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Published on 27.01.2026
TLDR: Moonshot has released Kimi K2.5, a multimodal AI model that excels at coding benchmarks, particularly in visual coding and frontend development. Kilo Code is offering free access for one week through their VS Code extension.
The AI model landscape continues to expand with specialized offerings. Moonshot's Kimi K2.5 enters the arena with a focus on what they call "visual agentic intelligence" - the ability to process images as part of prompts to generate websites and frontend code.
What makes this interesting is the multimodal approach to coding. Rather than describing what you want through text alone, you can show the model images as references for the interfaces you want to build. This aligns with how designers and frontend developers actually work: with visual references, mockups, and screenshots of existing interfaces they want to replicate or improve upon.
The model reportedly performs well across various coding benchmarks, though the announcement is light on specific details. The emphasis on frontend capabilities suggests Moonshot is targeting a specific niche rather than competing head-to-head with general-purpose coding models.
For teams evaluating AI coding assistants, this is worth exploring during the free week. The visual input capability could streamline the handoff between design and development, reducing the translation layer where mockups get described in text prompts. If you can simply show the model what you want and have it generate the corresponding code, that eliminates an entire category of prompt engineering friction.
The accessibility through VS Code extension lowers the barrier to trying it. No complex setup, no API keys to manage initially - just install, create an account, and select the model from a picker.
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