MCP Servers and Kiro Powers

MCP server auto-configuration

Running kiro-kit init generates a functional .mcp.json. Nothing that cannot start is left enabled — a fresh workspace should never open with a wall of red servers in Kiro's MCP panel.

• Credential-free npx servers (filesystem, memory, context7, sequential-thinking, playwright) are enabled immediately.
• The official git/fetch servers run via uvx (Python), so they ship "disabled": true. Install uv, then flip the flag.
• Servers requiring credentials (postgres, github, sentry) ship "disabled": true with a _comment naming the environment variable to set.
• ${WORKSPACE_ROOT} is resolved to the real path at write time rather than left for the IDE to interpolate, and any server with an unresolved ${VAR} in its env ships disabled instead of failing at launch.

Disabling uses Kiro's own "disabled": true field. Workspaces created by earlier versions used a _disabled_<name> key prefix, which Kiro did not understand — re-running init migrates those to the real server name with the flag set. A server you enabled yourself is never switched back off.

The MCP servers each preset configures are listed in the preset reference.

Kiro Powers

Each preset recommends curated Kiro Powers organized by priority tier. The catalog is metadata-tagged (category, auth type, required env vars, and whether the Power is MCP-backed), so init can auto-wire the credential-free MCP-backed Powers and scaffold the credentialed ones disabled.

The full tier breakdown per preset is in the preset reference.

Running init auto-configures MCP servers (credential-free ones enabled, credentialed ones as disabled templates), documents required env vars in .env.example, and generates a POWERS-SETUP.md guide.

Auto-installing Powers

Unlike Steering, Skills, Hooks, and Specs — which are workspace files that appear in Kiro immediately — Kiro Powers live in ~/.kiro/powers/ (user-global) and are managed by the IDE. Kiro-Kit can install the real marketplace Powers for you.

Close Kiro first, because it rewrites its power registry on exit:

kiro-kit powers list                       # see installable powers
kiro-kit powers install --preset backend   # install powers for a preset
kiro-kit powers install neon postman       # or by name

init also offers this as an opt-in prompt (interactive mode only). Powers are cloned from their official repos (kirodotdev/powers, figma/mcp-server-guide, supabase-community/kiro-powers) into ~/.kiro/powers/; installed.json is backed up and the operation is reversible.