Hackathon for MCP and AI Agents

Thank You to All Participants!

We appreciate every submission and the incredible creativity from our community. Winners will be notified directly.

$5,000

Total Prizes

About The Hackathon

Your chance to shape the future of AI agents and cloud native

This hackathon invites developers, tinkerers, and open source enthusiasts from all backgrounds to get hands-on with building cool MCP servers and AI agents—showing what's possible when we make cloud native more approachable and human-centric through conversations.

Whether you're hacking on MCP, learning agentic AI for the first time, or crafting a tutorial to help others get started, this is your opportunity to learn, contribute, and connect while showcasing the potential of open source technologies like agentgateway, kagent, agentregistry, and more.

This is your chance to show the community what you can do!

$ what-can-i-build

› MCP server for agentgateway, kagent, or agentregistry
› AI agent for your favorite cloud native project
› Tutorial with agentgateway/kagent/agentregistry
› Security & governance implementations
› Blog post demystifying AI agent development
› Real-world production showcases

$ start-hacking

Initializing creativity module... ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 100%
Ready to build! 🚀

Competition Categories

Five unique tracks to showcase your skills

🚀

MCP & AI Agents Starter Track

New to MCP and AI agents? This track is perfect for beginners. Build your first project and share your learning journey. No prior experience required!

$1,000 Prize

🛡️

Secure & Govern MCP

Focus on security and governance of MCP/AI agents with agentgateway. Build tools that help secure, monitor, and manage AI agent deployments.

$1,000 Prize

🤖

Building Cool Agents

Create innovative AI agents with kagent. Make cloud native projects more accessible to newbies or build co-worker agents for existing users.

$1,000 Prize

📚

Explore Agent Registry

Dive deep into agentregistry with MCP, agents, or skills. Extend the registry, build integrations, or create tools that enhance discoverability.

$1,000 Prize

🔧

Open Source Contributions

Contribute directly to agentgateway, kagent, or agentregistry. Bug fixes, new features, documentation improvements, or testing enhancements.

$1,000 Prize

What You Can Build

Build an MCP server for agentgateway, kagent, or agentregistry to help users learn and troubleshoot
Build an AI agent for your favorite cloud native project and integrate it with kagent
Create a tutorial for your MCP server or agent with agentgateway, kagent, or agentregistry
Secure and govern your MCP/AI agents with agentgateway
Write a blog demystifying how you built your AI agent or MCP server
Showcase using AI agents in real-world production scenarios

Meet the Judges

Industry experts evaluating your innovations

Kelsey Hightower

Distinguished Engineer (Retired) @ Google

Kubernetes pioneer and renowned cloud-native advocate

Alan Blount

Senior Technical Product Manager @ Google

Working on Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK), expertise in LLM applications and AI agents

Dmytro Rashko

Software Architect @ Platform Engineering

25+ years delivering complex systems, CNCF contributor, and digital transformation leader

Nathan Taber

Director of Product, DGX Cloud @ NVIDIA

Cloud-native expert with deep expertise in Kubernetes and container technologies

Carlos Santana

Sr. Specialist Solutions Architect @ AWS

EKS expert, Kubernetes SIG-Release member, and CNCF Knative Steering Committee founder

Keith Mattix

Principal Software Engineer Lead @ Microsoft

Cloud-native networking expert with focus on Kubernetes, contributor to open source projects

Chris Aniszczyk

CTO @ CNCF / Linux Foundation

Open source technologist, co-founder and CTO of CNCF, leading cloud-native initiatives globally

Sebastian Maniak

Technical Product Marketing Manager and AI Professor

Technology evangelist with 20+ years in security and automation, HashiCorp Ambassador, F5 DevCentral MVP, Snyk MVP

Lin Sun

VP of Open Source @ Solo.io

Istio maintainer, CNCF TOC member, and author of "Istio Ambient Explained"

Christian Posta

VP, Global Field CTO @ Solo.io

Author of "Istio in Action" and "AI Gateways in the Enterprise", Istio Steering Committee member

Michael Levan

AI Architect @ Solo.io

Developer advocate, Pluralsight author, and Kubernetes Release Team member

Key Dates

Mark your calendar and prepare for launch

Registration Period

January 26 (9:00 AM ET) - April 3 (11:59 PM ET), 2026

Registration portal opens. Sign up as an individual or form a team to start planning your project.

Submission Period

February 2 (9:00 AM ET) - April 3 (11:59 PM ET), 2026

Submission portal opens. Start building, coding, writing, and creating your projects! Submit before midnight on April 3.

Judging Period

April 4 (9:00 AM ET) - April 17 (5:00 PM ET), 2026

Our expert judges review all submissions across the five competition categories and deliberate on winners.

Winners Announced

On or Around April 20 (12:00 PM ET), 2026

Live announcement of all category winners and runners-up. Will it be you?

Prizes & Awards

Total Prize Pool: $5,000

Cash prizes across all five categories, plus recognition, mentorship, and swag for all winners and runners-up.

Category Winners

Prize Package (Per Category Winner)

$1,000 Cash Prize
Credly badge "MCP and AI agents hackathon 2026 winner" issued by Solo.io
Opportunity to present submission via blog and livestream
30-minute online 1:1 meeting with expert
MCP and AI agents swag kit

Runner-Up Awards

The runner-up for each category will receive:

Credly badge "MCP and AI agents hackathon 2026 runner-up" issued by Solo.io
30-minute online 1:1 meeting with expert
Opportunity to present submission via blog and livestream

All Participants

Every participant who submits a project will receive:

Credly badge "MCP and AI agents hackathon 2026 participant" issued by Solo.io
Recognition in the community
Portfolio-worthy project experience