Going from Zero to Kiro Hero

** 🤖 Zero to Kiro Hero: Customizing Your AI Coding Agent**
Level: Foundational to Intermediate
Format: In-Person Hands-on Workshop
Duration: 2 hours
If you've been using an AI coding assistant by opening it up, typing a prompt, and hoping for the best, you're in good company. That's where everyone starts. But there's a whole layer underneath that turns the experience from "kinda useful" into "I actually want this in my workflow." And it has way more to do with how you set the agent up than how cleverly you word your prompts.
This workshop is your next step. We'll dig into the mechanics of customizing Kiro, AWS's AI coding agent. We'll cover both the IDE and the CLI, so whether you live in your editor or your terminal, we've got you covered.
**🛠 What we'll cover**
The agent is the heart of any Kiro setup. It's where you decide what context gets pulled in, what tools are available, and what runs automatically around it. We'll build one together, piece by piece:
- **Steering Files:** project-level guardrails that shape how Kiro behaves across every conversation
- **Skills:** reusable capability bundles that teach Kiro how to handle specific tasks
- **Prompts:** what actually works, and the patterns that quietly sabotage you
- **Hooks:** automated checks that run before and after Kiro makes changes
- **Tools:** what Kiro can actually do, including the built-in AWS tool for poking at resources and running commands against your account
- **Powers:** think of them as targeted level-ups. Install one and your agent gets MCP servers, steering, and hooks tuned for a specific tool or framework, loaded only when the work actually calls for it.
**🎯 What you'll walk away with**
- A working `.kiro/` configuration tailored to your projects
- A personal library of skills and steering files you can reuse
- Patterns for safely letting an AI agent loose on your codebase
**🎁 Provided for attendees**
- Free Kiro credits, courtesy of the Kiro team
- AWS-provided virtual desktops. No local setup, just show up.
**✅ Before you arrive**
1. Sign up for a Kiro account at [kiro.dev](https://kiro.dev)
2. Apply your credits ahead of time (instructions coming before the event)
3. If you've been wrestling with getting results from AI on a project, bring those problems with you. We'll work through real scenarios, not toy examples.
No prior experience with AI agents needed. If you can use a terminal or an IDE, the rest is just configuration.
*P.S. Yes, this description was written by Kiro. If you've been skeptical about what AI can actually do, this workshop is how you go from zero to Kiro hero.*