Hacktoberfest 2026 DEV Challenges: Five Challenges, One Prompt, a New Theme Every Week - DEV Community

Posted on Oct 1 • Edited on Oct 2
Hacktoberfest is here, and this October we're running five DEV Challenges back to back. Every challenge uses the same prompt. Every challenge gets its own theme, and each theme stays secret until the day it launches.
This year's Hacktoberfest is not about open source pull requests. There's no PR count to hit and no repos to hunt for. Instead, you build a brand-new project with open-source AI at its core, and write about it on DEV. Here's everything you need to know about Hacktoberfest 2026.
First up is our Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge, launching in just a few hours. Then a new challenge launches every Monday in October.
Joining late? No problem. Every challenge is a fresh start, so someone who finds us in week four competes on the same footing as someone who's been here since day one.
Everything lives on the HF26 DEV Challenge Hub: the schedule, every partner category, and the FAQ
Build something with open-source AI at its core.
That can mean running an open-weight model, building on an open-source agent harness or framework, running inference locally, or all three. Whatever you pick, the open pieces should be what makes your project work.
In your post, tell us why open innovation matters for what you built. Does it run on a laptop with no internet? Keep someone's data off a server they don't control? Let you fine-tune, swap models, or change how your agent behaves? Cost nothing to run? Tell us where your open-based approach worked better than a closed one.
Every challenge has its own winners, and we'll share each challenge's prizes when it launches. Here's what's up for grabs in the Weekend Challenge.
Overall winner (1): $250, a DEV++ membership, and an exclusive DEV badge.
Featured categories (6): $200 for each winner.
Partner categories (10): $100 for each winner.
Partner categories may change from challenge to challenge as new partners join. Every winner also gets an exclusive DEV badge, and everyone with a valid submission gets a completion badge. You don't need to use any partner technology to win the overall prize, but if you've been curious about any of this tech, here's your excuse to try it.
Pro Tip: Partner category winners come from a smaller pool of submissions, so your odds are meaningfully higher.
Note: One project can enter every category it genuinely uses, but you can win once per challenge, and we'll aim to celebrate as many different builders as possible across the month.
Free credits: several partners are giving participants credits and promo codes, including Tinker, Render, Backboard, and ElevenLabs. Claim yours at hacktoberfest.com/my.
A huge thank you to our partners for making these prizes possible!
This is DEV, so your write-up matters most. A great project with a thin write-up won't win. Tell us the story.
Show your work. We'd love to see how you built it. Save your agent session with DevRelay and embed it in your post, or link to it. It's optional, but it helps the judges understand your process.
Each challenge's page has its exact deadline in every timezone. Follow the #hf26challenge tag so you don't miss a reveal.
Happy Hacktoberfest!
This is going to be a fun month! Good luck everyone!!
I built PHANTOM 👻 — a spooky AI-powered coding companion for VS Code as part of the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge.
It helps developers identify bugs, understand coding mistakes, and apply AI-suggested fixes — all with a unique horror-inspired personality! 💀
I'd love for you to check out my project and share your feedback.
📝 Read my project submission: 👻 Read my PHANTOM project on DEV.to
If you like the idea, please give the post a ❤️ and show some support!
PHANTOM — Debug the darkness. Banish the bugs. 👻
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge: Ghost in the Machine Submission 👻🌼
Here is my attempt for this year's Hacktoberfest.
Love the format change this year. Moving from PR counts to "build something new with open-source AI at its core" makes the prompt much more interesting, and the "tell us where open worked better than closed" angle should push people toward real write-ups instead of generic demos.
A few things I like:
Two quick questions:
Excited to see what people ship. Happy Hacktoberfest!
Hey there! I'm glad you like the format.
More information and the specific challenge rules will be published when the challenge drops, but to address your questions:
Thanks for your interest. Excited to see what you build!
I really like the direction of Hacktoberfest this year. The idea of having the same core prompt but a different theme every week makes it feel less like a competition you have to prepare for months in advance and more like a series of opportunities to just build and experiment.
I also appreciate that the focus isn’t only on whether the project works. Putting real weight on the write-up encourages people to explain the decisions, trade-offs, and lessons behind what they built—not just show off a polished demo.