Using Kiro CLI in CloudShell
With Kiro CLI, you can interact with Kiro from the command line. For
more information, see Core Features of Kiro CLI
In CloudShell, you can use Kiro CLI to have natural language conversations, ask questions, and get responses in your terminal. Kiro CLI can also use the pre-installed tools in CloudShell, such as the AWS CLI, the AWS Tools for PowerShell, and the Amazon ECS CLI. You don't need to remember syntax or search for the right command. For more information, see Pre-installed software.
This topic explains how you can use Kiro CLI features in CloudShell.
Using Kiro chat in CloudShell
Run kiro-cli in the CloudShell terminal to start a chat session. You
can ask questions in plain language and get answers in the terminal. Answers can include
shell commands you can run. For more information, see Chatting with Kiro in the CLI
By default, chat uses the terminal UI, which shows code with syntax highlighting
and displays tool progress. For more information, see Terminal UI
Start a chat session with the default terminal UI.
kiro-cli
Start a chat session with the classic interface for a single session.
kiro-cli --classic
To change the default interface, run one of the following commands. Use
tui for the terminal UI, or classic for the classic
interface.
kiro-cli settings chat.ui "tui"
kiro-cli settings chat.ui "classic"
You can resume a chat session in either interface. For more information about
switching interfaces, see Switching back to classic
Because CloudShell already has the AWS CLI installed and uses the credentials of the signed-in console user, Kiro CLI can run AWS CLI commands on your behalf to answer questions about your AWS account and resources. Kiro CLI can only perform actions that your permissions allow.
For example, you can ask questions like the following:
-
"Show me which AMIs in my account are shared with other AWS accounts. Include all enabled regions."
-
"Show me all console login events for the past 48 hours."
-
"Make a CSV file of EBS snapshots in us-east-2 that are older than 1 year and have newer snapshots."
To end a chat session, run /quit.
Signing in to Kiro CLI in CloudShell
You must sign in before you can use Kiro CLI in CloudShell. The first time you run
kiro-cli, it starts the sign-in process for you.
Kiro CLI prompts you to finish signing in from a browser. You can sign in with Google,
GitHub, AWS Builder ID, AWS IAM Identity Center, or your organization's identity provider. For more
information, see Sign in to Kiro CLI
Note
During sign-in, the progress indicator refreshes the display while the sign-in URL is shown, which can make the URL difficult to select. To copy the URL, select it with your pointing device and continue to hold the selection while you press Ctrl+C or Cmd+C to copy the URL to your clipboard. Then paste the URL in your browser to complete the sign-in.
To check which sign-in method you are using, run the following command.
kiro-cli whoami
To sign out, run the following command.
kiro-cli logout
To sign in with a different method, sign out first, and then run the following command. If you are still signed in, Kiro CLI returns an error.
kiro-cli login
Configuring the AWS MCP Server for Kiro CLI in CloudShell
You can configure the AWS MCP Server (aws-mcp) for Kiro CLI in
CloudShell so that Kiro can use AWS tools through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The server signs its requests with
your CloudShell session credentials, so its tools act with the same permissions that
you have in the console.
For more information about the AWS MCP Server, see AWS MCP Server in the Agent Toolkit for AWS documentation.
To configure the server, run the following commands in CloudShell.
curl -fsS "https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cloudshell/latest/userguide/samples/kiro-cloudshell-aws-mcp.zip" -o "kiro-cloudshell-aws-mcp.zip" unzip -q -o kiro-cloudshell-aws-mcp.zip chmod +x kiro-cloudshell-aws-mcp.sh ./kiro-cloudshell-aws-mcp.sh
You can also download kiro-cloudshell-aws-mcp.zip directly.
The script configures only the aws-mcp server for Kiro CLI. It doesn't
install, update, or launch Kiro CLI, and it works with the pre-installed version. You
don't need to sign in to Kiro CLI before you run the script. To verify the
configuration, run kiro-cli, and then enter /mcp to confirm
that aws-mcp is running.
You can run the script again at any time. It updates only the aws-mcp entry
in your configuration and leaves any other MCP servers in place. CloudShell keeps a
separate home directory in each AWS Region, so run the script one time in each AWS Region
where you use Kiro CLI.
Note
The script installs uv in a virtual environment in your home directory
and writes the aws-mcp configuration to
~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json. It keeps the larger uv cache and
downloaded files in temporary storage to conserve space in your home directory.
When you restart your CloudShell environment, the configuration and virtual environment persist, and the temporary files download again the next time the server starts. When you delete your CloudShell environment, run the script again.
For more information about the script, see
kiro-cloudshell-aws-mcp-README.md in the zip file.
Using the latest version of Kiro CLI in CloudShell
CloudShell includes a pre-installed version of Kiro CLI, which might not be the latest release. To get the latest version, run the following commands in CloudShell.
curl -fsS "https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cloudshell/latest/userguide/samples/kiro-cloudshell-latest.zip" -o "kiro-cloudshell-latest.zip" unzip -q -o kiro-cloudshell-latest.zip chmod +x kiro-cloudshell-latest.sh ./kiro-cloudshell-latest.sh --classic
You can also download kiro-cloudshell-latest.zip directly.
Any arguments you add after the script name are passed through to Kiro CLI after the update completes.
Update Kiro CLI and then launch it with a list of previous chats to resume.
./kiro-cloudshell-latest.sh --resume-picker
Note
The script downloads the latest installer from
https://desktop-release.q.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest/kirocli-x86_64-linux.zip.
The script then extracts the archive and runs the bundled installer with
sudo Q_INSTALL_GLOBAL=1 Q_SKIP_SETUP=1 "/tmp/kirocli-update..XXXXXX/kirocli/install.sh"
The script puts the latest version in a temporary location. When you restart your CloudShell environment, Kiro CLI resets to the pre-installed version. Run the script again to update. Your data, such as chat history, settings, and sign-in, is saved in your home directory and persists across restarts.
For more information about the script, see
kiro-cloudshell-latest-README.md in the zip file.
