This is a submission for the Runner H "AI Agent Prompting" Challenge
What I Built
Someone asked me what I was going to use RunnerH for and I said: there are a lot of things. It’s simple to find ideas, you just need to look at everyday things you do and ask how you can make it 1% better, or even automate the entire process.
I almost missed this Dev.to challenge because I forgot about it. So I thought, why don’t I build an automation that searches for hackathons and challenges and adds them to my calendar?
Demo
How I Used Runner H
This was my first prompt:
“Search for hackathons and challenges on Devpost, Dev.to, and other sites where hackathons are shared. Do this every Sunday and send the result in an email to me. After sending the email, block out 20 minutes every Sunday and Wednesday to check it out.”
The result wasn’t what I expected. It gave me a list of hackathon websites, which was still helpful, I discovered platforms I hadn’t heard of before. The email was good, and it even created the time block I asked for. But because I wasn’t specific enough, it set the time block from Wednesday to Sunday instead of at fixed times.
So I tried again. This was the refined prompt I used:
“Search online and collect current hackathons that are actively accepting submissions this week or starting soon (within the next 10 days). For each hackathon, include the event name, platform (e.g., Devpost), start and end date, a short description, and the link to the hackathon. Then create a time-blocked calendar event titled ‘Hackathon Reminder’ scheduled for 12:00 PM every Wednesday and Sunday in my calendar. Add the list of upcoming hackathons as notes inside the calendar event.”
This time it worked better. I got a list of current hackathons, not just platforms. It even added the details directly into my calendar notes — so when I get the reminder, I can just click and check them out. The only issue was that it created daily events from July 6 to December, which was wild.
Still, with a little more prompt tweaking, I think it can be perfect.
Use Case & Impact
This helps anyone who forgets to check hackathons or misses out on deadlines. With the right prompts, you could build a weekly discovery engine for challenges or events you care about and slot them into your calendar with minimal effort.
It’s also a solid example of how even small tasks like finding events or blocking time can be offloaded with automation. One less thing to track manually.
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