DEV Community: Hackathon Raptors

Zero Dependency 2026 — Build Real Software With No Packages. Prove It.

Raptor — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 12:19:33 +0000

Half your code is now written by an AI that hallucinates the other half's package names.

That's not a joke. Across 576,000 samples, 19.7% of the packages AI coding models suggested didn't exist — and attackers have started pre-registering those exact hallucinated names, waiting for someone to npm install a package that was never real to begin with.

Meanwhile, public registries catalogued 454,600 new malicious packages in 2025 alone, pushing the cumulative total past 1.2 million. A modern web app now pulls in 1,200+ dependencies once you count the full transitive tree — for software that, ten years ago, would have shipped with a fraction of that.

That's precisely what Zero Dependency 2026 is about.

Organized by Hackathon Raptors, Zero Dependency is a 72-hour online global hackathon where participants build genuinely useful software — CLIs, parsers, servers, databases, security tools — using nothing but their programming language's standard library. No frameworks. No packages. No supply chain to inherit. Just your language and your engineering skill.

Why Zero Dependency?

Modern AI coding assistants can generate code fast, and they reach for a dependency by reflex — sometimes one that doesn't exist.

But real engineering isn't judged by how many packages you imported. It's judged by questions like:

Do you actually understand what the library you'd normally import is doing underneath?
Can you build the thing yourself, correctly, from primitives?
Does your code handle the edge cases a package would've handled for you?
Is the implementation idiomatic, or a fight against the standard library?
Could a judge verify your dependency manifest is empty in five seconds?

Zero Dependency is designed around these questions.

Instead of rewarding whoever pulls in the most packages the fastest, the hackathon rewards teams who can prove they didn't need to.

About the Hackathon

🌍 Global Online Hackathon
⏳ 72 Hours
💰 $1,800 Prize Pool
👥 Solo or Teams of up to 4
🎓 Open to students, professionals, researchers, and developers worldwide
💸 Completely Free to Participate

Whether you're a backend engineer, a tooling/DX person, a security engineer, a database-curious systems programmer, or just someone who's felt something die inside after npm install-ing a one-line function — Zero Dependency offers a genuinely different kind of challenge.

What You'll Build

Every participating team will:

Pick one of six tracks.
Define a real problem worth solving.
Design and implement the solution using only their language's standard library.
Test the implementation against real edge cases.
Document every technical decision and trade-off.
Verify the final artifact has zero third-party runtime dependencies.
Submit a working demo and full dependency proof.

Unlike many hackathons, success isn't determined by flashy pitches.

The emphasis is on functionality, honest craft, idiomatic code, and a dependency manifest a judge can verify at a glance.

Six Tracks

Track A — Developer Tools & CLI
Linters, formatters, task runners, git utilities, file utilities. The daily-driver tools most people reach for a dozen packages to build.

Track B — Parsers & Data Formats
JSON/CSV/Markdown/config parsers, template engines, regex engines, serializers. The things everyone imports and almost nobody has written.

Track C — Web & Network
HTTP servers, routers, clients, static-site servers, DNS tools, raw TCP chat apps. Built on stdlib networking primitives alone.

Track D — Data & Storage
Key-value stores, embedded databases, caches, log-structured stores, search indexes. The layer most apps rent from a library and never look inside.

Track E — Security & Crypto Utilities
Password managers, TOTP/2FA generators, file encryptors, hashers, secrets scanners. Compose trusted stdlib crypto primitives correctly — never roll your own cipher.

Track F — Open / Wildcard
Games, visualizers, interpreters, compression tools, schedulers — anything genuinely useful that a reasonable engineer would assume needs packages. Justify the build in your README.

What Counts as "Zero Dependency"

The one rule that defines the event: zero third-party runtime dependencies.

JavaScript / TypeScript — Node/Deno/Bun built-ins only. package.json dependencies is {}.
Python — standard library only. No pip install.
Go — stdlib only. go.mod has no require block.
Rust — std only. Cargo.toml [dependencies] is empty.
C / C++ — libc and POSIX only. No vendored third-party libraries.
Java / Kotlin / C# — platform standard library (JDK/BCL) only. No Maven/NuGet runtime deps.

Your compiler, build tool, and a stdlib test tool are fine. If your language ships no test framework at all, a dev-only test dependency is allowed — but it must never ship in the artifact, and it must be disclosed in STDLIB.md.

Vendoring a library's source into your repo to fake an empty manifest still counts as a dependency. Disclose it, or it scores against you.

Submission Requirements

Each team must submit:

Public GitHub Repository
Working Implementation
One-Command Build Instructions
Empty Dependency Manifest
Dependency Proof (command output or CI log showing zero third-party deps)
README.md — what it does, how to run it, its limits
STDLIB.md — every stdlib-for-package substitution you made
5-Minute Demo Video

The project should build with a single documented command and be publicly accessible during judging.

Judging Criteria

Projects are evaluated using a weighted scoring system:

Functionality & Usefulness (35%)
Does it build with one command, run, and do something a real person would want?

