Vibe FORWARD — One-Day AI Hackathon

AI is moving fast. Trust, transparency, and oversight aren't keeping up.

Vibe FORWARD is a hands-on, in-person hackathon where builders, designers, and operators come together to create practical tools that make AI systems more understandable, reliable, and safe — for the organizations that need it most.

Teams will design and prototype tools that help small businesses and community groups use automated systems responsibly and effectively. Not concepts. Not slide decks. Working demos, built in a day.

What sets this apart

This isn't a theory exercise. Every project is judged on real-world impact — can it actually be used, understood, and trusted by the people it's built for?

— Real-world deployment over abstract ideas

— Usability and clarity over technical complexity

— Engineering, design, and product thinking working together

— One clear problem space: trust, transparency, and safe AI

 

Build something that matters. Demo it by end of day.

Requirements

What you're building

Every team walks away with something real — a working prototype that tackles one of the hackathon tracks head-on and shows, concretely, how it improves transparency, trust, or safety in AI.

Your prototype can take any form — a web app, tool, interface, or system. What matters is that it works and can be demoed.

What to submit on Devpost

Before the end of the day, every team submits a Devpost project that includes:

— A clear project description

— The problem you tackled and how your solution addresses it

— A demo — live or recorded

— Screenshots or visuals of your build

— A link to your code repository, if available

Demo time

Every team should be ready to present a short live demo to the judges. Keep it tight, keep it real — show the thing working.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$2,000 in prizes
Best Real-World Application
$1,000 in cash
1 winner

Best Real-World Application — 1st Place: $1K cash (Lava) + $10K Tavily credits

Track 1: Runner Up
$500 in cash
1 winner

Track 1 Runner-Up: $500 cash + $5K Tavily credits

Track 2: Runner Up
$500 in cash
1 winner

Track 2 Runner-Up: $500 cash + $5K Tavily credits

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Me

Judging Criteria

  • Does it work?
    Live demo, real input, no hand-waving. If it breaks during the pitch, it doesn't exist.
  • Does it matter?
    A real person or org could use this tomorrow. Not a proof of concept — a thing that solves an actual problem.
  • Is it clear?
    A non-technical judge understands what it does in 60 seconds. Complexity hidden behind good UX wins over complexity on display.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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