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Overview

Buildstory hackathons are week-long building events where AI builders come together to ship real projects. The platform’s launch centers on Hackathon 00 (March 1–8, 2026), a 7-day event designed to prove the core thesis: “what have you built?” is the ultimate signal of credibility.
Everything built for v1 serves Hackathon 00 but is architected to outlive it. The event is a launchpad for the broader Buildstory community.

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Hackathon 00: The Launch Event

Dates: March 1–8, 2026 (7 days) Goal: Register, create a project, log updates, and ship something real by the end of the week.

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Core Principles

Show, don't tell

Verifiable work over marketing claims — your projects speak for themselves

Zero-friction capture

Automated build logs after initial setup via GitHub webhook integration

Projects first

Projects are first-class entities that can optionally link to events

Inclusive by default

Designed for builders at every experience level

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Registration Flow

The hackathon registration is a guided 9-step onboarding flow at /hackathon:
1

Identity

Choose your username and verify it’s available in real-time
2

Experience Level

Select your builder experience:
  • Getting started — New to AI building
  • Built a few — Some projects under your belt
  • Ships constantly — Experienced builder
3

Commitment Level

Set expectations for participation:
  • All in — Dedicated full-time for the week
  • Daily — Building every day
  • Nights & weekends — Building around other commitments
  • Not sure — Exploring participation
4

Team Preference

Choose how you want to participate:
  • Solo — Building alone
  • Has team — Already have collaborators (closed team)
  • Has team, open — Have a team, open to more members
  • Looking for team — Want to find collaborators
5

Bridge

Transition screen between registration and project creation
6

Project Basics

Name your project and choose a custom slug (or auto-generate one)
7

Starting Point

Declare whether you’re building:
  • New — Starting from scratch
  • Existing — Continuing work on an existing project
8

Project Goal

Describe what you’re building and what success looks like
9

Celebration

Confirmation screen with confetti animation and next steps

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Technical Implementation

The registration flow is orchestrated by a state machine in components/onboarding/hackathon-onboarding.tsx. Each step is isolated and receives props/callbacks from the orchestrator, which owns all state and server action calls. 
type StepId = 
  | "identity" 
  | "experience" 
  | "commitment_level" 
  | "team_preference" 
  | "bridge" 
  | "project_basics" 
  | "starting_point" 
  | "project_goal" 
  | "celebration";
Development mode: Add ?dev=true to the URL to enable a floating toolbar that lets you jump to any step and fill mock data without database writes.

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After Registration

Once registered, you’ll see your hackathon project on your dashboard with:
  • Project details — Name, description, starting point, goal
  • Event linkage — Automatic connection to Hackathon 00
  • Edit access — Update project info, add GitHub/live URLs
  • Team management — Invite collaborators or accept invites

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Event Status Lifecycle

Hackathon events progress through five states:
  1. Draft — Event is being configured (not visible to participants)
  2. Open — Registration is open, event hasn’t started
  3. Active — Event is running, builds are happening
  4. Judging — Event ended, projects being reviewed
  5. Complete — Final results published

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Community Milestones

Buildstory tracks community growth milestones and fires Discord notifications when thresholds are hit: Signup milestones: 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 250, 500, 1000 Project milestones: Same thresholds These milestone pings celebrate community growth and keep everyone engaged during the event.

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Team Finding

If you selected “Looking for team” during registration:
  1. Your profile becomes discoverable to others seeking teammates
  2. Join the Discord community to coordinate
  3. Search for projects with team_preference: "has_team_open"
  4. Use the invite system to join or form teams
Team preferences can be updated anytime in your profile settings. Privacy controls via allowInvites toggle let you opt out of unsolicited invites.

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Discord Integration

Fire-and-forget Discord webhook notifications keep the community updated:
  • Signup notifications — New participant joins
  • Project notifications — New project created
  • Milestone alerts — Community size thresholds reached
All Discord calls are non-blocking and errors are reported to Sentry without breaking user flows.

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What to Build

Buildstory is focused on AI builders, so projects typically involve:
  • AI-powered applications
  • LLM integrations
  • AI tooling and infrastructure
  • ML model experiments
  • AI-first products
But the only real requirement is: ship something real. Your work is the signal.

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Live Streaming

Want to build in public? Buildstory integrates with Twitch to showcase live streaming participants.

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Streamers Feature

The /streamers page displays hackathon participants who are currently live on Twitch:
  • Real-time updates — Automatically detects who’s streaming
  • Stream previews — Thumbnail, title, and viewer count
  • Direct links — Click to watch on Twitch
  • Grid layout — Browse all active streams at once
To appear on the streamers page:
  1. Add your Twitch URL to your Buildstory profile settings
  2. Go live on Twitch during the hackathon
  3. The platform will automatically detect your stream via the Twitch API
Streaming your build process is a great way to connect with the community, get real-time feedback, and demonstrate your building journey.

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After the Hackathon

Projects created during Hackathon 00 remain on the platform permanently. They become part of your portfolio and contribute to your reputation in the community. The event is a starting point, not an endpoint.

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