How I built a complete AI Compliance Auditor MVP using Kiro's spec-driven development approach
🛤️ The Crossroads of Development: Why Kiro Changes Everything
Kiro, meaning "crossroads" in Japanese (きろ), perfectly embodies the intersection where traditional development meets AI powered acceleration. Thanks to the AWS Community Builders Program, I was able to try out Kiro's features over the last few weeks, and what I discovered fundamentally changed how I approach software development.
Important Note: Kiro, launched today in public preview, is not an AWS service or an "AWS Kiro" - it's an agentic IDE that stands on Code OSS platform with the product brand "Kiro". It's unlike any other Amazon product launch. While my examples showcase AWS integrations, Kiro works agnostically with any technology stack and any cloud provider. Once installed, you can easily get started with Kiro using Google Sign-in, GitHub, Builder ID, or AWS SSO authentication. An AWS account or Amazon account is NOT mandatory. Kiro offers free access (with some limits) during public preview with Agent Model Selection capabilities, supporting both Claude Sonnet 4.0 and 3.7 state-of-the-art models for its Agentic AIOps.
Gone are the days of scattered requirements, unclear implementation paths, and endless back and forth between planning and coding. Kiro introduces a revolutionary spec-driven development methodology that transforms ideas into production ready systems with unprecedented clarity and speed.
⚡ My Journey: From Concept to Production in Record Time
Let me share how I used Kiro to build a complete AI Compliance Auditor for E-Commerce - a serverless system that moderates e-commerce product reviews using Amazon Nova Premier Model, enforces compliance policies, and maintains comprehensive audit trails. What would typically take weeks of planning, coding, and iteration was accomplished in a fraction of the time using Kiro's agentic AI approach.
🔗 View the complete source code on GitHub - See exactly what Kiro helped me build!
The Challenge: Building Enterprise Grade AI Systems
My requirements were complex:
- AI powered content moderation using Amazon Bedrock Nova Premier
- Policy driven compliance with regional variations (GDPR, etc.)
- Comprehensive audit trails for regulatory compliance
- Serverless architecture with Step Functions orchestration
- Real-time monitoring and reporting
- Production ready deployment with proper security
This is exactly the type of project where traditional development approaches struggle: complex requirements, multiple integrations, and the need for both technical depth and architectural clarity.
🎯 Kiro's Spec-Driven Development: The Game Changer
The Structured Approach
Kiro's approach centers on three critical specification files that serve as your project's single source of truth:
requirements.md - Captures what needs to be built using user stories and acceptance criteria in EARS format (Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax), ensuring everyone understands the feature's purpose.
design.md - Outlines the technical architecture with components, data models, and interfaces, serving as a blueprint for implementation.
tasks.md - Breaks down the work into a checklist of coding tasks that build upon each other, providing a clear implementation plan.
Creating Your First Spec
To create a new spec, start a new session in Kiro's chat (right sidebar) and select the "Spec" option. Kiro will ask clarifying questions about your goals, project requirements, and needs. It automatically detects existing specs if you're making updates or refinements.
Here's what happened when I initiated my AI Compliance Auditor spec:
The beauty of this approach is that Kiro doesn't just create documentation - it creates living documentation that evolves alongside your code, maintaining accuracy throughout the development lifecycle.
Multimodal Context Integration
Kiro seamlessly processes diverse inputs including files, codebases, docs, images, repository maps, git diffs, terminal output, current problems, URLs, and external documentation via MCP servers, and builds a comprehensive multimodal understanding of your project. This enables Kiro's contextually aware coding assistance and spec development that's perfectly aligned with your project's current state.
✨ Kiro's Intelligent Features in Action
Agent Steering: Project Specific Intelligence
One of Kiro's most powerful features is Agent Steering - the ability to guide Kiro's behavior for your specific project. When you run "Kiro: Setup Steering for Project" from the command palette, three steering files are created:
- product.md - Defines the product vision, features, and target users
- structure.md - Documents the project's directory structure and organization
- tech.md - Documents the technology stack and development tools
Custom Agent Steering
- libraries.md is the custom steering document I created:
Best Practices using Custom Agent Steering
🔐 Security First: Always add sensitive files to .gitignore. Never commit environment keys, secrets, or sensitive configuration files. Kiro's steering files help enforce these practices across your team. Ask Kiro in natural language: Identify any sensitive/secret/config/env files from #codebase and also add all these files to project's .gitignore
📦 Stay Current: Always use the latest package versions and npm. Kiro helps you maintain up-to-date dependencies automatically.
🔄 Avoid File Proliferation: When working on changes and iterations, avoid the underlying Claude model creating multiple files with suffixes like fixed, clean, new, etc. Kiro's approach keeps your codebase clean and organized.
📚 Leverage MCP Servers: Always use MCP servers for AWS services and refer to existing markdown files for context. Don't create new markdown files - refer to the same context using MCP servers like Context7 and AWS Labs MCP server for AWS docs.
