Build the Future of Cloud-Native Networking! 
The Calico community moves fast. With the releases of Calico 3.30 and 3.31 , brings improvements in scalability, network security, and visibility. Now, we want to see what YOU can do with them!
We’re excited to officially invite you to the Project Calico 3.30+ Community Hackathon.
Whether you’re a seasoned eBPF expert or a newcomer to the Gateway API, we welcome your innovation and your ideas!
Table of Contents
What’s in the Toolkit?
We’ve packed Calico 3.30+ with powerful features ready for you to hack on:
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Goldmane & Whisker: High-performance flow insights meets a sleek, operator-friendly UI. -
Staged Policies: The “Safety First” way to test Zero Trust before enforcing it.
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Calico Ingress Gateway: Modern, Envoy-powered traffic management via the Gateway API.
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Calico Cloud Ready: Connect open-source clusters to a free-forever, read-only tier for instant visualization and troubleshooting.
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IPAM for Load Balancers: Consistent IP strategies for MetalLB and beyond.
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Advanced QoS: Fine-grained bandwidth and packet rate controls.
Hackathon Starter Kit
No need to start from a blank screen. Use these progressive GitHub guides to stand up your environment and verify your features in minutes.
Level 1: Bootstrap
Set up a 3-node Kind cluster and install Calico in under 5 minutes.
Level 2: Verification
Ensure your environment is correctly configured for Goldmane, Whisker, and Staged Policies.
Level 3: Expert
Deep-dive into component status and health for advanced observability and automation hacks.
Inspiration: What Can You Build?
Whether you’re a networking guru or an automation enthusiast, Calico 3.30+ provides a massive playground for innovation. Here are three major tracks to spark your imagination:
Observability & Visibility
Leverage Goldmane and Whisker to make the invisible, visible.
- Flow Insight Dashboards: Create a specialized Grafana dashboard that visualizes the high-performance flow data collected by Goldmane.
- AI Traffic Analysis: Use an LLM to analyze Whisker flow logs to identify and explain unusual traffic patterns in plain English.
- Visual Troubleshooting: Build a workflow that uses the Calico Cloud free tier to pinpoint exactly where a packet is being dropped in a complex microservice architecture.
Zero Trust Security
Use Staged Policies to modernize security without the fear of outages.
- Safe Policy CI/CD: Create a GitHub Action that automatically deploys a policy in “Staged” mode and only promotes it to “Enforced” after 24 hours of zero blocked traffic.
- Policy Migration Tool: A script that converts legacy Kubernetes NetworkPolicies into advanced Calico Staged Policies for better auditability.
- Dynamic Quarantine: A tool that detects threats and automatically stages a restrictive policy for an affected namespace.
Traffic & Infrastructure
Integrate Ingress Gateway and IPAM for rock-solid connectivity.
- Gateway API Demo: Build a multi-tenant app that uses the Calico Ingress Gateway to handle traffic routing and security at the edge.
- MetalLB + IPAM Automation: Showcase a self-healing infrastructure where Calico IPAM dynamically manages LoadBalancer IPs for bare-metal clusters.
- QoS Optimizer: Build a performance-testing tool that demonstrates how Calico’s Advanced QoS controls prevent “noisy neighbors” from slowing down critical workloads.
$1,750 in Total Cash Prizes!
1st Place
$1,000
USD
2nd Place
$500
USD
3rd Place
$250
USD
Plus: Exclusive Calico Hackathon Swag Packs for all winners!
Mark Your Calendars
All times in Pacific Time (PT). Don’t let the clock run out!
| Phase | Date |
|---|---|
 Hackathon Announced: Save the date
|
Feb 17, 2026 |
|
Hackathon Officially Opens
|
Feb 24, 2026 |
 Submission Deadline
|
Mar 31, 2026 @ 11:59 PM PT |
 Showcase & Winners Announced
|
April 2026 |
Judging Criteria: How to Win
Our panel of Calico maintainers and community leaders will be scoring projects based on five key pillars. To take home the top prize, aim for a balance of technical execution and real-world impact.
1
Technical Depth
Does the project meaningfully implement Calico 3.30+ features? We’re looking for high-quality code and a deep understanding of how Goldmane, Whisker, or Staged Policies function.
2
Creativity & Innovation
Is the idea unique? We love “outside-the-box” thinking—whether it’s a new use case for the Gateway API or a clever integration we haven’t seen before.
3
Practical Value
Could a real-world Calico user deploy this tomorrow? We value projects that solve actual pain points in networking, security, or cluster operations.
4
Clarity of Demo
Is your video walkthrough easy to follow? A great project needs a great story—explain the Why, the How, and show us the Result clearly.
5
Community Impact
Does this benefit the wider open-source ecosystem? Projects that provide educational value, helpful tutorials, or reusable templates will score high here.
Note to Participants: Our judges aren’t just looking for complex code; they’re looking for clarity and usefulness. A simple, well-documented tool that solves a specific problem is often more valuable than a massive, unfinished dashboard!
Ready to show the world what you can build?
View Official Terms & Conditions
The post Project Calico 3.30+ Hackathon: Show Us What You Can Build! appeared first on Tigera - Creator of Calico.
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