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Algolia Agent Studio Challenge

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Manage your entire search infrastructure using natural language!

Challenge Status: Live Ended
Submissions Due: February 08, 2026 23:59 PT

Running through February 8, the Algolia Agent Studio Challenge invites you to build intelligent, data-driven AI agents using Algolia's Agent Studio and search infrastructure.

Whether you're crafting conversational shopping assistants, building smart workflow enhancements, or creating proactive user experiences, this challenge is your opportunity to explore how fast, contextual retrieval powers the next generation of AI applications.

There will be four chances to win.

We hope you give it a try!

Key Dates

  • Contest start: January 07, 2026
  • Submissions due: February 08, 2026
  • Winners announced: February 28, 2026

Badge Rewards

Algolia Agent Studio Challenge Winner Badge
Algolia Agent Studio Challenge Winner Badge
Algolia Agent Studio Challenge Completion Badge
Algolia Agent Studio Challenge Completion Badge

Find Out More

Ask questions and share your ideas on the Algolia Agent Studio Challenge Launch Post.

View Launch Post

Sponsored by Algolia

For 200k years, humans have spent most of their waking lives searching. Once, we looked for food and shelter. Now, it's information - which keeps proliferating faster and threatens to overwhelm us. Algolia's mission is to find without foraging: to show us what we're looking for - instantly.

Challenge Prompts

Consumer-Facing Conversational Experiences

Craft rich, dialogue-based experiences for end users. Think shopping assistants, guided discovery tools, customer support bots, or any conversational interface that benefits from intelligent data retrieval.

Your agent should demonstrate targeted prompting with retrieval from indexed data to provide contextually relevant responses. Consider incorporating Algolia's new InstantSearch chat widget to build your frontend experience.

Submission Template

Judging Criteria:

  • Use of underlying technology
  • Usability and User Experience
  • Originality and Creativity

Consumer-Facing Non-Conversational Experiences

Build smart enhancements that proactively assist users within existing workflows. We're looking for solutions that inject intelligence without requiring explicit conversation.

Examples include:

  • Solution suggestions from a knowledge base during support ticket submission
  • Fashion "look" creation from a curated index
  • PC building with knowledge of compatibility of different components

The key is showing how contextual data retrieval enhances user experience without requiring back-and-forth dialogue.

Submission Template

Judging Criteria:

  • Use of underlying technology
  • Usability and User Experience
  • Originality and Creativity

How To Participate

In order to participate, you will need to create an Algolia account and publish a post using the submission template associated with each prompt.

  • Your project should integrate Algolia's Agent Studio and demonstrate how fast, relevant data retrieval enhances your AI agent's performance. All projects must be deployed and functional.
  • Algolia's Free Build Plan provides everything you need to complete your project—no credit card required!
  • If your app requires logging in, please provide testing credentials and/or instructions on how judges can best test your application.

Helpful Links & Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Participation

Can I submit to multiple prompts?

Yes, you are welcome to submit to multiple prompts.

Can one submission qualify for multiple prompts?

Yes, if your submission offers a solution to multiple prompts, it can qualify for multiple prompts.

Can I submit to a prompt more than once?

Yes, you can submit multiple submissions per prompt but you'll need to publish a separate post for each submission.

  • In the event that you may win two or more prompts, and your submission is very close with another participant, we will favor the other participant.
  • In the event that you do win two or more prompts, you will only receive one winner badge.

Can I work on a team?

Yes, you can work on teams of up to four people.

  • If you collaborate with anyone, you'll need to list their DEV handles in your submission post so we can award a badge to your entire team! Please only publish one submission per team.
  • DEV does not handle prize-splitting, so in the event that your submission wins, you will need to split the prize amongst yourselves. Thank you for understanding!

How old do I have to be to participate?

Participants need to be 18+ in order to participate.

If I live in X, am I eligible to participate?

For eligibility rules, see our official challenge rules.

Submission

Can my submission include open source code?

Riffing on open source code and borrowing and improving on previous work/ideas is encouraged but it's important your changes are significant enough to ensure your submission is valid.

When does riffing become plagiarism?

It will depend, but transparency is important, license compatibility is important. You can use someone else's code to give you a jumpstart to demonstrate your ideas on top of someone else's base, but not just re-package the base. It should be clear to the judges what you added to the project in terms of the code and conceptual inspiration. This means, you should clearly state what you were building on and what elements are original to this new submission. When building on existing code, we expect a significant change that adds something tangible to the output. i.e. a new animation, and new sprite, a new function, a new presentation. Not just changes to the source - i.e. changing colours, changing one sprite, changing one function.

What happens if my submission is considered plagiarized or invalid?

Anything deemed to be plagiarism will not be eligible for prizes. Incidental plagiarism may simply result in your disqualification from the challenge (regardless of the number of other valid submissions you have published). Egregious plagiarism will result in your suspension from DEV entirely. Any non-generic, non-trivial usage of prior work, including open source code must be credited in your submission.

Do submissions have to be in English?

Non-english submissions are eligible for a completion badge but not eligible for prizes due to the current limitations of our judges. We will not be judging on mastery of the English language, so please don't let this deter you from submitting if you are not a native English speaker! We hope to evolve this in the future to be more accommodating.

Do I need a license for my code?

You are not required to license your code but we strongly recommend that you do. Here are some you may consider: MIT, Apache, BSD-2, BSD-3, or Commons Clause.

Can I use AI?

Use of AI is allowed as long as all other rules are followed. We want to give you a chance to show off your skills in realistic scenarios. If you use AI tools to help you achieve your submission, all the power to you.

Judging and Prizing

Can there be ties?

In the event of a tie in scoring between judges, the judges will select the entry that received the highest number of positive reactions on their DEV post to determine the winner.

How will I know if I won?

Winners will be announced in a DEV post on the winner announcement date noted in our key dates section.

When will I receive my DEV badge?

Both participation and winner badges will be awarded, in most cases, the same day as the winner announcement.

When will I receive my prizes?

The DEV Team will contact you via the email associated with your DEV profile within, at most, 10 business days of the announcement date to share the details of claiming your prizes.

What steps do I need to take to receive my cash prize?

The winner (including each member of a team) may be required to sign and return an affidavit of eligibility and publicity/liability release, and provide any additional tax filing information (such as a W-9, social security number or Federal tax ID number) within seven (7) business days following the date of your first email notification.

Algolia Agent Studio Challenge Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends February 8, 2026 at 11:59 PM PST. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entries must be submitted during the contest period. For Official Rules, see Algolia Agent Studio Challenge Contest Rules and General Contest Official Rules.