🔌 Model Context Protocol (MCP): Extending Kiro's Capabilities
MCP extends Kiro's capabilities by connecting to specialized servers. You can easily manage MCP Servers in the Kiro panel. For my AWS heavy project, the AWS Documentation MCP server was invaluable:
{ "mcpServers": { "aws-docs": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["awslabs.aws-documentation-mcp-server@latest"], "env": { "FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL": "ERROR" }, "disabled": false, "autoApprove": [] } } } This gave me instant access to up-to-date AWS documentation, best practices, AWS Well-Architected Framework and implementation patterns directly within Kiro. Kiro will automatically use the appropriate MCP tools to answer your questions or you can provide explicit context like: #[aws-docs] search_documentation Tell me about Transforming data with JSONata in Step Functions. The MCP servers tab displays configured servers, their connection status, and available tools. Click any tool to test it with a placeholder prompt in chat:
When using MCP servers, follow these security best practices:
- Review Tool Permissions: Understand what each MCP tool can access and do
- Use Auto-Approve Sparingly: Only auto-approve tools you trust completely
- Workspace Isolation: Use workspace-level configs for project-specific MCP servers
- Don't Commit MCP Config to Git: Never commit the mcp.json file to your git repository as it may contain sensitive personal access tokens or API keys
- Never Share Configuration Files: Configuration files may contain sensitive tokens
🎛️ Autopilot vs. Supervised Mode: Choose Your Development Style
Autopilot Mode: Maximum Velocity
When I enabled Autopilot Mode (toggle in the bottom-right corner), Kiro transformed into a development accelerator:
- Complete Code Implementation - Watch as Kiro transforms ideas into working code in seconds
- Rapid Iteration - Slash development time by eliminating back-and-forth approvals
- Maximum Efficiency - Focus on the big picture while Kiro handles implementation details
For my AI Compliance Auditor project, Autopilot mode was perfect for implementing the foundational components: data models, Lambda functions, and infrastructure code.
Supervised Mode: Collaborative Control
With Autopilot turned OFF, Kiro operates in "Supervised" Mode, providing a collaborative development experience:
- Request Approval - Before making changes, Kiro presents its plan and waits for explicit approval
- Show Detailed Steps - See exactly what actions Kiro intends to take
- Maintain Full Control - Accept or reject proposed changes with convenient buttons
I used Supervised Mode for critical components like the policy engine and Bedrock intelligent prompt caching configurations, where I wanted to review every change.
🔗 Agent Hooks: Automation That Actually Works
Agent Hooks automate workflows by monitoring file changes and triggering actions. I configured several hooks that dramatically improved my workflow just by asking Kiro to create them using natural language prompts!
Git Automation Hook
Automatically commits all changes to git repository whenever Kiro completes its tasks, including all hook executions
Documentation Sync Hook
Listens to source code changes and automatically updates project documentation in README or docs folder
Code Quality Hook
Monitors source code files for changes and analyzes modified code for potential improvements including code smells, design patterns, and best practices
Setting Up Hooks
Create hooks via the "Kiro Hook UI":
- Configuration - Name your hook, toggle enable/disable, set description
- Trigger Events - Choose from File Created, Saved, Deleted, or Manual Trigger
- File Monitoring - Select multiple file patterns to watch
- Instructions - Define Kiro's actions when triggered
🛡️ Trusted Commands: Autopilot Safety
For Autopilot mode, I configured Trusted Commands - shell commands to auto-accept if requested by the Agent:
npm * # Allows all npm commands cdk * # Allows all CDK commands python -m * # Allows Python module execution 
Other commands are auto-denied, requiring approval and providing safety while maintaining velocity.
📊 Real Results: The Numbers Don't Lie
Using Kiro's spec-driven approach, I accomplished in less than an hour:
- 14 Major Tasks completed with 32 sub-tasks
- 100% Integration Test Success Rate
- Complete Serverless Architecture with 4 Lambda functions
- Full AWS Integration with Bedrock Nova Premier, Step Functions, DynamoDB
- Production-Ready Deployment with monitoring and security
- Comprehensive Documentation that stays current
What traditionally would have taken weeks was completed within minutes, with higher quality and better documentation than I've ever achieved.
🏢 Beyond One Demo: My Portfolio of Enterprise Solutions
The AI Compliance Auditor was the beginning to just demo Kiro. Using Kiro's spec-driven approach, I've rapidly developed multiple enterprise grade applications that showcase the true potential of Kiro's Agentic AI assisted spec-driven development:
AI Resume Ranking System
A sophisticated HR automation platform powered by Amazon Bedrock Nova Premier that intelligently ranks and analyzes resumes. The system features advanced search capabilities, skill based filtering, and AI powered candidate scoring.
Key features include:
- Real-time resume processing with 100% success rate
- Advanced filtering by experience level, skills, and AI score
- Intelligent candidate matching and ranking
- Clean, professional interface with comprehensive analytics
Interactive Calendar Platform
A dynamic calendar application that showcases event management with categorized filtering and interactive design. Built with modern frontend web technologies and deployed with full CI/CD automation.
