AWS jumps into the agentic IDEs bandwagon with Kiro. To separate itself from vibe-coding approach, which accumulated a considerable amount of ill repute, they emphasize the “spec-driven development” method. That means that the agent first helps the user to create a full requirements document for the feature, then it analyzes the existing code base, and only after that it starts implementing.
This approach definitely makes sense, and it’s a step forward from blindly running into the fray that is vibe-coding. The fact that those specs are updating along with the code changes makes them even more valuable, minimizing the problem of stale documentation. Hooks can run repeated agentic tasks, such as making sure the new feature has sufficient tests, automatically.
It is interesting to watch how different tools adopt different methodologies, as it allows the developers community to find and disseminate the techniques that really work.