to this course. Digital courses are free with a Skill Builder account; labs, SimuLearn and Cloud Quest need a Skill Builder subscription; AWS Jams are classroom events.
Skill Builder: Digital courses (free)
- Kiro Getting Started
- Spec-Driven Development with Kiro
- Introduction to Kiro powers
- Kiro: From Basics to Advanced Features
- Kiro in Action: A Developer’s Walkthrough
- Kiro Governance and Safety: Securing Agentic AI in Enterprises
- Kiro: Frontier Agent for Every Persona
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) - Simply explained
- Introduction to Agentic AI on AWS
- Balancing speed and safety: A control framework for AI coding agents
- Responsible Artificial Intelligence Practices
Skill Builder: Self-paced labs (subscription required)
- Lab - Structured Approach to AI coding with Spec-Driven Development on Kiro
- Lab - Enhance Production Applications with AI-assisted Development in Kiro
- Lab - Troubleshoot Application Issues with Kiro CLI
- Lab - Security posture assessment and remediation using the Kiro CLI
- Lab Tutorial - Building Your First Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server (BETA)
Skill Builder: Learning plans and exam prep
- Amazon Q Developer Knowledge Badge Readiness Path
- AI Driven Development Lifecycle Knowledge Badge Readiness Path
- AWS Agentic AI Learning Plan
- Generative AI Learning Plan for Developers (includes labs)
- Exam Prep Plan: AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01 - English)
- Exam Prep Plan: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02 - English)
- Exam Prep Plan: AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional (AIP-C01 - English)
Skill Builder: Jams and game-based learning
- AWS Jam - Spec-Driven Development with Kiro
- AWS SimuLearn: AI-Assisted Development with Kiro
- AWS SimuLearn: Building Apps with Kiro Specs and Hooks
- AWS SimuLearn: AI Development Lifecycles with Kiro
- AWS Cloud Quest: Generative AI Practitioner
Module 1: Introduction to Agentic Development with Kiro
Websites
- Kiro pricing
- Kiro for enterprise
- Kiro CLI
- Models - Docs - Kiro
- Available models - Docs - Kiro
- Authentication - Get Started - Docs - Kiro
- How Kiro works - Docs - Kiro
- Building Effective AI Agents (Anthropic)
- Strands Agents SDK
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore
- Kiro Documentation - Get Started
- Setup & First Run - IDE - Docs - Kiro
- Chat - IDE - Docs - Kiro
- Installation - Get Started - Docs - Kiro
- CLI - Docs - Kiro
- CLI commands - Commands and Reference - Docs - Kiro
- Billing - Docs - Kiro
- FAQs - Kiro
- Concepts - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- What is Amazon Bedrock AgentCore?
Blog posts
- Kiro and the future of AI spec-driven software development
- Introducing Kiro
- Kiro is generally available: Build with your team in the IDE and terminal
- Bring Kiro agents to your terminal with Kiro CLI
- Announcing new pricing plans and Auto, our new agent
- One agent, every surface: how we built the Kiro agent harness
- One year of Kiro: a look back, and a look ahead
- Introducing Strands Agents, an Open Source AI Agents SDK
- Introducing Amazon Bedrock AgentCore: Securely deploy and operate AI agents at any scale
- Building Production-Ready Agents with Kiro: Steering, Powers, Hooks, Specs, and Skills
Videos
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - Kiro: Your agentic IDE for spec-driven development (DVT209)
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - Building software like never before with Agentic AI (DVT220)
- Kiro: The agentic IDE changing the way developers work - Amazon Q Podcast (Amazon Web Services, 2025)
- Tips for building AI agents (Anthropic, 2025)
- Kiro Spec-Driven Development vs Vibe Mode (Adventures in Generative AI)
- 3 Credit-Smart Strategies to Maximize Kiro’s Potential (Kiro)
Module 2: Spec-Driven Development with Feature Specs
Websites
- Specs - Docs - Kiro
- Feature Specs - Specs - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Requirements-First Workflow - Feature Specs - Docs - Kiro
- Design-First - Feature Specs - Specs - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Analyze Requirements - Specs - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Quick Spec - Specs - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Best practices - Specs - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Correctness with Property-based tests - Specs - Docs - Kiro
- EARS: Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax (Alistair Mavin)
- Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax - Wikipedia
- Welcome to Hypothesis!
