Kilo Code Slack integration 2026: The Rise of 'Chat-First' AI Development

Do software engineers still need to open their IDEs to fix a bug? Kilo Code is betting they don't. The startup, backed by GitLab co-founder Sid Sijbrandij, has officially launched Kilo for Slack, an integration that lets engineering teams execute code changes and push pull requests directly from their team chat.

Kilo Code Slack integration 2026: Breaking the IDE Silo

Engineering decisions don't happen in a vacuum—they happen in Slack. "Engineering teams don't make decisions in IDE sidebars. They make them in Slack," says Scott Breitenother, CEO of Kilo Code. By mentioning @Kilo in a thread, the bot ingest the context, accesses GitHub repositories, and implements fixes without the developer ever switching windows.

Performance and the MiniMax Partnership

Interestingly, Kilo has chosen MiniMax M2.1 as its default model. The company cites the closing gap between open-weight and proprietary models, noting a performance difference of just 1.7% on major benchmarks. For those wary of security, Kilo offers access to over 500 models, allowing enterprises to choose their preferred hosting environment like AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex.

Outmaneuvering Titans: Cursor and Claude Code

The "vibe coding" market is heating up, with Cursor reaching a $29.3 billion valuation in November 2025. However, Kilo claims its edge lies in multi-repo context and task-level continuity. Unlike current integrations that require manual switching between repositories, Kilo maintains a persistent execution state across extended Slack conversations.

Kilo Code raised an $8 million seed round in December 2025. The Slack integration is a paid, hosted product with usage-based pricing, while its core IDE extension remains open-source under the Apache 2.0 license. No code is merged automatically; all AI-generated PRs must pass through existing human review workflows.