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Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 1 Contest Rules

Contest Announcement

Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 1

Sponsored by Major League Hacking PBC Inc("Sponsor")

NO ENTRY FEE. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

We urge you to carefully read the terms and conditions of this Contest Landing Page located here and the Major League Hacking PBC Inc General Contest Official Rules located here ("Official Rules"), incorporated herein by reference. The following contest specific details on this Contest Announcement Page, together with the Official Rules, govern your participation in the named contest defined below (the "Contest").

Sponsor does not claim ownership rights in your Entry. The Official Rules describe the rights you give to Sponsor by submitting an Entry to participate in the named Contest. In the event of a conflict between the terms of this Contest Announcement Page and the Official Rules, the Official Rules will govern and control.

Contest Name: Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 1
Entry Period: The Contest begins on October 5, 2026 at 9:00 AM PDT and ends on October 11, 2026 at 11:59 PM PDT (the "Entry Period")

How to Enter: All entries must be submitted no later than the end of the Entry Period. You may enter the Contest during the Entry Period as follows:

  1. Visit the Contest webpage part of the DEV Community Site located here (the "Contest Page"); and
  2. Follow any instructions on the Contest Page and submit your completed entry (each an "Entry").

You may submit one (1) Entry during the Entry Period. In the event that a participant submits more than one Entry, only the first Entry submitted will be considered for judging.

Required Elements for Entries: Without limiting any terms of the Official Rules, each Entry must include, at a minimum, the following elements:

  • A published submission post on DEV that uses the submission template and unique challenge tag provided on the Contest Page.
  • A new project with open-source AI at its core (such as an open-weight model, an open-source agent harness or framework, or local inference) that fits the challenge theme, "Touch Grass." The project and its repository must be created and completed within the Entry Period. Pull requests to existing projects will not be accepted.
  • A demo of the project, such as a deployed link or video demo, and a link to the project's code repository.
  • An explanation of why open innovation matters for the project that was built.

Judging Criteria: All qualified entries will be judged by a panel as selected by Sponsor as set forth in the Official Rules.

Judges will award seventeen (17) winners based on the following criteria:

  • Writing Quality (weighted most heavily)
  • Relevance to the Prompt and Theme
  • Creativity
  • Technical Execution
  • Use of Partner Technology (applies only to Entries submitted to a partner prize category)

Each Entry is automatically eligible for the overall prize and for every partner prize category whose technology it meaningfully uses. A participant may win only one (1) prize in this Contest.

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.

Prize(s):

The prizes to be awarded from the Contest are as follows:

Overall Winner (1) will receive:

  • $250 USD
  • DEV++ Membership
  • Exclusive DEV Badge

Featured Category Winners (6) will each receive:

  • $200