[AWS] The difference between Kiro's Steering and AgentSkills [Kiro]

Source: Dev.to

Agent Skills was implemented in Kiro’s IDE on February 5 , 2026.
At first glance the functionality looks quite similar to the previously‑available Steering feature.

This article explains how to use Agent Skills.

Conclusion — Author’s subjective opinion

• Agent Skills and Steering basically accomplish the same thing, but they follow different design philosophies and usage patterns.

• My personal approach

  1. Workspace‑specific rules and Kiro‑behaviour rules should be defined in Steering.
     • Examples: translating Kiro responses to Japanese, coding conventions, project‑structure rules, etc.
  2. Organizational or team‑wide rules that span workspaces, and operations that require specialised knowledge, should be defined in Skills.
     • Examples: database operations (backup, restore, connection, migration procedures), deployment procedures, tricks, etc.

• While specialised knowledge can easily be confused with MCP, it is usually best to define team‑specific procedures in Skills.

• Unlike MCP, it is convenient to script small tricks and define them as Skills.

• Many useful Skills are shared on GitHub, making it easy to import and share them.

Example: Using Steering and Agent Skills

Analogy – Think of Steering as a carpentry rulebook (defining which tools to use and how to ensure safety), while Agent Skills are like a step‑by‑step guide that tells you which tools to use at each stage when building a chair.

Agent Skills

Portable instruction packages based on the open Agent Skills standard.

By defining specific task steps as Skills, you avoid leaving the AI to guess and ensure the task is performed exactly as defined.

• Kiro documentation:
• Open Agent Skills documentation:

How to Create Agent Skills

Importing Already‑Created Skills

1. Open the Kiro IDE.

2. Click the Kiro icon in the left‑hand menu.

3. Press the “+” button to the right of “AGENT STEERING & SKILLS” (update the IDE if the button is missing).

   

4. After clicking “+”, a menu appears where you can choose the import destination.

5. You can import a Skill by:

   • Providing the GitHub URL of a published Skill, or
   • Selecting a local file/folder.

   

Public Skills

Several Skills are publicly available on GitHub and can be imported using the steps above.

• Sample repository:

Try Importing Skills from GitHub

In this example we import the PDF manipulation Skills:

• Repository:

Follow the import procedure and paste the GitHub URL.

After importing, the files from the GitHub repository are downloaded to your local machine.

Creating a New Skill

Just like with Steering, a new Skill is created using a Markdown (.md) file.

You can:

• Write the file manually, or
• Ask Kiro to generate it via chat.

Skills Storage Location

• Workspace‑specific Skills → [Workspace]/.kiro/skills/
• Global Skills → ~/.kiro/skills/

(These locations were described in the table above.)

Where to Store Skills

Use the appropriate method depending on the content of the skill and the scope of its application.

• Skills applied to the current workspace:
  Save to [Workspace Path]/.kiro/skills/

• Skills applied to all workspaces on the user’s PC:
  Save to ~/.kiro/skills/

:::note warn Caution! The Kiro IDE will not recognize .md files placed directly under the skills folder.

Manage them in the same hierarchy as skills imported from GitHub:

.kiro/skills/[Skill Name]/SKILL.md

Placing markdown files directly under skills will prevent them from being displayed in the IDE. :::

When Skills Are Invoked

Controlled by Description

Kiro’s Steering uses inclusion to control whether a skill is:

• always applied,
• applied by file type, or
• manually applied.

Skills are controlled by the description entry.

The skills I imported from GitHub earlier said, “Use this skill if a user mentions or requests the creation of a .pdf file.”
Let’s test it.

Creating a Text File with PDF Skills

I asked Kiro to “create a .txt file containing a brief description of Kiro.”

Result: it created a text file without using any skills.

Converting a Text File to PDF with PDF Skills

I asked Kiro to “convert a .txt file containing a brief description of Kiro to PDF.”

Result: the PDF skill was invoked and the conversion was performed.

When asked how it used the skills, Kiro responded with the following screenshot:

From the response we can see that Kiro:

1. Detected the appropriate skill via the description.
2. Executed the relevant script(s) inside the skill.

Conclusion

Kiro’s Steering and Skills have very similar functions and definitions, which can make them hard to distinguish at first glance.

When chatting with Kiro, I was told they are functionally identical. In practice, however:

• Steering defines workspace‑specific context and criteria.
• Skills are reusable workflows that operate independently of any particular workspace, enabling more efficient development and systematic product management.

Give Skills a try with Kiro—you’ll see how powerful they can be!