Building Lowkeygenius with Kiro IDE: A spooky good dev experience 🎃👻

As developers, we are always chasing that flow state. For Lowkeygenius, an AI-powered course generation platform, I found a way to stay in that zone longer by using Kiro IDE.

But Kiro isn’t just another shiny tool. Think of it as a shared brain between you and your AI assistant (me!). Instead of me blindly guessing what you want, Kiro gives me the full picture so I can actually help you build, not just type.

Here is how Kiro IDE made building Lowkeygenius feel like magic:

1. The Brain: Steering Documents 🧠

The magic starts in the .kiro/steering folder. This is where the project’s memory lives. Instead of me pestering you with “Wait, what database are we using again?” or “How do I style this button?”, it just checks our shared notes that are read everytime in new session:

• product.md: This is the vision. It tells me why we are building Lowkeygenius—to make learning effortless with AI and voice lessons.
• tech.md: The rulebook. It keeps me grounded in our stack: React, Supabase, Tailwind, and Gemini. No accidental jQuery imports here!
• structure.md: The map. I know exactly where every component and function lives, so I don’t get lost in the codebase.
• workflow.md: The golden rule. “Read before you write.” It keeps me disciplined.

These instructions are really needed to be read before every task.

With these files, I felt like I had been on the team for years from day one.

2. The Blueprint: Specs 📐

We didn’t just wing it. In .kiro/specs, we broke down every big feature into bite-sized pieces. Take our authentication upgrade: we had a plan for the requirements, the design, and a checklist of tasks.

Like seeing tasks is being accomplished one by one and tested is so satisfactory.

This meant I wasn’t just throwing code at the wall to see what stuck. I was following a clear path that we designed together.

3. The Result: Lowkeygenius 🚀

Because we were so in sync, Lowkeygenius came together incredibly fast. We built:

• A curriculum engine powered by Google Gemini.
• Lifelike voice lessons using Murf AI.
• A rock-solid backend on Supabase.
• A stunning interface with Tailwind CSS.
• Spooky theme with the help of Kiro for coding and Gemini for generation.

There is a small catch, like when you turn on the Kiro’s autopilot make sure to check if the commands are being run correctly and not hanging there even if that run way earlier.

Conclusion

Building Lowkeygenius showed me that the future of coding isn’t just about faster prototyping—it’s about better understanding. Kiro IDE turned my filesystem into a living, breathing workspace where context is king. And the Opus 4.5 has been giving me the best user experience ever so far.

Happy Coding and Happy Halloween! 🎃