Zero-Dependency Craft (30%)
How effectively did you replace what you'd normally import? STDLIB.md quality lives here.

Code Quality & Idiom (25%)
Does the code read as idiomatic to a senior reviewer, or as a fight against the standard library?

Innovation (10%)
Creative wildcard picks. Genuinely surprising things built with nothing but stdlib.

Bonus Points

Single File (+5) — Ship the entire project as one genuinely useful source file.
Reproducible Build (+5) — Build the artifact twice, produce byte-identical output, publish both hashes.
Package Killer (+3) — Cleanly reimplement a package people actually install, documented in STDLIB.md.
STDLIB Log (+3) — Submit a STDLIB.md with 10+ real, non-trivial stdlib-for-package substitutions.

AI Tools Are Allowed

Zero Dependency embraces modern development workflows.

Participants are free to use:

Claude Code
Cursor
Aider
GitHub Copilot
Local AI models
Other AI coding assistants

AI usage itself is not scored. What's scored is whether the final implementation works, follows the zero-dependency constraint, and can be explained and defended by the team.

Rules

Some important rules include:

Team size: 1–4 members.
All project code must be written during the official 72-hour hackathon.
Planning, research, and AI prompt preparation are allowed beforehand — no code commits before kickoff.
The final artifact must have zero third-party runtime dependencies.
The project must build using a single documented command.
Vendoring third-party source to fake an empty manifest is not allowed without disclosure.
Public GitHub repository required at submission time.
Submissions must target one of the six official tracks.
Open-source licenses must be respected.
AI coding assistants are permitted.

Important Dates

Event	Date
Registration Opens	31 July 2026
Team Formation	24 August 2026
Cheat-Sheets Posted	26 August 2026
Hackathon Kickoff	28 August 2026 · 18:00 UTC
Code Freeze / Submission Deadline	31 August 2026 · 18:00 UTC
Judging Window	31 August – 10 September 2026
Write-Up Side Quest Closes	8 September 2026
Winners Announced	11 September 2026

Prizes

🏆 Total Prize Pool: $1,800 USD

🥇 1st Place — $800 — Grand Prize
🥈 2nd Place — $400 — Runner-Up
🥉 3rd Place — $200 — Third Place
📦 Package Killer — $100 — Best Reimplementation

✍️ Write-Up Side Quest — $300 ($100 × 3)
Publish a technical write-up about your build: what you reimplemented, what the stdlib made painful, the package you made look unnecessary. Tag Hackathon Raptors. Top 3, judged on insight, not follower count.

Who Should Join?

Zero Dependency is ideal for:

Backend & Systems Engineers
Tooling & DX Engineers
Security Engineers
Database & Storage Curious Developers
Language Nerds & Compiler Folks
Polyglots & Generalists
Students looking to work on real-world engineering fundamentals

If you've ever wanted to know what's actually inside the library you import every day — or prove you can ship real software without one — this hackathon is for you.

Join the Community

All announcements, cheat-sheets, rule clarifications, FAQs, submission guidelines, and live support will be shared exclusively on the Hackathon Raptors Discord.

👉 Website: https://www.zerodepshack.com/

👉 Hackathon Raptors: https://raptors.dev

👉 Discord: https://discord.gg/XPfcH7VT2H

Final Thoughts

Zero Dependency isn't just another "build anything" hackathon.

It's a challenge centered on one of the most overlooked engineering problems of the AI era: we've outsourced so much to our dependency trees that most of us couldn't tell you what's actually inside them — and the AI writing our code doesn't always know either, sometimes reaching for packages that were never real.

If you're excited about systems programming, parsers, networking, storage engines, security, or just proving you still know what's underneath the packages you import — this is your weekend.

Registration is now open. Pick your track, empty your manifest, and build something real.

Port Mortem 2026 - Hackathon

Raptor — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 11:37:20 +0000

Port Mortem 2026 — Rewrite Real Software. Prove It Still Works.

The software industry is entering a new era.

AI can now rewrite thousands of lines of code across programming languages in minutes. Companies are investing heavily in AI-assisted migrations—from C/C++ to Rust, TypeScript to Go, Python to Rust, and beyond.

But there's a major problem.

Generating a port is easy.

Proving that the rewritten software behaves exactly like the original is hard.

That's precisely what Port Mortem 2026 is about.

Organized by Hackathon Raptors, Port Mortem is a 72-hour online international hackathon where participants port real-world open-source projects into another programming language while demonstrating behavioral equivalence through testing, benchmarking, documentation, and engineering discipline—not just AI-generated code.

Why Port Mortem?

Modern AI coding assistants can generate working code incredibly fast.

However, production software isn't judged by whether it compiles.

It is judged by questions like:

Does every feature still behave correctly?
Does the original test suite still pass?
Are concurrency semantics preserved?
Are performance characteristics maintained or improved?
Is the implementation idiomatic in the target language?
Can another engineer confidently maintain it?

Port Mortem is designed around these questions.

