Kiro Chat for VS Code

A chat sidebar in VS Code that talks to Kiro, the way Copilot Chat does.

To return to an earlier point in a conversation, hover over one of your earlier messages and click the restore icon (↶) that appears below it: that question and its answer are kept, and every later chat is removed from the displayed history and Kiro's active context. Typing /rewind in the message box opens a picker for the same thing. Continue chatting from there. File edits are unchanged. The restored conversation is also used when you reopen the chat from history.

Setup on Windows

1. Install the extension. Double-click install-windows.bat in this folder.

If that says the code command is missing, do it by hand instead: open VS Code, click Extensions in the left bar, click the ... menu at the top, choose Install from VSIX..., and pick kiro-chat.vsix from this folder.

2. Restart VS Code and click the Kiro icon in the left bar.

3. Follow whatever the panel tells you.

If Kiro's command line tool isn't on your machine yet, the panel shows a short setup screen with buttons. Clicking them opens a terminal with the right command already typed in. You press Enter to run it. Nothing runs behind your back.

If Kiro is already installed and you're signed in, the panel skips all of that and is ready to chat.

Where the panel lives

It starts in the left bar, but it does not have to stay there. Drag the Kiro icon to the bottom panel or to the secondary sidebar on the right, whichever suits how you work. Or run Kiro Chat: Move Panel from the command palette and pick a spot.

Your conversation is kept when you move it. VS Code rebuilds the panel from scratch on a move, so the extension saves the transcript and puts it back.

One VS Code rule worth knowing: extensions are not allowed to place a panel in the secondary sidebar themselves. Only you can drag it there. That is why it starts on the left.

Using it

• Open the panel and you get a fresh chat, already connected. No button to press first.
• Type, press Enter to send. Shift+Enter for a new line.
• Press Ctrl+Alt+K to jump to the chat from anywhere.
• Whatever file you have open, and any text you've highlighted, is sent along so Kiro knows what you're looking at.
• Right-click highlighted code and choose Kiro Chat: Explain Selection.
• Stop cuts off a reply. The + at the top starts a fresh conversation.

Updating to a newer version

Short answer: it does not update itself, and that is a VS Code rule, not a choice I made.

VS Code switches auto-update off for any extension installed from a .vsix file. Only extensions installed from a marketplace update on their own. So when you get a newer kiro-chat.vsix, you install it the same way you installed the first one.

That part is handled properly:

• Run install-windows.bat again with the newer file. It sees the version already installed, replaces it, and tells you the old and new version numbers.
• Your settings are kept. Model choice, Kiro path, tool approvals, all of it.
• On the next start, the panel tells you it updated and offers to show what changed.
• Installing by hand through Install from VSIX... works the same way. You do not need to uninstall first.

Run Kiro Chat: About and Check Version any time to see which version you are on.

Context: telling Kiro what to look at

The code you highlight is sent automatically. Select something in the editor and a chip appears above the message box showing the file and line numbers, like src/app.ts:12-40. It follows your cursor as you move. The chip only reports what is going; clear the highlight in the editor to leave it out, or turn off kiroChat.sendSelection.

Attach files and folders with the + button next to the message box. It offers a searchable list of everything in your project, a folder picker, or an image.

Right-click in the Explorer and choose Kiro Chat: Add to Chat Context. Select several things first and all of them are added.

Drag and drop files or folders from the Explorer onto the message box. The box highlights as you drag over it. When you drop, a reference is written into your message at the cursor, so you can carry on typing around it:

explain @src/api/routes.ts and how it uses @src/models

The dropped items are attached as well, so Kiro can open them.

Attached items show as chips. Click a chip's name to open that file, or the × to remove it. Files and folders stay attached until you remove them; images clear once sent.

One detail worth knowing: Kiro reads attached files itself rather than having their contents pasted into the message. It reports that it will not accept file contents inlined in a prompt, so the extension passes the paths and lets Kiro fetch what it needs. Your highlighted selection is the exception, since that is short and goes in directly.

Screenshots and images

Paste an image straight into the message box with Ctrl+V. Take a screenshot with Windows' Win+Shift+S, click the message box, paste, and it attaches.

You can also use + then An image to pick image files from disk.

Click an image thumbnail to open a larger view, either before sending it or in a sent message. Choose Actual size to inspect details and scroll around the image, or Fit to view to fit it within the chat panel. Press Escape, click Close, or click outside the viewer to return to chat. You can also Tab to a thumbnail and press Enter or Space to open it. Available from version 0.30.6.