- Quickstart - Hypothesis
- Introduction - fast-check
- What is Property-Based Testing? - fast-check
Blog posts
- Does your code match your spec?
- Specs just got faster (and smarter)
- Requirements analysis: catching requirement bugs before they become code
- Kiro Specs: Stop Improvising and Start Planning Features with AI
- Harness Engineering with Kiro: Spec-Driven Development for the Multi-Agent Era
- From spec to production: a three-week drug discovery agent using Kiro
- Build a Multi Account Patch Compliance Dashboard with Kiro Specs
- Graduating from Vibe Coding: Spec-Driven Development with Kiro
- Frequently Asked Questions about the EARS Notation and Jama Connect Advisor
- What is Property Based Testing? (hypothesis.works)
Videos
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - From concept to production: Build with spec-driven development & Kiro (DVT320)
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - Spec-driven development with Kiro (DEV314)
- Kiro PBT - Verify Your Code Matches Your Spec (Amazon Web Services)
- Spec Driven Development with Kiro: Vibe Coding with Guardrails by Kevin Azijn, Adriaan de Jonge (Devoxx)
- Graduating from Vibe Coding: Spec-Driven Development with Kiro - Ray Goh (AWS User Group Hong Kong, 2025)
- IW2022 Introduction to EARS - Mav (INCOSE RWG, 2022)
- Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax (EARS) - The Basics (Saxion Media Xpert Centre)
- What is Property Based Testing & How it Works in KIRO (Adventures in Generative AI)
Module 3: Steering, Context, and Agent Control
Websites
- Steering - Docs - Kiro
- Autopilot and Supervised mode - Chat - IDE - Docs - Kiro
- Configuration scopes (workspace vs global) - Docs - Kiro
- AGENTS.md
- Terminal - Chat - IDE - Docs - Kiro
- Permissions - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Checkpoints and rewind - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Compaction - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Export sessions - Chat - IDE - Docs - Kiro
- Slash commands - Chat - IDE - Docs - Kiro
- Slash commands - Commands and Reference - Docs - Kiro
- Steering Kiro, and improving the game homepage - Learn by playing - Guides - Docs - Kiro
Blog posts
- Teaching Kiro new tricks with agent steering and MCP
- Stop repeating yourself: why global steering is the AI context layer you’ve been missing
- Never lose your way: Introducing checkpointing in Kiro
- Kiro in a Real Project: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started
- KIRO - The Complete Guide for Teams
- DEV Track Spotlight: Spec-driven development with Kiro (DEV314)
- Kiro Steering Guide
- Kiro: From Steering Docs to Specs to Hooks - An Agentic IDE Walkthrough
Videos
- Kiro Steering - Consistent Agent Behavior Across Every Task (Amazon Web Services, 2025)
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - Unlock the power of Kiro steering: Your blueprint for scalable development (DVT340)
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - Accelerate development with Kiro’s new agentic AI capabilities (DVT228)
- Kiro IDE Walkthrough - Amazon’s Agentic Code Editor Explained (Ali Zgheib, 2025)
- Steering en Kiro: Reglas para tu Agente (AWS Developers LATAM, in Spanish)
Module 4: Bugfix Specs
Websites
- Bugfix Specs - Docs - Kiro
- fast-check official documentation
- Fixing a subtle physics bug - Learn by playing - Guides - Docs - Kiro
- Fixing an interactions bug across several files - Learn by playing - Guides - Docs - Kiro
- Dev servers - Chat - IDE - Docs - Kiro
- Stateful tests - Hypothesis documentation
- How Hypothesis Works
- Model based testing - fast-check
- Read test reports - fast-check
- jqwik: Property-Based Testing in Java
Blog posts
- New spec types: fix bugs and build on top of existing apps
- The bug fix paradox: why AI agents keep breaking working code
- Property-Based Testing Caught a Security Bug I Never Would Have Found
- Property Based Testing With Typescript
- Root cause in 33 seconds: How Kiro CLI saved 4 years of build time
- Test Driven Development (TDD) with Kiro: this is how it should feel
- How We Learned to Trust an AI Agent to Triage Production Incidents