Instead of rewarding who generates the most code, the hackathon rewards teams that can prove their migration is correct.

About the Hackathon

🌍 Global Online Hackathon
⏳ 72 Hours
💰 $1,800 Prize Pool
👥 Solo or Teams of up to 4
🎓 Open to students, professionals, researchers, and developers worldwide
💸 Completely Free to Participate

Whether you're a systems programmer, backend engineer, open-source contributor, Rust enthusiast, Go developer, or simply interested in AI-assisted software engineering, Port Mortem offers a unique engineering challenge.

What You'll Build

Every participating team will:

Select a real open-source repository.
Rewrite it into a different programming language.
Preserve the original functionality.
Validate correctness using the original test suite whenever possible.
Benchmark the new implementation.
Document architectural decisions and implementation trade-offs.
Submit the completed migration for evaluation.

Unlike many hackathons, success isn't determined by flashy demos.

The emphasis is on engineering quality, correctness, reproducibility, and maintainability.

Migration Tracks

Participants can choose from eight migration tracks:

Track A

C → Rust

Track B

Zig → Rust

Track C

TypeScript → Go

Track D

Python → Rust

Track E

Go → Rust

Track F

JavaScript → Go or Rust

Track G

C → Zig

Track H

Open Pair (Any Language → Any Language)

This gives participants the flexibility to work on the language ecosystem they enjoy most while tackling real engineering problems.

Submission Requirements

Each team must submit:

Public GitHub Repository
Complete Working Implementation
Build Instructions
Benchmark Report
DECISIONS.md documenting architectural choices
Differential Testing / Fuzzing Artifacts (where applicable)
Demo Video

The project should build with a single documented command and be publicly accessible during judging.

Judging Criteria

Projects are evaluated using a weighted scoring system.

Functionality & Reliability (40%)

Successful build
Correct execution
Test suite compatibility

Behavioral Equivalence (30%)

Migration accuracy
Differential testing
Benchmarking
Performance analysis

Code Quality (20%)

Idiomatic implementation
Maintainability
Documentation
Engineering practices

Innovation (10%)

Creative improvements
Better architecture
Valuable enhancements

Bonus Points

Teams can earn additional points for:

Differential fuzzing
Discovering bugs in the original project
Exceptional engineering documentation
Minimal unsafe code

AI Tools Are Allowed

Port Mortem embraces modern development workflows.

Participants are free to use:

GitHub Copilot
Cursor
Claude Code
Aider
Continue
Local LLMs
Other AI coding assistants

However, AI-generated code alone won't win.

Teams are expected to justify architectural decisions, validate correctness, and demonstrate engineering rigor.

Rules

Some important rules include:

Team size: 1–4 members
All development must occur during the official 72-hour event.
AI coding assistants are permitted.
Public GitHub repository required.
Projects must build using one documented command.
Source-language runtime wrappers or proxy implementations are not allowed.
Teams should preserve the original test suite wherever feasible.
Open-source licenses must be respected.
Plagiarism or pre-existing ports may result in disqualification.

Important Dates

Event	Date
Registration Opens	29 June 2026
Registration Deadline	31 July 2026 (6:00 PM IST)
Hackathon Kickoff	31 July 2026 (11:30 PM IST)
Submission Deadline	3 August 2026 (11:30 PM IST)
Judging	3–13 August 2026
Winners Announced	14 August 2026
Community Choice Winner	22 August 2026

Prizes

🏆 Total Prize Pool: $1,800 USD

🥇 Grand Prize

$800

🥈 Runner-Up

$400

🥉 Third Place

$200

🐞 Bug Catcher Award

$100

Awarded to the team that discovers and documents the most impactful bug in the original repository through differential testing.

❤️ Community Choice Award

$300

Selected through community voting.

Every participant who successfully completes the event will also receive a Participation Certificate.

Who Should Join?

Port Mortem is ideal for:

Systems Programmers
Rust Developers
Go Developers
Backend Engineers
Compiler Enthusiasts
Open Source Contributors
Performance Engineers
Security Researchers
AI Engineers
Students looking to work on real-world software engineering problems

If you've ever wanted to contribute to a serious software migration project—or explore how AI can assist large-scale code transformations while maintaining engineering quality—this hackathon is for you.

Join the Community

All announcements, repository releases, rule clarifications, FAQs, submission guidelines, and live support will be shared exclusively on the Hackathon Raptors Discord.

👉 Website: https://coderesurrection.com/2026

👉 Hackathon Raptors: https://raptors.dev

👉 Discord: https://discord.gg/XPfcH7VT2H

Final Thoughts

Port Mortem isn't just another "build anything" hackathon.

It's a challenge centered on one of the most important engineering problems emerging in the AI era: software migration with provable correctness.

If you're excited about cross-language development, open source, testing, systems programming, or AI-assisted engineering, this is an excellent opportunity to build something technically meaningful while competing for $1,800 in prizes.

Registration is now open. Assemble your team, choose your migration track, and get ready to resurrect code.