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Build With AI: Basics — a beginner's guide

A short, learning-first Devpost hackathon: build a small working app with an AI coding agent and the Devpost Learn Skill Pack, then submit a 1–3 minute demo video and a public repo. Open to ages 18+ in most countries; $2,500 in cash prizes.

DEADLINE
PRIZE$2,500Devpost
Official page ↗

Brainstorm word cloud

Terms mined today from the brief, current gallery submissions, past winning projects in related Devpost hackathons and the discussion board. Bigger = more frequent (brief and winners weigh more). Click a word to see winning projects that mention it.

briefpast winnersdiscussionsthis gallery

skills · coding agent · learn · plan · code · discord · track · personalized · helping · session · feedback · resources · learn skill · skill pack · step-by-step guides · claude code · empty folder · reusable · open · codex · cursor · interview · idea · habit · review · builders

Key facts

Organizer
Devpost (managed by Devpost) ↗
Submission period
Sep 22, 2026 10:00 am ET – Oct 26, 2026 5:00 pm ET ↗
Prizes
$2,500 total: 1st $1,250 (plus a Devpost newsletter and social feature), 2nd $750, 3rd $500 ↗
Who can join
Ages 18+; all countries/territories except Devpost's standard exceptions (Brazil, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Quebec, Russia) ↗
Teams
Individuals, teams or organizations; a team appoints one Representative to submit ↗
What you hand in
1–3 minute demo video + public GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket repo + short description. Reviewers won't clone or run your code ↗
Hard requirements
New project started from an empty folder during the submission period; built with the skill pack; scope.md, prd.md and spec.md in the public repo ↗
Everyone who submits
An eligible submission earns a Devpost Learn badge ↗

Idea angles

These are our suggestions, sized for the 2–4 hours of active work the skill pack's README expects. Pick one thing your app does end to end.

A tool for your own week

The brief asks for something useful to your work or your life. One screen that removes a chore you already do (logging, sorting, reminding) is easy to demo and easy to judge on Design.

Learn-something app

The hackathon is tagged Education. Turn your own notes or a reading list into a quiz, flashcards or a study plan. Keep the data local so the video can show it working without accounts.

Explain-it-back helper

Paste in something confusing (a bill, a rulebook, an error message) and get a plain-language version with one next step. Innovation comes from the narrow audience you pick, not from adding features.

Tiny tracker with a twist

Habit, budget or reading trackers are common. Judges score novelty, so give it one unusual angle: a specific community, a constraint, or a visual idea. The skill pack's PRD step asks design questions for this.

Past winners in related hackathons

Winner-badged projects from ended Devpost hackathons that share a theme with this one. Read a few before you pick an idea.

  • SafeHer — Not just the fastest route — the safest one (Zero Origin)
  • RoofGrid — Turn any rooftop into a practical, data-driven solar plan. (InfinityX Global Hackathon 2K26)
  • CartWise — Find nearby grocery deals and track your savings. (TechNisa Hacks )
  • ResumeFit — Most AI resume tools stop at feedback. ResumeFit closes the loop. Upload a resume, Gemma runs a health check, ranks you against hundreds of real SWE internships with a fit score and matched skills. (305 SummerCodex Edition July 2026)
  • ScaleFlow — ScaleFlow dynamically scales cloud resources during traffic spikes, distributes workloads across healthy instances, monitors infrastructure, and enables automated failure recovery. (Zero Origin)
  • MediAudit AI — Snap a photo of your confusing medical bill and then MediAudit AI turns it into plain English, a checklist, and the exact words to say, so anyone can question an unfair charge. (InfinityX Global Hackathon 2K26)
  • Bridge ADAPTIVE — Bridge Adaptive uses AI to transform standard Islamic lessons into personalized, sensory-friendly experiences for neurodivergent children, adapting to how they learn best. (TechNisa Hacks )
  • SmartServe AI — SmartServe AI predicts food demand and recommends preparation quantities using AI, helping restaurants reduce food waste, lower costs, and plan smarter. (Zero Origin)
  • Camleaf — An offline progressive web app to diagnose crop leaf diseases in <60 milliseconds with zero cell signal and calculate knapsack sprayer doses for rural farmers. (InfinityX Global Hackathon 2K26)
  • CivicFix — Let's cut through the paper work! (TechNisa Hacks )
  • CareBridge AI — CareBridge AI detects missing, changed, and conflicting patient information during healthcare handoffs, helping clinicians quickly verify critical details and improve care continuity. (Zero Origin)
  • Ummah Connect — A personalized discovery app that helps Muslim students, newcomers, and professionals find the people, events, and communities already around them. (TechNisa Hacks )

Judging criteria

Stage one is pass/fail: does the project fit the theme and show it was built with the Devpost Learn skill pack (planning docs in the repo)? Stage two scores the three criteria below with equal weight; ties are broken by the first criterion listed. source ↗

Design33.3%

Does the project deliver a complete, coherent product experience, not just a technical proof of concept?

Innovation/Idea33.3%

How creative and novel is the concept, and does it differ from existing concepts?

Presentation33.3%

Does the video clearly show the project working end to end, and does the pitch say what problem is solved, for whom, and why it matters?

Starter stack

  • Node.js + Git Required by the skill pack installer ↗
  • A coding agent that reads SKILL.md Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Pi or Opencode are listed as compatible ↗
  • Devpost Learn Skill Pack npx skills add challengepost/learn-ai-basics --all -y ↗
  • Public repo host GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket ↗
  • Screen recorder For the 1–3 minute demo; a plain screen recording is accepted ↗
  • Devpost Discord Questions, office hours and early feedback ↗

Timeline

  1. Registration and submissions open
  2. Live Build Session (recorded)
  3. Cup of Joe office hours (Discord voice)
  4. Cup of Joe office hours (Discord voice)
  5. “Will It Ship” live review of about five submissions
  6. Submission deadline
  7. Judging period starts (ends Oct 30, 5:00 pm ET)
  8. Winners announced (on or around)

How a beginner can ship

  1. Set up (15 min)

    Install Node.js and Git, open an empty folder, run npx skills add challengepost/learn-ai-basics --all -y, then tell your agent “run 1-start”. It writes devpost/learner-profile.md, which stays out of commits by default.

  2. Scope it small

    Run 2-scope. Aim for a proof of concept that does one thing end to end. Old ideas are fine; old code is not.

  3. Plan before code

    Run 3-prd (screens, behavior, now/later boundary) and 4-spec (technical plan). These produce the prd.md and spec.md files the judges check in stage one.

  4. Build in slices

    Run 5-build. It commits verified steps and ends with a short code tour and an app map, useful for your own learning write-up.

  5. Record the demo

    Run 6-ship. Show the app working end to end in 1–3 minutes, because reviewers will not run your code. Say who it is for and what problem it solves (that is the Presentation criterion).

  6. Get feedback early

    Post in the Devpost Discord's Build with AI Basics forum before Oct 22 if you want a chance at the live “Will It Ship” review.

  7. Submit before Oct 26, 5:00 pm ET

    Write the description yourself (the README says the agent only fixes spelling and grammar), check the repo and its history for secrets, then submit on Devpost.

From the discussion board

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