If your Kiro version does not accept images, the panel says so rather than silently dropping them. The extension checks this when it connects.

Seeing your usage

A strip under the status line shows credits used in this chat and how full the context is, when Kiro reports them. Both were broken before 0.37.0: Kiro sends the credit figure in a shape the panel did not read, so the strip always said none had been reported. Under each reply is the model and what that turn cost, like claude-sonnet-4.5 · 0.42 credits, as Kiro metered it. The model is the one selected when you sent that turn; auto stays auto, because Kiro chooses per task and does not report which model it picked. A turn Kiro did not report a cost for shows nothing rather than 0 credits, since those two are not the same thing. Available from version 0.36.0. Click this strip above the chat messages to open the session context panel. It shows the latest context percentage, model capacity, and used and Kiro's own breakdown of what is in the context, from its context command: the files it holds, tool definitions, its replies and your prompts, each with a token count.

The meter turns amber at 80% and suggests considering a new session for a new task. At 95%, it recommends saving a summary and using + to start a fresh session. These are suggestions; the extension does not reset the session automatically. The reading may decrease if Kiro compacts context. A new or reopened session with no reading shows Context not reported until Kiro sends one. Individual totals for messages, tools, system prompts, memory, and the compaction buffer are not available.

Click Check account usage inside the dropdown, or press Usage at the top, for your account picture: plan name, credits used against your limit, renewal date, and overage status. Those credits are account-wide, while the context percentage belongs to this session. The account report comes from Kiro's own usage command. If it answers with plain text, the panel reads what it can and shows the report in full. If the command fails, the panel explains the error; Kiro Chat: Show Log has the whole exchange.

If you still see only the account report, install the updated kiro-chat.vsix and run Developer: Reload Window from the Command Palette. Version 0.30.5 adds the session context panel; Kiro Chat: About and Check Version shows your installed version.

Changing the model

There's a dropdown at the bottom of the panel, next to the Send button. Pick a model and it switches straight away.

It fills itself with whatever models your Kiro account actually offers, so you see real choices rather than a guessed list. Each row shows the model's description and context window, with its credit rate on the right, like 1x or 2.2x. auto is Kiro's default: it picks a model per task.

The rates come from Kiro's model command, which the panel asks for as it connects — the model list alone does not carry them. If a model still shows no rate, that means Kiro did not say, not that it is free, and the list says so at the bottom rather than leaving you guessing.

Under the list is what this chat has cost so far, plus your plan's credits once Usage has fetched them, so the price is in front of you at the moment you pick a model.

Your choice is remembered and used again next time, including in new conversations.

You can also press Ctrl+Shift+P and run Kiro Chat: Change Model if you prefer a searchable list.

Two things worth knowing:

• The dropdown locks while Kiro is mid-reply. Switching models halfway through a reply confuses the session, so wait for it to finish.
• If the dropdown stays greyed out saying "Model: default", your version of Kiro isn't reporting a model list. Everything else still works; Kiro just uses its own default.

Choosing a workflow mode

The mode dropdown beside the attachment and model controls changes how Kiro approaches the next request:

• Default — general coding assistance.
• Spec — structured requirements, design, tasks, and implementation.
• Quick Spec — clarify only blockers, then generate a concise spec and proceed.
• Bug Fix — investigate, diagnose the root cause, make a focused fix, and verify it.
• Plan — analyze and return an implementation plan without changing files.

The choice survives panel moves and reloads and is shown on the sent message. These workflows are explicit request instructions layered over Kiro's ACP session. Plan also has a hard safety boundary in the extension: callback writes are refused and any direct Kiro write is restored.

Instructions: how Kiro should always work

The mode menu has a group called Instructions, whose row shows what is currently set. Click it and a full-width box opens over the transcript. Whatever you write there goes in front of every message:

Always reply in Bahasa Malaysia.
Use tabs, never spaces.
Write the test before the fix.

No file is created. This is not memory — it is instruction text put in front of your message, the same way the Spec and Bug Fix workflows already work, with you holding the pen. It lives in the kiroChat.instructions setting, so it follows Settings Sync.

The difference from memory is worth keeping straight:

	Memory	Instructions
Holds	facts Kiro should know	directives Kiro should follow
Example	"this project uses pnpm"	"always write the test first"
Lives in	a markdown file	a setting, no file

Enter makes a new line — this is a list, not a chat box. Ctrl+Enter saves, Escape closes. Also on the command palette as Kiro Chat: Your Instructions.

