Amazon just dropped a new IDE: Kiro out of nowhere.

Kiro showcases its “spec-driven development” focus which is interesting branding: “Spec” coding vs “Vibe” coding.

“Spec” seems like you're following a plan and “Vibe” you just go where the vibes take you. Yes, I realize all agentic IDEs encourage planning, I just mainly have an issue with the term “Vibe coding”.

Another thing to consider is they have AWS Q cli already which is similar to a Claude Code lite (some Claude people are going to hate me for that). It is interesting to watch the AI powered IDE Agent battle unfold.

The feature sets are not all that different and even if they are it's only a short amount of time until the other bit tech products copy whichever feature is setting you apart.

It looks like it is a race to the bottom pricewise, seeing who can undercut their competitors' prices on a per token basis.

In the end I think AWS/Google have a slight edge, not because they have a better IDE Agent, but because whatever is being built with the IDEs will likely need to either exist online or talk to infrastructure that exists online.

If you want to host stuff online where do you go? Amazon, GCP, and possibly Azure.

So all Amazon has to do to stay ahead is make sure the other guys don’t create some type of moat around their product.

It is like how Google created Android then released it for free so Apple couldn’t corner the smartphone market and therefore control the search engine for all searches made on smartphones.

Fireship got in early and did a great video on Kiro you should check out.