Kiro powers give your AI agent instant access to specialized knowledge for any technology. Powers package your tools, workflows, and best practices into a format that Kiro can activate on-demand. When you mention relevant keywords, Kiro loads the power's context and tools automatically.
| Capability | IDE | CLI | Web | Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Install and use powers | ✓ | v3 | ✓ | — |
| Create powers | ✓ | v3 | — | — |
Without framework context, agents guess. Your agent can call Stripe APIs, but does it know to use idempotent keys? It can query Neon, but does it understand connection pooling for serverless? Without built-in expertise, you're both manually reading documentation and refining approaches until the output is right. Powers give your agent (and by extension, you) instant access to specialized knowledge, so you can work in unfamiliar domains faster.
With too much context, agents slow down. Connect five MCP servers and your agent loads 100+ tool definitions before writing a single line of code. Five servers might consume 50,000+ tokens, 40% of your context window, before your first prompt. More tools should mean better results, but unstructured context overwhelms the agent, leading to slower responses and lower quality output.
Instead of loading all MCP tools at once, powers activate dynamically based on keywords in your conversation.
When you start a task, Kiro:
Powers follow the Agent Plugins specification — an open, vendor-neutral format for packaging reusable components that extend AI agents. A power is a directory with a required manifest and optional components:
my-power/ ├── plugin.json # Required manifest ├── skills/ # Agent Skills │ └── setup/ │ ├── SKILL.md │ └── references/ ├── mcp.json # MCP server configuration └── dev.kiro/ # Kiro-specific extensions └── steering/
Install the Stripe power with one click. When you mention "payment" or "checkout," the power activates, loading Stripe's MCP tools and skills into context. When you're done with payments and move to database work, the Supabase power activates and Stripe deactivates.
Portable plugin format — Powers follow the Agent Plugins specification, an open standard with maintainers from Amazon, Cursor, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Vercel. Build once and your power works across compatible agent clients.
Dynamic MCP tool loading — Traditional MCP servers load all tools upfront. Powers load tools on-demand, reducing baseline context usage while giving your agent access to dozens of technologies.
Open ecosystem — Browse curated powers from launch partners including Datadog, Dynatrace, Figma, Neon, Netlify, Postman, Supabase, Stripe, Strands SDK, and AWS Aurora. Install community-built powers from GitHub URLs, or create and share your own.
One-click install — Browse powers directly in Kiro or on kiro.dev. Click "Install" and the power registers automatically. No JSON configuration files, no command-line setup.
Powers are plugins that bundle MCP tools, skills, and knowledge into a single installable package. They activate dynamically based on context. Use for integrations where you need both tools and guidance. Powers can contain skills as components.
Skills are standalone portable instruction packages that guide agents through specific tasks. They can exist independently or be bundled inside a power. Use for reusable workflows you want to share or import.
Steering is Kiro-specific context that shapes agent behavior. It supports always, auto, fileMatch, and manual modes. Use for project standards and conventions.
Powers