Keep it short. Unlike a memory file, which Kiro opens when it wants it, this text goes with every message, so its length is spent on every turn. There is a 4000-character cap; past it the box warns you rather than dropping the end in silence.

Memory: what Kiro knows before you say anything

The same dropdown has a group called What Kiro always knows. It lists the markdown files Kiro reads at the start of every turn, opens one for editing, and removes one you no longer want.

The extension does not implement this. Kiro CLI already loads these files itself, from three places:

Where	Applies to
.kiro/steering/*.md	this project
AGENTS.md in the project root	this project
~/.kiro/steering/*.md	every project you open

Measured against kiro-cli acp 2.20.2 rather than taken from documentation: a fact placed in any of these is answered with zero tool calls, which is what shows the text was already in the prompt rather than fetched on demand. The YAML frontmatter is optional — a bare .md in the steering folder is loaded — and editing a file part-way through a chat changes the next answer in that same conversation, so there is no need to start a new one.

Adding memory creates .kiro/steering/memory.md, never a root-level AGENTS.md: Kiro reads both, but a file at the repo root is one you might commit, and that is a larger consequence than a menu click implies. An AGENTS.md you already have is listed, because a panel saying "nothing yet" beside a file Kiro is reading would be the exact confusion this is meant to fix.

Removing asks first and sends the file to the recycle bin.

The three kinds

Row	File	Who sees it
Add project memory	.kiro/steering/memory.md	anyone you share the repo with
Add local memory	.kiro/steering/memory.local.md	only you
Add global memory	~/.kiro/steering/memory.md	only you, in every project

The first two sit in the same folder and differ only by file name, so the row that needs a qualifier gets one: (not committed). Global memory is not committed either, but for a different reason — it lives in your home folder, outside any repository — so its row says this machine only rather than letting that qualifier imply otherwise.

Local memory in a shared repository

.kiro/steering/ is part of the project, so in a shared repo a memory file is one git add away from being everybody's. Add local memory creates .kiro/steering/memory.local.md and adds it to .git/info/exclude.

That file lives inside .git, which is never committed. So unlike a .gitignore line — which would itself be committed, broadcasting the name of the file you were trying to keep to yourself — nothing reaches your teammates: not the file, not the rule. The file stays exactly where Kiro reads it, and git status stays clean.

You can keep both: memory.md for what the team should share, memory.local.md for your own notes.

The row tells you the truth about the file rather than assuming. If git can still see it — most often because it was committed before being excluded, and an ignore rule does nothing to a tracked file — the row says "git can see this" instead of claiming it is not committed.

For a shared agent configuration with its own resources list, set kiroChat.args to ["--agent", "my-agent"].

If it doesn't work

Open the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Kiro Chat: Show Log. It shows exactly what was tried.

The two usual causes:

• Not signed in. Run kiro-cli login in a terminal. This is the same command the setup screen's Sign in button types for you.
• No folder open in VS Code. Kiro needs a folder to work in.

If the log says it couldn't find kiro-cli, run which kiro-cli in a terminal and paste the result into Settings, search "Kiro Chat", field Command.

Which systems this works on

Windows only. Mac and Linux support was taken out on purpose, so the code has one path through it instead of three. On any other system the extension says so and stops rather than failing later with a confusing "kiro-cli not found".

Kiro CLI 2.0 and newer installs natively on Windows. Use Kiro's PowerShell installer, then run kiro-cli login. To find it, the extension checks the usual install folders — starting with %LOCALAPPDATA%\Kiro-Cli\ — then where kiro-cli, and finally WSL.

If you are on an older Kiro CLI that only runs under WSL, that still works: the extension finds it and runs it through WSL for you. One thing to know: keep your project inside the Linux side of WSL (/home/you/...) rather than a Windows drive (/mnt/c/...), or file reads get slow.

If your kiro-cli is a .cmd or .bat shim rather than a real .exe, that works too — those are started through the shell, since Node will not launch them directly.

How this works

Kiro is its own separate app, so nothing can reach inside it. But Kiro's command line tool can run as an agent that other editors talk to over a pipe. That's a public, documented feature, and it's the same one Zed and JetBrains use.

VS Code sidebar  ->  this extension  ->  kiro-cli acp  ->  Kiro

Everything runs on your own machine. No extra account, no key, no server. It uses the Kiro login you already have.

