Kiro is AWS's agentic IDE with spec-driven development built in. It's a real tool doing something useful. But it's also a new IDE, an AWS ecosystem play, and a commitment to one coding agent. If you want spec-driven development without switching your editor or locking into AWS, there's a different path.
Tekk.coach is a standalone spec-driven development platform — agent-agnostic, IDE-agnostic, codebase-aware. Connect your repo, plan the feature, execute with whatever coding agent you already use.
How Tekk.coach Differs from Kiro
Kiro and Tekk.coach both generate structured specs from your descriptions. The difference is in scope, architecture, and what you have to give up.
Kiro is an IDE. To use it, you leave Cursor, VS Code, or JetBrains and switch to Kiro's editor. Kiro then serves as both the spec generator and the coding agent — it plans and implements within the same environment. That's a coherent design, and it works well if you're building an AWS-native stack and want everything inside one IDE window. The limitation is the commitment: a new editor, new extensions, AWS dependency, and no way to use your preferred coding agent for the implementation.
Tekk is a platform, not an editor. You plan in Tekk, then execute in Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini — the agents you're already paying for. No IDE switching. No AWS requirement. Tekk connects to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket and reads your codebase before generating the spec.
Where Kiro generates specs from your conversation, Tekk's agent reads your actual repository first — semantic search, file lookup, directory structure, repository profiling — then asks 3–6 questions grounded in what it found. The spec it produces references real files, uses your existing patterns, and doesn't suggest approaches that conflict with your architecture.
Every Tekk plan also includes an explicit "Not Building" scope section. Most spec tools define what to build. Tekk forces you to define what's out of scope before any code is written.
Key Benefits
No IDE switching Keep Cursor, VS Code, or whatever editor you use. Tekk is a planning layer you use before dispatching to your existing tools — not a replacement for them.
Works with any coding agent Cursor, Codex, Claude Code, Gemini — Tekk generates specs any of them can execute. You're not locked into one agent or one cloud provider.
Codebase-first spec generation Before asking a question, Tekk's agent reads your repository. Specs reference your actual files, patterns, and dependencies. Output is grounded in your code, not your description of your code.
Project-level visibility Tekk's kanban board shows every planned feature, in-progress task, and completed work — each linked to its planning session. Kiro's spec workflow operates at the individual feature level, with no cross-feature view.
Explicit scope protection Every plan has a "Not Building" section. Scope creep is a spec problem, not a coding problem. Tekk solves it at the planning stage.
How It Works
Step 1: Connect your repository Link GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. Tekk indexes the codebase — languages, frameworks, services, dependencies. Supports any cloud provider; no AWS requirement.
Step 2: Create a task Describe what you want to build. A paragraph is enough — the agent's job is to extract the full requirements from the conversation, not to receive them pre-formed.
Step 3: Agent reads your code Before engaging, the agent searches your repository — semantic search, file search, regex, directory browsing. It identifies relevant files, existing patterns, and architectural constraints. No generic questions from here.
Step 4: Clarifying questions and architectural options The agent asks 3–6 questions based on what it found. Then it presents 2–3 architecturally distinct approaches with honest tradeoffs. You choose the direction.
Step 5: Spec generated The complete plan streams into the BlockNote editor: TL;DR, Building / Not Building, subtasks with acceptance criteria and file references, assumptions with risk levels, validation scenarios. Review and edit the document, then execute with your preferred coding agent.
Who This Is For
Developers already using Cursor or Claude Code who want structured specs without switching their editor. Kiro requires adopting a new IDE. Tekk works alongside what you already have. The planning session runs in Tekk; the implementation runs in whatever agent you prefer.
Teams not on AWS who want spec-driven development without AWS dependency. Kiro's deepest integrations are AWS-native. Its roadmap follows AWS infrastructure. If your stack is elsewhere, that lock-in is a real cost.
Small teams building multiple features in parallel who need project-level visibility. Tekk's kanban board shows every task's status alongside its planning session. You see what's planned, in progress, and done in one view — not just the spec for the feature you're currently working on.
Builders who want spec-driven development without process overhead — no new IDE, no AWS account, no restructuring your workflow. Connect the repo, describe the feature, get the spec, execute. That's the path.
Kiro is the right call if: you're AWS-native, you want spec-driven development inside your IDE rather than as a separate planning layer, and you're willing to switch editors and adopt the full Kiro ecosystem. Those are real tradeoffs worth making for the right team.
What Is Spec-Driven Development with Kiro?
Kiro implements spec-driven development by generating three structured files before any code is written: requirements.md (user stories and acceptance criteria in EARS notation), design.md (technical architecture and sequence diagrams), and tasks.md (sequenced implementation plan). The developer reviews and iterates on these files before Kiro begins implementation.
EARS (Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax) is a structured format for writing unambiguous requirements, originally developed for safety-critical systems. Kiro applies it to AI coding to ensure generated requirements are testable and traceable.
Kiro launched mid-2025 as part of AWS's push into agentic development tooling. It expanded to AWS GovCloud in February 2026 and added SageMaker integration in March 2026. It's powered by Claude (Anthropic's models) and is priced at $20/month, same as Cursor.
The broader spec-driven development landscape in 2026 includes IDEs (Kiro, Tessl), standalone platforms (Tekk.coach, Augment Code/Intent), open-source frameworks (GitHub Spec Kit with 70k+ stars, OpenSpec, BMAD-METHOD), and coding agents with informal spec support (Cursor's .cursorrules). The category has grown from a handful of tools to over 20 viable platforms since mid-2025.
Ready to Try Tekk.coach?
Spec-driven development works. The question is how much you want to give up to adopt it. Tekk.coach doesn't ask you to switch your IDE or change your cloud provider — connect your repo and you're planning in minutes.
Keep Cursor. Keep your workflow. Get specs grounded in your actual codebase.