dev-helper-power

A sample Kiro Power packaged in the Agent Plugins 1.0 format. It bundles two Agent Skills plus a steering file so Kiro (or any Agent Plugins-compatible client) can load them as a single unit.

• Skills
  • code-review-helper — structured code review of a diff or file.
  • commit-message — Conventional Commits drafter from staged changes.
• Steering
  • team-conventions — coding, testing, review, and commit conventions.

Directory layout

dev-helper-power/
├── plugin.json                  # Agent Plugins 1.0 manifest (required)
├── POWER.md                     # Kiro legacy overview (optional, for the Kiro UI)
├── icon.svg / icon.png          # icon assets (registry / future manifest use)
├── skills/
│   ├── code-review-helper/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   └── commit-message/
│       └── SKILL.md
└── steering/
    └── team-conventions.md      # auto-loaded by Kiro on matching keywords

The Agent Plugins spec formally standardizes plugin.json, skills/, and mcp.json. Kiro-specific bits (steering path, activation keywords, the icon reference) live under the extensions.dev.kiro namespace inside plugin.json, so the plugin stays portable to other compatible clients.

Install and use in Kiro

Kiro accepts a plugin as either a local folder or a GitHub URL. It does not install a .zip directly — extract the zip first, or install from GitHub.

Option A — Local folder (fastest for authoring)

1. Open Kiro.
2. Sidebar → Powers → Add Custom Power → Import from local folder.
3. Point it at dev-helper-power/.

Option B — GitHub repo (recommended for sharing)

1. Push this plugin folder to GitHub (see the repo root README).
2. In Kiro: Powers → Add Custom Power → Import power from GitHub.
3. Paste the repo URL, plus the folder path if the plugin lives in a subdirectory.

Kiro copies the plugin into ~/.kiro/powers/installed/<name>/, which is what enables reliable activation.

Option C — From the built zip

1. Package it: pwsh ../scripts/package.ps1 -Name dev-helper-power
2. Unzip dist/dev-helper-power-0.1.0.zip anywhere.
3. Point Kiro at the extracted folder via Import from local folder.

Try it

In a Kiro chat try:

• "Review this diff" — invokes code-review-helper.
• "Draft a commit message for my staged changes" — invokes commit-message.
• "What are our coding standards?" — Kiro auto-loads team-conventions steering because of the activation.keywords declared in plugin.json.

You can also call skills directly by name (e.g. /code-review-helper) once Kiro exposes them as slash commands in your version.

Publishing this plugin

The Agent Plugins 1.0 spec deliberately leaves distribution to clients — there is no npm-style registry. Practical routes:

About the icon

Icons on curated powers in Kiro's AVAILABLE list come from the Kiro registry backend, not from anything inside the plugin repo. Custom powers installed via Import from GitHub / local folder fall back to the default ghost avatar today. This plugin ships icon.svg / icon.png and references the PNG under extensions.dev.kiro.icon so it's already prepared for:

• registry submission (Kiro's review picks up the icon), or
• a future Agent Plugins / Kiro release that reads the icon from the manifest.

The icon field is intentionally under the extensions.dev.kiro namespace — the Agent Plugins root schema has additionalProperties: false, so a top-level "icon" would make the manifest invalid.

Publishing checklist

• plugin.json has name, version, description, license, repository.
• Every skill directory has a SKILL.md with name and description frontmatter.
• POWER.md describes the plugin for the Kiro Powers UI.
• Tag a release in Git (e.g. dev-helper-power-v0.1.0) so users can pin a version.
• Attach the built .zip to the GitHub Release for offline installs.