Safety choices worth knowing

• Reading and writing files is limited to your open workspace folders. This includes every root in a multi-root workspace; a path outside all of them gets refused. The check is made against where a path really leads, so a symlink or a junction inside the folder that points out of it is refused too.
• Tools ask first inside the chat, one question at a time. Kiro's permission choices appear as an inline card in the current response instead of a separate popup. Kiro can ask about several tools at once; the questions are queued and put to you in turn, and a card says how many are behind it. Once you answer, the card collapses to one line — what was asked and what you chose — instead of keeping a column of spent buttons. There is a setting to auto-approve, off by default. Only turn it on in a folder you trust.
• Each file is reviewed as Kiro finishes editing it, not all of them at the end. The diff opens as soon as the edit lands, and Kiro waits for your answer before starting the next one — so you see one file at a time while the turn is still running. Set kiroChat.reviewDuringTurn to false to go back to reviewing everything at the end. The file is put back to its pre-edit state before the diff opens, during the turn as well as at the end, so an accepted change is written through the editor and Ctrl+Z works on it. Kiro waits for your answer before its next edit, so it never builds on the restored file.
• File changes open for inline review before the turn finishes. Deleted/original lines are red and inserted/proposed lines are green in a source editor tab. Each changed section gets its own Accept and Reject actions above it; Accept all, Reject all, Next change and Previous change sit at the top of the file. Or use Alt+Enter and Shift+Alt+Enter with the cursor on a hunk, and Alt+F5 / Shift+Alt+F5 to walk between them. Accepted hunks are written immediately while rejected hunks collapse back to the original. Kiro CLI's built-in edit tool writes directly, so the extension captures its result, restores the pre-turn file when the turn ends, and leaves only the lines you approve. Closing the tab keeps the hunks you already accepted and rejects only the ones you never answered — an accepted hunk was written the moment you clicked it, and putting the old file back over the top would undo work you had agreed to. Cancelling the turn is the other case, and that really does drop everything. This is on by default and can be disabled in settings.
• No terminal through the extension. It tells Kiro it cannot run shell commands on its behalf. Kiro CLI still has its own tools, including running commands and editing files in its own process; the workspace boundary above governs what the extension reads and writes for Kiro, and the permission card is the gate on what Kiro runs itself. Autopilot approves all of it.
• Text coming back from Kiro is escaped before it is shown, so a reply cannot inject anything into the panel.

Settings

All optional.

Setting	What it does
kiroChat.command	Path to kiro-cli. Leave empty to auto-detect.
kiroChat.args	Extra arguments for kiro-cli acp, e.g. ["--agent", "my-agent"]. Added after acp, where its options belong.
kiroChat.env	Extra environment variables for Kiro.
kiroChat.allowFileWrites	Let Kiro keep its edits. Turn off and every edit is undone at the end of the turn — see the note below.
kiroChat.autoApproveTools	Skip the approval popup. Off by default.
kiroChat.reviewFileWrites	Inline red/green review with whole-file and per-hunk decisions. On by default.
kiroChat.reviewDuringTurn	Review each file as Kiro finishes editing it, rather than queueing every diff to the end of the turn. On by default.
kiroChat.attachActiveFile	Send the file you are looking at with each message. On by default.
kiroChat.sendSelection	Send highlighted code with each message.
kiroChat.model	The model to use. The dropdown sets this for you.

What "read-only" actually means

Worth being precise about, because it is not what you might assume. Kiro CLI 2.21 performs its own built-in file edits rather than asking this extension to make them, so there is no point at which the extension can decline one. Both kiroChat.allowFileWrites and Plan mode work by taking a snapshot before the turn and putting the file back at the end.

The file therefore does change on disk, briefly, in the middle of the turn. Nothing you do in the editor will see it — the contents are restored before the turn finishes — but anything else watching the filesystem can: a dev server, a test watcher, a build, a file sync. If you need a guarantee that nothing is written at all, don't open the folder.

Settings survive upgrades. If the saved path to Kiro ever stops working, for example because Kiro updated itself and moved, the extension clears it, goes back to searching, and tells you it did so, rather than just failing.

Building it yourself

npm run build

That installs, compiles and writes kiro-chat.vsix next to install-windows.bat. Then double-click install-windows.bat to install it, and restart VS Code.

npm test runs the checks on their own. There is one GitHub Actions workflow, .github/workflows/ci.yml, which does the same three steps on Windows for every push. It publishes nothing — the extension is installed from the .vsix, not from the Marketplace.

Slash commands

Type / in the message box for Kiro's own commands (/compact, /rewind, /usage, /context and the rest), drawn from the list Kiro announces. /help shows the same list and names the few that only make sense in a terminal.