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Auto-load steering files, skills, and agent definitions on session start #6755

Description

@fabiojmf

Kiro Product

CLI

Feature Description

When starting a new kiro-cli chat session, the tool does not automatically read the contents of project configuration files — it only receives their paths and one-line descriptions as metadata. Files like .kiro/steering/.md, .kiro/skills//SKILL.md, and root-level agent files (e.g., AGENTS.md) are listed in context entries but never actuall read into the assistant's working memory.

This means the assistant starts every session without knowing the project's conventions, architectural decisions, or agent routing rules. The user has to explicitly ask "did you read the files in .kiro?" and then prompt the assistant to read them — every single time.

The expected behavior is that Kiro reads and internalizes the full contents of all steering files, skill definitions, and agent routing files at session initialization, before the first user message is processed.

Use Case

I have a project with .kiro/steering/ files containing ADRs and tech stack decisions, .kiro/skills/ with backend and frontend coding conventions, and an AGENTS.md that routes requests to specialized agent definitions. When I start a new kiro-cli chat session and say "implement the service for X", I expect Kiro to already know my project's conventions (e.g., Java 25 + Spring Boot 4, modular monolith, DTO naming patterns) without me having to ask it to rea the files first. Currently, I have to manually prompt it to load context at the start of every session, which defeats the purpose of having these configuration files.

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