Amazon launches Kiro, its own Claude-powered challenger to Windsurf and Codex

Amid the big news that Windsurf is being acquired by Cognition (after its founders went to Google), developers interested in AI-powered coding may be on the hunt for new alternatives.

In a bit of fortuitous timing, today also saw Amazon’s release of Kiro, a new agentic integrated development environment (IDE) built to help developers move from prototype to production using AI workflows grounded in structure, planning and engineering rigor.