Features include:
- Interactive monthly calendar view
- Event categorization (Cultural, Historical, Awareness Days, etc.)
- Responsive design with professional UI/UX
- Real-time event discovery and filtering
Tech Conference Management System
A comprehensive conference management platform using Storyblok headless CMS (content management system) for tracking global technology events, specifically designed for AWS Summits and tech conferences worldwide.
The platform manages:
- Global conference scheduling and tracking
- Virtual and in-person event coordination
- Multi-location event management
- Professional conference discovery interface
🚀 The Zero-Employee Enterprise Vision
With Kiro's capabilities expanding rapidly, I just have to integrate Stripe payment processing into my development workflows to build a fully working SaaS startup. I can deploy complete startup ideas - from concept to monetization - in less than one hour. We're witnessing the dawn of the AI-Powered Solo Enterprise era, where brilliant founders or solopreneurs with game changing ideas can build billion dollar companies with zero employees.
Imagine:
- Idea to MVP: Complete product development in under 60 minutes
- Automated Operations: AI handling everything from customer service to billing
- Scalable Architecture: Serverless systems that grow with demand
- Global Deployment: Worldwide availability from day one
This isn't science fiction - it's happening now. Kiro's spec-driven development approach, combined with modern cloud services and AI capabilities, enables single developers to build and operate enterprise scale businesses without traditional overhead.
🏆 The Kiro Advantage: Why This Matters
Enhanced Collaboration
Kiro's specs streamline communication between teams and reduce friction. Everyone works from the same source of truth.
Enables Parallel Work
Clear boundaries allow concurrent development efforts without conflicts.
Creates Living Documentation
Documentation evolves alongside your code, maintaining accuracy throughout the project lifecycle with detailed requirements, design and task list synced together.
Improves Quality
Forces clear requirement definition upfront, preventing costly rework later.
Free Access to Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.0 and 3.7 models
Switch seamlessly between Claude Sonnet 4.0 and 3.7 models within Kiro. No fees or subscriptions required during the Kiro public preview. Accessing these premium models elsewhere, such as via Claude Code CLI or Amazon Bedrock, typically incurs subscription fees or substantial token-based charges, but with Kiro, you can use them at no cost with reasonable limits during the public preview.
💡 Essential Kiro Tips and Tricks I've Learned
Start with the Spec - Never jump straight into coding. Use Kiro's spec workflow to clarify requirements first. You can also use the free-form chat mode whenever needed for general assistance and vibe coding.
Leverage MCP Servers Extensively - The Context7 and AWS Labs MCP servers provide incredible value. Use them for every AWS related task.
Configure Steering Early - Set up your steering files immediately. They dramatically improve Kiro's contextual understanding.
Use Agent Hooks for Repetitive Tasks - Automate git commits, documentation updates, and code quality checks.
Mix Autopilot and Supervised Modes - Use Autopilot for foundational work, Supervised for critical components.
Keep Tasks Granular - Break down complex features into small, manageable tasks in your tasks.md.
Iterate on Requirements - Don't be afraid to refine your requirements as you learn more about the problem space.
Reuse your hooks, steering, and reusable prompts - Create reusable templates of your
.kiro/hooks/,.kiro/steering/, and.prompts/directories to accelerate new project setup.Leverage Natural Language Automation - Use natural language prompts to create your own agent hooks and agent steering rules to automate everything.
🌟 The Future of Software Development is Here
Kiro represents a fundamental shift in how we approach software development. It's not just about AI assistance - it's about intelligent orchestration of the entire project development lifecycle.
The spec-driven approach ensures that every line of code serves a clear purpose, every architectural decision is documented, and every task builds logically toward your goals. Combined with Kiro's AI capabilities, this creates a development experience that's both more productive and more thoughtful.
🚀 Get Started with Kiro Today
Ready to experience the future of software development? Here's how to begin:
- 🌐 Visit kiro.dev to get started
- 🤝 Join the community on Discord: kirodotdev
- 🏁 Code with Kiro Hackathon is now live with $100,000 in prizes! Build, collaborate, and showcase your ideas: kiro.devpost.com
- 📱 Follow the journey on social media:
- 🧪 Start with a simple spec-driven project to experience the difference
Conclusion: Standing at the Crossroads 👻
Kiro Agentic AI IDE represents the intersection of human creativity and AI capability. It's where clear thinking meets rapid execution, where architectural vision meets implementation reality.
My experience building some of these projects with Kiro wasn't just about completing them faster, it was about developing better software with greater confidence, clearer and "live" documentation, and more maintainable architecture.
The future of software development isn't about replacing developers with AI. It's about empowering developers with AI to achieve things that were previously impossible. Kiro makes that future available today.
Have you tried vibe-coding or spec-driven development with Kiro? Share your experiences and connect with the growing community of developers who are revolutionizing how software gets built.
Top comments (2)
Good!!
tremendously helpful