Knowledge Bases · Kiro CLI Guide

Index code, docs, and PDFs into a knowledge base for semantic search, and tune indexing behavior with settings.

A knowledge base lets you index a big pile of content (code, Markdown, CSV, PDF, and so on) all at once. After that, Kiro can run semantic search over this content, and it sticks around across sessions.

Turn the feature on first

kiro-cli settings chat.enableKnowledge true

It takes effect after you restart chat.

Using it in a conversation

A knowledge base is managed with the /knowledge slash command. Common actions look like this:

/knowledge            # See which knowledge bases you currently have

You can also just ask Kiro in natural language to do it for you, for example:

❯ Add the ./docs folder to the knowledge base
❯ Search my knowledge base for "database connection settings"
❯ Update the index of the docs knowledge base

TIP

Not sure which subcommands live under /knowledge? Type /help in the conversation to take a look, or just say what you want to do in natural language and let Kiro call it for you.

Tuning indexing behavior (settings)

Any preferences related to indexing can be configured with kiro-cli settings:

# File patterns to include / exclude when indexing (JSON arrays)
kiro-cli settings knowledge.defaultIncludePatterns '["**/*.md","**/*.ts"]'
kiro-cli settings knowledge.defaultExcludePatterns '["**/node_modules/**"]'

# Max number of files to index
kiro-cli settings knowledge.maxFiles 5000

# Text chunk size and overlap
kiro-cli settings knowledge.chunkSize 1024
kiro-cli settings knowledge.chunkOverlap 128

# Index type: fast (BM25 keyword) or best (semantic)
kiro-cli settings knowledge.indexType best

Setting	Description
`knowledge.defaultIncludePatterns`	File patterns to include in the index
`knowledge.defaultExcludePatterns`	File patterns to exclude
`knowledge.maxFiles`	Max number of files to index
`knowledge.chunkSize`	Size of each text chunk
`knowledge.chunkOverlap`	Overlap between text chunks
`knowledge.indexType`	`fast` (BM25) or `best` (semantic)

When to use it

The project is large and you want Kiro to quickly find the relevant passages
You have a batch of reference docs, specs, or PDFs you want Kiro to be able to look up anytime
You want to keep “background knowledge” around across many conversations

Indexing a huge pile of files takes time and resources. It’s better to first narrow the scope with includePatterns / excludePatterns, and conveniently exclude things like node_modules and dist.

In the next chapter, let’s look at how to bring external tools in using MCP.