How to use the Pluralsight MCP Server with Amazon Kiro: Bringing skills intelligence into your IDE

AI coding assistants are great at writing code, but they know very little about the people they are writing it for. They don't know what your team has been learning, where the skill gaps are, or which course would help you get unstuck on the thing you're building right now. The Pluralsight MCP server changes that by bringing Pluralsight's skills intelligence into the AI tools you already work in.

In this post I'll walk through connecting the Pluralsight MCP server to Amazon Kiro, AWS's spec-driven AI IDE. I'll cover the setup from start to finish, show what it looks like once it's connected, and then put it to work. Along the way I'll point out a few places where it's worth slowing down and checking things for yourself.

Before you start

Before you begin, you’ll need to check a couple of things.

If you're on a corporate network, ensure that these two domains aren't blocked:

•  mcp.pluralsight.com - this is the Pluralsight MCP server endpoint

•  pluralsight-production.us.auth0.com - this is used for Pluralsight authentication

If either one is blocked by your organization's security policy, your IT team will need to add it to the allowlist before you can complete the setup.

How to connect the Pluralsight MCP server to Kiro

1. Open Kiro and open your MCP configuration. Kiro reads MCP servers from a JSON file named mcp.json. A workspace-level file (.kiro/settings/mcp.json) applies only to the current project, while a user-level file (~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json) makes the server available in every workspace. I prefer user-level for Pluralsight because I want it available in whatever I'm working on. 

The quickest way to get there is the Command Palette (Cmd + Shift + P on Mac, Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows and Linux): search for "MCP" and choose Kiro: Open user MCP config (JSON), or Kiro: Open workspace MCP config (JSON) if you'd rather scope it to one project. You can also use the Open MCP Config icon in the Kiro panel.

2. Add the Pluralsight server. Pluralsight's MCP server is a remote server that uses Streamable HTTP, so the entry is short. Add this to your mcp.json.

If you already have other servers in the file, just add the Pluralsight entry alongside them inside mcpServers. Here’s how it looks in Kiro:

3. Save the file. Kiro picks up the change and connects to the server. Behind the scenes, Kiro discovers Pluralsight's OAuth endpoints automatically, so there's nothing to configure for that part.

4. The first time Kiro connects, a browser window opens for you to log in. Use the Pluralsight credentials tied to your team's license. Once authentication completes, a secure token is handed back to Kiro automatically and when you see a message that says Authorization Successful, you can head back to the IDE.

5. After successfully authorizing, the Pluralsight MCP server should show as Connected.

6. To begin using the MCP server, you’ll need to start a completely new chat session with Kiro. Existing chat sessions in Kiro will not pick up a newly connected MCP server. 

Using the Pluralsight MCP in Kiro

7. To interact with the MCP server, just ask Kiro some questions. For instance, you can ask about courses that cover a specific domain, like Kubernetes or critical thinking.

8. Kiro responds with links to specific courses in Pluralsight.

9. If you’re preparing for an exam, you can ask Kiro to help identify the correct learning path and provide links to the relevant courses.

10. Kiro responds with links to the relevant courses and the correct order to complete them.

11. When exploring a completely new topic, ask Kiro to help build a learning plan from scratch.

12. Kiro creates a multi-stage plan.

13. You can also ask for very specific topics and specify the timeframe you have.

14. In this example, Kiro gives a two-minute explanation, then follows up with recommended clips to watch.

15. Kiro identifies the exact clips to watch to get up to speed on the concept of idempotency in just a few minutes.

Troubleshooting Tips

Check that the MCP server is properly connected

Using the Kiro symbol in the left menu, click the MCP Servers dropdown to ensure that the Pluralsight MCP server is connected. If the status is Unauthenticated, click Authenticate and follow the steps to authenticate. After authentication, the MCP server status should show as connected, with a green tick. 

Check the MCP server logs or reconnect

View errors in the MCP server logs by right-clicking next to the Pluralsight MCP server. You can also use this menu to reconnect or reauthenticate.

Check the required domains are not blocked

If you're on a corporate network, ensure that  these two domains aren't blocked:

• mcp.pluralsight.com - this is the Pluralsight MCP server endpoint

• pluralsight-production.us.auth0.com - this is used for Pluralsight authentication

If either one is blocked by your organization's security policy, your IT team will need to add it to the allowlist before you can complete the setup.

Ensure you have started a new chat session in Kiro

To begin using the MCP server, you’ll need to start a completely new chat session with Kiro. Existing chat sessions in Kiro will not pick up a newly connected MCP server. 

Pluralsight MCP and Amazon Kiro: Learning in the flow of work

By bringing Pluralsight's skills intelligence directly into Amazon Kiro, you bridge the gap between writing code and building the underlying skills that drive innovation and best practice. Whether you're mapping out a comprehensive learning path for an upcoming certification or grabbing a quick mental model before a meeting, having your learning ecosystem right inside your IDE keeps your workflow uninterrupted. Give it a try in your own setup, and see how much faster you can unblock your development process!

And to learn more about spec-driven development in Amazon Kiro, check out my blog on building a serverless URL shortener.