KirovsTheia IDE
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Kiro
Amazon Web Services · AI-native IDE
#57MCP
Panel
6.53 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.3
- Usefulness
- 6.7
- Cost
- 5.7
- Longevity
- 7.3
“Makes you write requirements, design and tasks before any code, so the credit meter starts running before the first line does.”
Theia IDE
Eclipse Foundation · AI-native IDE
#10OSSMCP
Panel
7.36 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.7
- Usefulness
- 6.3
- Cost
- 8.5
- Longevity
- 7.5
“It includes a PR Reviewer agent inside the editor, so you can now be rejected before you have even pushed.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Kiro | Theia IDE |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | AI-native IDE | AI-native IDE |
| Runs | local, cloud, sandbox | local, cloud |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows, web | macos, linux, windows, web |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | YesThrough the GitHub and PR Reviewer chat agents and the IDE's built-in Git support. |
| Browser control | YesEvery Kiro Web sandbox ships a headless Chrome with Playwright MCP, the agent-browser CLI and the Chrome DevTools MCP server preinstalled; the local IDE and CLI have no built-in browser tool. | No |
| Sandboxed execution | YesKiro Web runs each task in its own isolated execution environment with configurable access controls. | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | YesTheia ships several named chat agents plus an Orchestrator agent that routes a request to the right one. |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, Qwen, MiniMax, GLM | any |
| Bring your own model | NoKiro exposes a picker over its own curated model list plus an Auto router; no custom base URL, Bedrock deployment or self-hosted endpoint is documented. | Yes |
| Local models | NoNo local or OpenAI-compatible endpoint is documented; only Kiro-hosted models are selectable. | YesOllama, llamafile and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint such as vLLM are documented LLM providers. |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | mixed | byok |
| Starts at | $20/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | NoKIRO_API_KEY for headless runs is a Kiro platform token billed against Kiro credits, not your own provider or AWS account key. | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | No | Yes |
| License | proprietary | EPL-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 4,343 | 21,709 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Kiro | Theia IDE | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.3 | 7.0 | Kiro — Pick Kiro if you want an agent that makes you write requirements and a design before it touches code, and accept that the bill is a credit meter you cannot route around with your own key. |
| El Crítico | 6.3 | 6.8 | Theia IDE — It runs VS Code extensions from Open VSX rather than the Microsoft marketplace, so an extension your team depends on may simply not be there. |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 7.5 | Theia IDE — An Orchestrator agent routes a request to a specialised one, which is explicit dispatch rather than a single prompt pretending to be several. |
| La Inversora | 7.8 | 7.0 | Kiro — Kiro is AWS's entry, and the question is never whether AWS can fund it, only whether AWS keeps caring. |
| La Jefa | 7.0 | 6.8 | Kiro — SSO and centralized billing exist, steering files make rules enforceable, and the meter has an admin-controlled overage switch; approved with conditions. |
| El Hacker | 4.3 | 8.5 | Theia IDE — EPL-2.0, every prompt template is editable by me, and Ollama or llamafile are documented providers, so the whole editor runs with nothing leaving the machine. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.