- Rule Based Stateful Testing (hypothesis.works)
- Integrated vs type based shrinking (hypothesis.works)
- Compositional shrinking (hypothesis.works)
- The Threshold Problem (hypothesis.works)
- When multiple bugs attack (hypothesis.works)
- A Claude Code command for Hypothesis (hypothesis.works)
- Empirical Characterization Testing (Mark Seemann)
- How to Improve Legacy Code with Characterization Tests (Khalil Stemmler)
- Metamorphic Testing (Hillel Wayne)
Videos
- New spec types: fix bugs and build on top of existing apps (Kiro, 2026)
- Spec-Driven Development: Agentic Coding at FAANG Scale and Quality - Al Harris, Amazon Kiro (AI Engineer, 2025)
- Spec driven development with Kiro - How to Build with AWS (AWS Events)
- John Hughes - Don’t Write Tests
- John Hughes - How to specify it! A guide to writing properties of pure functions (Code Mesh LDN, 2019)
- Testing the hard stuff and staying sane - John Hughes (Midwest.io, 2016)
- Zac Hatfield-Dodds - Escape from auto-manual testing with Hypothesis! (PyCon US, 2019)
- Florian Bruhin - Property based testing with Hypothesis (Swiss Python Summit, 2024)
- Property Based Testing - Fast-Check
- From Examples to Exhaustive: Intro to Property-Based Testing (Software Quality Days, 2026)
Module 5: MCP Servers and Tool Integration
Websites
- MCP configuration - Docs - Kiro
- Model Context Protocol
- MCP - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Server directory - MCP - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Tools - MCP - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Tool search - MCP - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Examples - MCP - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Best practices - MCP - Features - Docs - Kiro
- MCP - Governance - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Extending Kiro with MCP - Learn by playing - Guides - Docs - Kiro
- What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?
- MCP Architecture overview
- Understanding MCP servers
- MCP Specification
- awslabs/mcp: Open source MCP Servers for AWS
- AWS Documentation MCP Server
- Setting up the AWS MCP Server
Blog posts
- Unlock your development productivity with Kiro and Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Introducing remote MCP servers
- Enterprise governance: control your MCP servers and models
- The AWS MCP Server is now generally available
- Introducing AWS MCP Servers for code assistants (Part 1)
- Build AWS architecture diagrams using Kiro CLI and MCP
- Agentic Cloud Modernization: Accelerating Modernization with AWS MCPs and Kiro
- AWS MCP Servers (Part 1): Your AI Assistant’s Gateway to Real-Time AWS Knowledge
- Introducing the Model Context Protocol (Anthropic)
Videos
- Extending Kiro’s Capabilities with MCP (Kiro, 2025)
- From Scratch to Server: Setting Up an MCP Server on Kiro (Kiro, 2025)
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - Extend Kiro with MCP support for richer context (DVT213)
- How to Add MCP Servers to Kiro (Snyk)
Module 6: Kiro Powers
Websites
- Kiro Powers catalog
- Install powers - Docs - Kiro
- Create powers - Docs - Kiro
- Powers - Features - Docs - Kiro
- kirodotdev/powers: Powers add specialized context and tools to the Kiro agents on-demand
- AWS Infrastructure as Code Power - POWER.md (kirodotdev/powers)
- Datadog Power (kirodotdev/powers)
- Figma Power (figma/mcp-server-guide)
- supabase-community/kiro-powers: Supabase development powers for Kiro IDE
- Kiro IDE changelog
- Amazon CloudWatch Application Signals now supports integration with Kiro powers
Blog posts
- Introducing Kiro powers
- Introducing the AWS Infrastructure as Code MCP Server: AI-Powered CDK and CloudFormation Assistance
- Introducing Amazon Aurora powers for Kiro
- How Mirelo AI brought sound design to the IDE with MCP and Kiro powers
- The new Supabase power for Kiro
- Building production-ready Stripe subscriptions using Kiro powers
- HashiCorp is a Kiro powers launch partner
- From vibe coding to production: Kiro powers + Netlify
- Kiro Powers: Build Smarter Workflows with On-Demand AI Capabilities
- Get Started with Kiro + MCP in Minutes. Go Deeper with Kiro powers.
