A new look for the Kiro CLI

We love the terminal. If you’re reading this, chances are you do too. There’s something about the speed, the focus, and the directness of a CLI—it’s fast, reactive, and immediate. Kiro CLI already brings the power of agentic coding to that environment through its ability to chat with the agent directly, create plans, and execute multi-step workflows but when we looked at how to make the experience even better, we knew it was time for a new look.

Today, we're excited to share what's next: a refreshed UX for Kiro CLI. We'd love your feedback, so we're launching it in experimental mode with the ability to switch back to the previous experience at any time. Install the Kiro CLI and enter kiro-cli --tui in the command line to try it.

Why experimental?

We’re proud of what we’ve built, but we want to get it right and that means hearing from the people who use it every day. By launching alongside the existing experience, you can try the new UX without disrupting your workflow. Both will run in parallel, and when the community tells us it’s ready, we’ll make it the default. The transition will be seamless with no extra work on your end. As you start trying it out, share your feedback on Discord in #kiro-cli-v2-ux-feedback or by using the /feedback command in the CLI.

Why a UX refresh?

When we shipped our first CLI (a predecessor to Kiro CLI), we were one of the first agentic developer experiences to bring an AI agent to the terminal. The idea of a CLI working with agents was new territory, and we leaned in on line-by-line printing, as a fast way to get a working product into your hands. It worked and it was fast, but as more developers started using Kiro for everything from vibe coding and planning to sub-agents, we felt like we were hitting the limits of that approach.

We wanted to make sure you could interact with the agent without friction. We wanted you to be able to interrupt, redirect, and stay in control while the agent works. We wanted conveniences like / commands and @ context that you’d expect from a modern terminal user interface (TUI). And as we looked ahead to more complex workflows—sub-agents, multi-agent teams—we knew we needed a foundation that could grow with those ambitions.

That’s why we rebuilt this from the ground up, not just the display layer, but a new design language for how you interact with an agent in the terminal. Terminals print from top to bottom, and we wanted to preserve that natural flow. We designed it to respect your screen real estate, adapting to constrained environments like integrated terminals. The result is a full TUI that keeps everything that makes a CLI feel like a CLI, while unlocking the full potential of agentic coding.

What’s changing

Here’s what you’ll find in the new experience:

Live Unified Status. When you’re working with the Kiro agent, you’ll see a status bar that grows in real time as the agent responds. Tool execution statuses, the active conversation, and even line-by-line diffs are all integrated into a unified, consistent UX—no more fragmented views. Whether the agent is reading files, writing code, or running bash commands, you’ll always know what’s active right now versus what happened earlier in your session.

Omnipresent Input. The input area is always available. Queue up your next message, hit escape to interrupt, or steer the agent in a new direction—all without waiting. When the agent needs permission to run a tool, a snack bar appears right above your input with clear options: grant, deny, or trust forever. No hunting around the terminal. You stay in the driver’s seat, even while the agent is working.

Slash Commands and @ Context. Type / to see available commands in a dropdown. Use @ to add context to your conversation. These are the kinds of modern conveniences you’d expect from a traditional GUI, brought into the terminal to make life a little easier—without leaving the environment you love.

Contextual Overlays. Need to manage your context window or check your usage and credits? The new panel system overlays it right in the prompt area—almost like having GUI side panels, but native to the terminal.

Let us know what you think

Your feedback is crucial in helping us shape and deliver an even better UX within the CLI. Tell us what works, what doesn’t and what you’d love to see next. We look forward to hearing from you!

Run kiro-cli --tui in your terminal. Share your thoughts on Discord in #kiro-cli-v2-ux-feedback or via the /feedback command in the CLI. For more information, check out our documentation.