Congrats to the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 3: Slow and Steady Winners!

The results are in for Week 3 of our five Hacktoberfest DEV Challenges! For Slow and Steady, we asked...

The results are in for Week 3 of our five Hacktoberfest DEV Challenges! For Slow and Steady, we asked you to channel your inner sloth and build something with open-weight models or open-source AI that rewards laziness.

The builds we saw were anything but lazy. Many of you showed exactly why open innovation matters for this kind of work: automations that run offline, keep personal messages and files on your own machine, and cost nothing to keep running once they're set up.

Thank you to everyone who built with us this week. Now, let's celebrate our winners!

🎉 Congratulations To…

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Overall Winner

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Featured Category Winners

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Best Use of Render

{% embed https://dev.to/zedaina/the-internet-is-open-to-everyone-filling-out-its-forms-isnt-18l5 %}

Best Use of TabPFN

{% embed https://dev.to/elias-shieh/my-alarm-wont-let-me-snooze-if-id-be-late-42p0 %}

Best Use of Tinker

{% embed https://dev.to/advikdivekar/a-small-not-so-smart-model-went-from-10-to-996-at-reading-property-deeds-for-115-and-it-says-490k %}

Best Use of Arduino

{% embed https://dev.to/muhammadmurtuzahussain/i-sleep-4-hours-a-night-because-of-email-so-i-built-a-sloth-that-reads-it-for-me-gemma-4-on-an-1aa1 %}

Best Use of DigitalOcean

{% embed https://dev.to/nikithakls17sys/every-group-chat-has-one-person-who-plans-everything-i-built-an-app-so-nobody-has-to-be-that-nlm %}

Best Use of Gemma

{% embed https://dev.to/samarth_kumble_a91ad88634/i-get-50-placement-emails-a-week-a-local-gemma-now-tells-me-which-4-i-can-apply-to-4l88 %} {% endcard %}

Partner Category Winners

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Best Use of Auth0 for AI Agents

{% embed https://dev.to/aridiosilva/slothguard-a-lazy-access-reviewer-that-asks-your-phone-before-it-revokes-anything-4k1a %}

Best Use of Backboard

{% embed https://dev.to/jenniferevangelistade/night-guard-an-open-model-guard-that-watches-out-for-kids-in-game-chats-so-tired-parents-dont-3fb6 %}

Best Use of Browserbase

{% embed https://dev.to/aarishmansur/my-college-erp-keeps-logging-me-out-sloth-clerk-checks-my-75-attendance-at-730-am-and-asks-my-1j4l %}

Best Use of ElevenLabs

{% embed https://dev.to/nikema/talk-to-the-book-dictating-the-book-i-owe-57-people-406p %}

Best Use of Entire

{% embed https://dev.to/cadets_atease/i-let-a-25-mb-model-choose-the-typeface-for-my-quote-cards-it-got-it-wrong-and-i-shipped-it-3mg0 %}

Best Use of GitHub Copilot

{% embed https://dev.to/dj29/i-built-slothd-a-local-first-offline-capable-ai-daemon-that-patiently-organizes-your-messy-53e7 %}

Best Use of Mastra

{% embed https://dev.to/daniel_ng/i-gave-up-naming-my-projects-my-agents-do-it-now-1275 %}

Best Use of MongoDB Atlas

{% embed https://dev.to/sea_deep/the-answer-was-already-in-another-thread-so-i-built-threadsherpa-khm %}

Best Use of Sentry Agent Tracing

{% embed https://dev.to/finallyjay/fridge-sloth-snap-your-fridge-get-a-grocery-list-and-healthy-meals-fully-offline-on-gemma-2fkp %}

Best Use of SerpApi

{% embed https://dev.to/dhananjayachamod0754/i-need-money-for-my-studies-so-i-built-an-agent-that-hunts-for-it-while-i-sleep-1mpi %}

Best Use of Temporal

{% embed https://dev.to/kavya_sharma_26d762f34a29/slothshot-a-tiny-model-on-a-slow-laptop-names-my-screenshots-overnight-and-temporal-makes-sure-it-1g7o %}

Best Use of Tiger Data

{% embed https://dev.to/codewithveek/too-lazy-to-read-my-newsletters-so-i-built-an-ai-that-reads-them-to-me-i85 %}

Best Use of Ultramarine

{% embed https://dev.to/himanshu_748/bas-do-minute-ka-kaam-hai-i-built-vox-so-24-support-tickets-stop-keeping-me-up-34dd %}

Best Use of a .tech Domain

{% embed https://dev.to/nirajkhetre/black-october-hit-php-npm-and-pypi-so-i-built-a-system-that-catches-it-in-my-app-before-i-ship-5gff %} {% endcard %}

Prizes

• Overall winner: $250 USD, a DEV++ membership, and an exclusive DEV badge
• Featured category winners: $200 USD and an exclusive DEV badge each
• Partner category winners: $100 USD and an exclusive DEV badge each

All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.

A huge thank you to our partners for making these prizes possible!

What's Next?

There's still time to join our final Hacktoberfest challenge! Week 4 runs through October 31: build something spooky, or honor the past in the spirit of Día de los Muertos, using open-weight models or open-source AI.

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You can find all five challenges on the HF26 DEV Challenge Hub.

Happy Hacktoberfest! 🦥