The Kiro CLI provides comprehensive prompt management capabilities for both local prompts and Model Context Protocol (MCP) prompts. This system allows you to create, edit, organize, and use reusable prompts across your development workflow.
The prompt system supports three types of prompts:
All prompt management is accessed through the /prompts command with various subcommands.
/prompts list
Displays all available prompts in a three-column layout showing names, descriptions, and sources. Shows prompt counts and indicates which prompts come from local storage, global storage, or MCP servers.
/prompts create --name name [--content content]
Creates a new local prompt in the current workspace.
name (required)
: Prompt name (maximum 50 characters)
--content content (optional)
: Direct content specification
Behavior:
--content is provided, creates prompt with specified content.kiro/prompts/ in the current workspace/prompts edit name
Opens an existing prompt in your default editor for modification.
Supported prompts:
/prompts details name
Shows comprehensive information about a prompt including:
Once you've created prompts, invoke them in chat using the @ prefix:
@prompt-name
In addition to prompts, you can use the @ syntax to reference files and directories directly in your messages. Kiro will automatically expand these references to include the content or structure in your conversation.
Basic Syntax:
# Include file contents > Review @src/auth.rs for security issues # Include directory tree > What's the structure of @crates/agent/? # Quoted paths for spaces > Check @"my file.txt" for errors # Relative paths > Compare @./v1/api.rs with @./v2/api.rs
Features:
@ to auto-complete file and directory pathsSize Limits:
Priority Rules:
When you use @name, Kiro checks in this order:
@name matches a prompt (local, global, or MCP), it's treated as a promptThis means your prompts always take precedence over files with the same name.
Limitations:
@*.rs won't work)@file.rs:10-20 won't work)@~ won't work)@code-review # Uses your local code-review prompt @src/auth.rs # Includes the contents of src/auth.rs file @crates/agent/ # Shows the directory structure of crates/agent/
MCP server prompts can accept arguments to customize their behavior. File-based prompts (local and global) do not support arguments.
@server-name/prompt-name <required-arg> [optional-arg]
Use /prompts details prompt-name to discover what arguments an MCP prompt accepts.
# Example: Using MCP prompt with arguments @dev-tools/analyze "performance issue" "detailed" @security-tools/scan "web-app" "high-severity"
project/.kiro/prompts/~/.kiro/prompts/When multiple prompts have the same name, the system uses this priority order:
This allows you to override MCP or global prompts with project-specific versions when needed.
The system displays the complete prompt content before sending it to the AI model, eliminating confusion about what information was actually processed.
The prompt system seamlessly integrates with MCP servers:
These examples demonstrate file-based prompt creation and MCP prompt usage.
# Create a simple prompt without arguments /prompts create --name code-review --content "Please review this code for best practices, security issues, and potential improvements:" # Use the prompt (no arguments supported for file-based prompts) @code-review
# Using MCP prompts with arguments @dev-tools/analyze "performance bottleneck" "cpu usage" @security-tools/scan "web-app" "high-severity" @aws-tools/deploy "my-service" "production" "us-west-2"
Manage prompts