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Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 4 Contest Rules

Contest Announcement

Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Week 4

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 4
Entry Period: The Contest begins on October 26, 2026 at 9:00 AM PDT and ends on October 31, 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, created during the Entry Period, that is built with open-weight models and/or open-source AI (such as open-source agent harnesses, frameworks, or local inference) and that responds to the "Ghost in the Machine" theme described on the Contest Page.
  • A demo of the project, such as a deployed link or video walkthrough, included in the submission post.
  • A link to the project's code repository included in the submission post.
  • An explanation of which open-source AI was used, how the project is built around it, and why open innovation matters for the project.
  • If entering one or more partner prize categories, an indication in the submission post of which categories the Entry is being submitted to, along with a meaningful use of the corresponding partner technology.

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 one (1) overall winner and twenty (20) prize category winners based on the following criteria:

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

An Entry may be submitted to every prize category whose technology it meaningfully uses, but each participant may win no more than one (1) prize in the 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 USD
  • Exclusive DEV Badge

Featured categories: Best Use of Render, Best Use of TabPFN, Best Use of Tinker, Best Use of Arduino, Best Use of DigitalOcean, and Best Use of Gemma.

Partner Category Winners (14) will each receive:

  • $100 USD
  • Exclusive DEV Badge

Partner categories: Best Use of Auth0 for AI Agents, Best Use of Backboard, Best Use of Browserbase, Best Use of ElevenLabs, Best Use of Entire, Best Use of GitHub Copilot, Best Use of Mastra, Best Use of MongoDB Atlas, Best Use of Sentry Agent Tracing, Best Use of SerpApi, Best Use of Temporal, Best Use of Tiger Data, Best Use of Ultramarine (Paper Instruments), and Best Use of a .tech Domain.

Participant Winner (who submits a valid and qualified entry) will receive:

  • A completion badge on their DEV profile