Can kiro-cli create specs like an IDE?

[liwendaucas]

Feature Description

The spec mode in the Kiro IDE is really handy. In some cases, I have to use the CLI tool, but currently, it doesn't seem like the CLI includes a spec feature.

Use Case

In the kiro-cli to use spec mode.

Additional Context

No response

[ramanNarasimhan77]

+1. I use kiro-cli daily and when it comes to building new features, the lack of spec support is a real gap.

Third-party tools like spec-kit exist and support kiro-cli, but they're generic prompt templates designed to work across dozens of agents. They don't know about Kiro's steering files, subagent delegation, or codebase context. The result is a lowest-common-denominator experience compared to what the IDE delivers.

Without native support, CLI users are left rolling their own — either writing custom subagents to create plans because default planning agent cannot create persistable documents, or they have to create elaborate steering docs that try to enforce a requirements → design → tasks flow, or wiring up external tools like spec-kit. That's a lot of burden on the user to recreate something the IDE already does out of the box.

The IDE's spec workflow works well precisely because it's tightly integrated — it understands the project structure, enforces the flow natively, and produces better output because of it. For those of us who live in the terminal, this is the single biggest feature gap between kiro-cli and the IDE for building new features.

[straygar]

+1 The spec-driven development workflow is what set Kiro apart from Claude Code, Copilot etc. and was pushed as the unique selling point of Kiro.

Without it, kiro-cli is just a Claude Code clone that you can pay for with Amazon credits if you choose. If there are other pros, they are not clear from the website: https://kiro.dev/cli

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[Sean10]

Now 2.0 supports this feature

[ramanNarasimhan77]

@Sean10 I browsed through the CLI documentation again and do not see any section for generating specs. What am I missing?

[Sean10]

@Sean10 I browsed through the CLI documentation again and do not see any section for generating specs. What am I missing?

You're right, I confused CLI's plan task and IDE's spec