Hey, DEV community!

I hope you're ready for some exciting news. GitHub is launching their latest hackathon here on DEV Community where you can build a new application in the open, learn something new, and maybe win some awesome prizes in the process!

Announcing the GitHub + DEV 2023 Hackathon 🎉

From now until May 23rd, GitHub is offering an unmissable opportunity to utilize GitHub Actions or GitHub Codespaces to benefit open source in exchange for prizes. All participants will need to share a DEV post detailing how they created their project. We can't wait to see what you create! Anyone who submits a valid project (including an official submission post, published on DEV) will be automatically entered to win a variety of fantastic prizes (including up to $1,500 USD!).

Keep reading to get all the details on GitHub Actions, GitHub Codespaces, and how you can join the hackathon for a chance to win some exciting prizes.

What Are GitHub Actions?

GitHub Actions are individual tasks that, when combined, result in a custom workflow that’s all your own!

GitHub Actions allow you to automate and customize your software development workflows. Actions are located in the same place you store code, collaborate with peers, solve issues, and ship open source software — GitHub!

Whether you build a custom action or integrate an existing one into your workflow for the hackathon, we hope that you’ll walk away with a greater understanding of the value of GitHub Actions — for you and the open source community.

We’re excited to see how you approach this challenge! More on GitHub Actions here. Check out the tag pages for the #actionshackathon and #actionshackathon21 for some inspiration for GitHub Actions workflow ideas.

What are GitHub Codespaces?

GitHub Codespaces are development environments hosted in the cloud. You can customize your project for GitHub Codespaces by configuring dev container files to your repository (often known as Configuration-as-Code), which creates a repeatable codespace configuration for all users of your project.

GitHub Codespaces run on a variety of VM-based compute options hosted by GitHub, which you can configure from 2 core machines up to 32 core machines. You can connect to your codespaces from the browser or locally using an IDE like Visual Studio Code or IntelliJ.

More on GitHub Codespaces here.

Project Categories

The GitHub + DEV 2023 Hackathon is calling for projects in the following five categories:

• Maintainer Must-Haves: Make the lives of Open Source maintainers easier.

Guidance: Developers can use Codespaces to set up an environment to triage issues and review pull requests. Actions can also be used to build tools and resources to help developers create better documentation.

• DIY Deployments: Improve the deployment process for open source projects.

Guidance: Build automation workflows for DevOps processes using Codespaces or Actions! This could include automated testing, custom deployment scripts, or continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

• Interesting IoT: Cool projects that integrate with IoT.

Guidance: Use Codespaces or Actions to manage and monitor IoT devices, including tasks like managing configurations, updating firmware, and collecting and analyzing data.

• Phone Friendly: Projects built for Mobile (PWA readiness, iOS/Android)

Guidance: Developers can use Codespaces or Actions to create mobile applications that work on both iOS and Android devices, as well as set up automation workflows and CI/CD pipelines for their PWA ready apps.

• Wacky Wildcards: Build a random app that doesn’t fit into one of the categories above.

Guidance: With this category, we are looking for some truly silly and/or fun submissions. Feel free to dream big and ridiculously — and utilize any feature that GitHub offers.

Why Participate?

The core philosophy behind open source software is code, technology, and the services we use are stronger and more secure when peer-review is both solicited and easily accessible. To be truly involved in the open source community, you (of course) need to participate! GitHub Actions and Codespaces are the perfect way to contribute to open source while optimizing your workflows.

If that’s not enough incentive, we also have some sweet, sweet prizes!

💰 Prizes 💰

Five Grand Prize Winners (one per category):

• $1,500 USD gift card or equivalent
• $300 USD credit to the Forem Shop
• DEV Sticker Pack
• GitHub Sticker Pack
• DEV “GitHub Hackathon 2023” Grand Prize profile badge

Runner-Up Prizes (10 Total – across all categories):

• $250 USD gift card or equivalent
• $150 USD credit to the Forem Shop
• DEV Sticker Pack
• GitHub Sticker Pack
• DEV “GitHub Hackathon 2023” Runner-Up profile badge

Participants (with a valid project):

• DEV Sticker Pack
• DEV “GitHub Hackathon 2023” participant profile badge

Cost of shipping included. If shipping outside of the U.S., international customs and duties may apply. Please research your local import laws for more information on customs fees or reach out to shop@forem.com with any questions.

How to Participate in the GitHub + DEV 2023 Hackathon

1) Sign up for a free GitHub account by clicking here or sign into your existing account.

2) Create a new and original app during the contest period using GitHub Actions or GitHub Codespaces that falls under one of the categories listed above.

3) Share your code publicly on GitHub using one of the following permissive licenses for your code: MIT, Apache, BSD-2, BSD-3, or Commons Clause.

4) IMPORTANT: Use this post template to officially submit your application for the hackathon. Be sure to address every prompt and instruction in the template.

5) Be sure to publish your submission on DEV between April 25th and May 23rd (@ 11:59 PM UTC), and provide your app’s URL, screenshot, description, and source code

⚠️ Heads-up that you'll only be able to view our submission template linked above if you're logged into DEV.

Additional Notes and Rules:

• We encourage you to share update posts on DEV using the #GitHubHack23 tag to keep us posted on your progress (hint: use series: [“series name”] in the markdown heading of all your GitHub + DEV Hackathon-related posts to link all content in a series)
• Multiple submissions are allowed
• If you collaborate with anyone, please list their DEV handles in your submission post so we can award a profile badge to your entire team! DEV does not handle prize-splitting, so in the event your project is named a Grand Prize-winner or runner-up, you will need to split those amongst yourselves. Thank you for understanding!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends {date of contest closure}, 11:59 PM UTC. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entries must be new projects and created during the hackathon period. For Official Rules, see Contest Announcement Page and General Contest Official Rules.

Community Support

To ask any questions about GitHub or about the rules of this contest, leave a comment in the official help thread. Our team will be monitoring this space to answer your questions in collaboration with the GitHub team.

Need some external motivation and guidance? Who doesn’t! We encourage all participants to swing by our community discussion thread where you can share your ideas and get suggestions on improvements from the DEV community as you build your app. You can also use this thread to share your progress along the way to get support from others.

Important Dates 🗓

• April 25th, 2023: Hackathon Begins
• May 23rd, 2023: Hackathon Submission Due at 11:59 PM UTC
• May 24th, 2023: Submission Judging begins
• UPDATED: June 13th, 2023: Winners Announced and Prize Instructions Sent

We’re so excited for you to join us for this brand new hackathon with our friends at GitHub. Have fun, learn lots, and keep us posted along the way.

Good luck and happy coding! 🍀