GitLab Hackathon Skill

Use this skill to compete fairly in GitLab hackathons with a repeatable, evidence-based plan. Prioritize real contributions that reviewers can merge quickly. Do not spam comments, pad commits, mislabel issues, or close issues without a valid reason.

For GitLab operations, read and follow the gitlab-agent skill.

Quick Start

1. Verify the current rules, dates, tracks, and prize requirements:
   • Quarterly Hackathon: https://contributors.gitlab.com/hackathon
   • Current hackathon API: https://contributors.gitlab.com/api/v1/hackathons/current
   • Transcend Hackathon: https://contributors.gitlab.com/transcend-hackathon
   • Contribution points: https://contributors.gitlab.com/docs/user-guide#contribution-points
2. Confirm eligibility before optimizing:
   • Quarterly Hackathon scoring requires at least one qualifying merge request to be merged.
   • Quarterly Hackathon MRs must be opened during the 7-day hackathon window and merged before the merge deadline.
   • Transcend Hackathon cash prizes require registration and a DevPost submission; verify the current page before starting.
3. Pick work that can merge:
   • Prefer quick-win issues, small bugs, documentation fixes, tests, and self-contained components.
   • Prefer issues with clear reproduction, clear acceptance criteria, and recent maintainer activity.
   • Avoid huge refactors, ambiguous product decisions, flaky areas, and changes that need protected-branch access.
4. Create a small qualifying MR first, then scale:
   • Link every MR to an issue when possible.
   • Keep each MR reviewable, tested, and easy to merge.
   • Ask for review through the project workflow only after CI passes and discussions are resolved.

Fair Winning Plan

1. Analyze

Build a one-page campaign brief before coding:

• Hackathon name, UTC start/end, merge deadline, prize requirements, and qualifying projects.
• Tracks and labels that matter, including Hackathon, quick-win, or Transcend-specific labels.
• Current leaderboard leaders and their scoring mix.
• Personal constraints: available time, project permissions, and trusted language/tooling areas.

Useful commands:

curl -sS https://contributors.gitlab.com/api/v1/hackathons/current | jq .
glab api '/projects/:fullpath/issues?labels=quick-win&state=opened&per_page=50'
glab api '/merge_requests?state=opened&scope=created_by_me&per_page=100'

2. Qualify

Secure at least one merged MR early. This unlocks scoring for the Quarterly Hackathon and reduces the risk of finishing with zero points.

• Choose a low-risk issue with a maintainer-friendly patch.
• Keep the diff small.
• Include a clear MR description with plan, acceptance criteria, and validation.
• Run local checks and CI lint before pushing.
• Respond to reviews quickly and resolve every thread.

3. Compound

After qualification is likely, add contributions that are legitimate and reviewable:

• Open and merge additional small MRs during the window.
• Link MRs to issues for the extra merged-with-issue credit.
• Add useful comments only when they move work forward.
• Label issues only when the label is correct.
• Close issues only when they are duplicates, invalid, completed, or otherwise clearly closable.
• Submit real events, content, translations, or AI catalog items only when they meet the published rules.

Scoring Levers

Verify these values against the user guide before each event:

• MR created: 20 points.
• Commit merged: 20 points.
• MR merged: 60 points, plus 30 more when linked to an issue.
• Issue created: 5 points.
• Issue labeled: 1 point.
• Issue closed: 5 points.
• Issue/MR comment: 1 point.
• Discord message: 1 point; Discord reply: 2 points.
• Forum post: 1 point; Forum reply: 2 points.
• Event engagement: 500 points.
• Content publication: 200 points.
• Translation: 1 point.
• AI catalog item version: 10 points.
• Ad-hoc bonus: variable.

Issue and MR Selection

Prefer work with all of these:

• Clear owner, label, or maintainer signal.
• Small blast radius.
• Existing tests or an obvious validation path.
• No dependency on secrets, production credentials, or protected branches.
• A path to merge within the hackathon merge window.

Avoid work with any of these unless there is a strong reason:

• Unclear product direction.
• Large migrations.
• Inactive maintainers.
• Required access you do not have.
• CI known to be unstable without a workaround accepted by maintainers.

Transcend Hackathon

Before working on Transcend entries, re-open the live page and confirm current requirements. As of the 2026 event page, the Transcend Hackathon runs June 10-24, 2026 UTC, focuses on AI-native contributions to GitLab's Knowledge Graph, and requires both registration and DevPost submission for cash prizes.

When choosing a Transcend path:

• For the Contribute track, select labeled Knowledge Graph issues and submit focused MRs.
• For agent/workflow entries, build a working demo with clear setup, test evidence, and a short explanation of how it uses the Knowledge Graph.
• Keep prize submission artifacts reproducible: repository link, demo instructions, screenshots or video, and a concise impact statement.

Exploit Watchlist

Track edge cases discovered during research or execution. Use them to avoid accidental rule abuse and to ask maintainers for clarification when needed.

• Qualification gate: Quarterly Hackathon points can become zero if no MR merges before the deadline.
• Timing edge: MRs must be opened during the hackathon window; opening too early may not qualify.
• Merge deadline edge: MRs merged after the post-hackathon merge window may not count.
• Commit-count edge: commits score only when merged; do not pad or fragment commits just for points.
• Comment edge: comments score, but spam comments harm reviewers and may be disqualified.
• Label/close edge: labels and closures score, but incorrect labels or invalid closures are unfair and create cleanup work.
• Linked-issue edge: linked MRs get extra credit; only link to real, relevant issues.
• Event/content edge: high point values require genuine eligible activity, not placeholder submissions.
• Transcend prize edge: leaderboard activity alone may not satisfy DevPost or registration requirements.

When a new edge case appears, append it here with:

• Source link.
• Observed behavior.
• Fair-use decision.
• Whether maintainers need to be notified.

End-of-Run Checklist

• At least one qualifying MR merged or on track to merge.
• Every MR links to a real issue when possible.
• CI passes on all active MRs.
• Review threads are resolved.
• Time spent and useful status comments are recorded in GitLab.
• Leaderboard position and scoring mix are checked.
• Any exploit-like behavior is documented in the watchlist and avoided unless maintainers explicitly approve it.