Videos
- Kiro Powers: Empower your AI Agents with Specialized Expertise (Kiro, 2025)
- AWS re:Invent 2025 - Kiro powers: Empower agents with specialized expertise (DVT343)
- Kiro Powers - Bundle Tools and Knowledge On Demand (Amazon Web Services)
- What is AWS KIRO POWERS? How I Deployed to Netlify in Minutes (Coding Hives)
- Kiro Power + AWS AgentCore (AI Playground)
Module 7: Agent Hooks, Skills, and Custom Subagents
Websites
- Agent Skills open standard
- Hooks - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Hook triggers - Hooks - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Hook actions - Hooks - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Hook management - Hooks - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Hook examples - Hooks - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Best practices - Hooks - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Agent Skills - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Agent Skills Specification (agentskills.io)
- Custom agents - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Creating custom agents - Custom agents - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Agent configuration reference - Custom agents - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Invoking as sub-agents - Custom agents - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Built-in agents - Custom agents - Features - Docs - Kiro
- Agent examples - Custom agents - Features - Docs - Kiro
Blog posts
- Automate your development workflow with Kiro’s AI agent hooks
- Kiro powers now support Agent Plugins
- Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills
- Experimenting with agentic player/coach workflows in Kiro CLI subagents
- AWS Kiro for AI Hackathons: Hooks, Steering, and Custom Agents
Videos
- Kiro Hooks - Event-Driven Automation for Your IDE (Amazon Web Services)
- Kiro Agent Hooks: Auto-Detect & Fix Security Vulnerabilities (Demo)
- Kiro Skills - Portable Workflow Packages for AI Agents (Amazon Web Services)
- Kiro subagents explained
- Build with Custom AI Agents in Terminal - Kiro CLI Full Demo
- Kiro powers and Agent Skills in your development workflows
Module 8: Team Collaboration and Enterprise Governance
Websites
- Web tools governance - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Kiroignore - Docs - Kiro
- Onboarding quickstart - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Connecting your identity provider - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Subscribe your team - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Manage subscriptions - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Governance - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Models - Governance - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Permission policies - Governance - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- MCP registry - Docs - Kiro
- Settings - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Monitor and track - Enterprise - Docs - Kiro
- Extension registry - Editor - IDE - Docs - Kiro
Blog posts
- Enterprise identity and usage metrics
- Introducing improved enterprise sign-in controls
- Govern MCP Tools at Scale with Kiro and AgentCore Gateway
- Security Considerations for AI Coding Assistants and How Kiro Addresses Them
- Kiro Did It: Secure AWS Kiro IDE Enterprise Access with Okta SSO!
- Accelerating GovTech development with Kiro
Videos
- Kiro’s Bi-Weekly Show - See steering in action
- Deploying Kiro IDE in the Enterprise: Identity, Feature Controls, and AI Governance!
- Turning context into better decisions with steering, hooks, and MCP
Module 9: Course Wrap-up
Websites
- Kiro CLI and the one-line installer script at https://cli.kiro.dev/install
- Headless mode - CLI - Docs - Kiro
- Kiro documentation
- Kiro changelog, with separate IDE and CLI changelogs
- Kiro Powers catalog
- AWS Skill Builder
- AWS Classroom training
- AWS Certification
- AWS Certification exams
- AWS Recertification
- Schedule an Exam
- AWS Ramp-Up Guides
- AWS Workshops
- AWS Training and Certification contact form
Courses
- Developing Generative AI Applications on AWS
- Advanced Generative AI Development on AWS
- AWS Skill Builder courses
- AWS Builder Labs