Orchestrator Agent with Parallel Sub-Agents in Kiro CLI

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Figure 1. kiro orchestrator agents

Overview

Kiro CLI allows us to configure an orchestrator agent that executes specialized sub-agents in parallel. Each sub-agent has its own tools, permissions, and MCP servers – the parent’s trust settings are not inherited.

Architecture

Figure 2. Agents flow

Step 1: Define Specialized Agents

We give each sub-agent its own JSON configuration under .kiro/agents/.

.kiro/agents/code-agent.json

{
  "name": "code-agent",
  "description": "Implements features and writes code",
  "prompt": "You are an experienced Kotlin/Java developer. Write clean, tested code.",
  "tools": ["read", "write", "shell", "code", "grep"],
  "allowedTools": ["read", "code", "grep"],
  "toolsSettings": {
    "write": {
      "allowedPaths": ["./src/**", "./tests/**"],
      "deniedPaths": ["./.env", "./secrets/**"]
    },
    "shell": {
      "allowedCommands": ["mvn test", "mvn compile"],
      "autoAllowReadonly": true
    }
  }
}

Kiro Snippets

Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Figure 1. Kiro Snippets

Integrate into IntelliJ using ACP

Kiro in IntelliJ AI Chat using ACP

We just need to add the following config as ~/.jetbrains/acp.json, restart IntelliJ and we’re ready to go.

~/.jetbrains/acp.json

{
  "default_mcp_settings": {},
  "agent_servers": {
    "Kiro Agent ACP": {
      "command": "/Users/<USER>/.local/bin/kiro-cli",
      "args": ["acp"]
    }
  }
}

Fix for auth issues with legacy versions

Some older versions might need the to use the following workaround that fixes this kiro issue.