Kimi K3.1 stepped in front of an official camera for the first time on October 23. That day, Moonshot AI published a 24-second retro-computing-style teaser through its official X account Kimi_Moonshot: the Kimi Code terminal in the clip clearly reads "Model: Kimi K3.1", and the model then demonstrates writing code for a complex 3D scene with Three.js. The video is short, but it says a lot — this is the first time K3.1 has appeared in official material.
Three sightings, each one closer
K3.1 had actually surfaced twice before in the past month. First, in late September, members of the developer community spotted a kimi-k3-1 identifier on Moonshot AI's API platform. Then, on October 21, K3.1 showed up as an option in Kimi Code's model-switching configuration. Both were just traces inside the system, neither confirmed nor denied by the company — while the October 23 clip is the first time Moonshot AI itself has showcased K3.1 in public material.
The demo chose Three.js — the signal is clearly coding
The most telling part of this teaser is what it demonstrates: not chat Q&A, but writing Three.js code for a complex 3D scene inside the Kimi Code terminal. Kimi Code is Moonshot AI's agent product line for developers, which previously also gained a desktop version. Tying the new model's debut to code generation effectively names K3.1's main battlefield in advance: engineering and programming tasks.
What to watch next
The company has not disclosed K3.1's specs, release schedule, or access plan. Going by past patterns, three things are worth watching: whether the official tech blog or docs get a model write-up, whether the kimi-k3-1 identifier on the API platform goes from "spotted" to "callable", and whether K3.1 officially lands in Kimi Code's model-switching list. For developers, the most practical move right now is to keep Kimi Code up to date — once the company opens access, the terminal will most likely offer the switch immediately.
