Apothem vs raw Kiro config
Hand-maintaining Kiro's steering files under .kiro/steering/ versus rendering them from Apothem's shared profile.
Kiro reads steering from a .kiro/steering/ directory of Markdown files.
Apothem's kiro adapter renders a dedicated apothem-rules.md steering file
from the shared profile. This page contrasts hand-maintaining that config
against managing it with Apothem.
Effort comparison
| Task | Raw hand-config | Apothem-managed |
|---|---|---|
| Author steering rules | Hand-write each file under .kiro/steering/ | Rendered from the shared corpus |
| Keep foundation files untouched | Remember not to overwrite product.md / tech.md / structure.md | The adapter writes only apothem-rules.md |
| Keep rules aligned with other harnesses | Manual, per tool | Automatic on apothem update |
| Share reusable skills and commands | Hand-copy each skill folder into ~/.kiro/skills/ and keep the copies current | Written to ~/.kiro/skills/ by the adapter, one copy for every project, and refreshed on apothem update |
| Keep reusable helpers in sync | Hand-write each custom agent file under .kiro/agents/ and track Kiro's tool categories | Fourteen helpers written to .kiro/agents/ with their tools translated, and refreshed on apothem update |
| Verify the config is correct | Manual inspection | apothem verify --harness kiro --project <path> |
What Apothem manages
The kiro adapter renders the shared rules into a dedicated apothem-rules.md
steering file with inclusion: always front matter and does not touch Kiro's
operator-authored foundation files. It also writes Apothem's fourteen helpers
as Kiro custom agents in <project>/.kiro/agents/, for Kiro IDE 1.0 and Kiro CLI
V3. Kiro documents agent hooks, which the adapter does not write, so guardrail
intent lives in the rule prose rather than a tool-call interception point.
Every change to the shared rules re-renders the file on the next
apothem update.
Migration path
- Run
apothem profile initto create the shared profile if you have not yet. - Move the rules from your existing
.kiro/steering/into the shared corpus. - Run
apothem install --harness kiro --project <path>to render theapothem-rules.mdsteering file. - Run
apothem verify --harness kiro --project <path>to confirm the config landed. - Use
apothem update --harness kiro --project <path>for every later change.