find-hackathons

name	find-hackathons
description	Enumerate hackathons relevant to a domain. Per spec, hackathons are often a direct line to founders — surface ones that double as outreach surface, not just coding events. Writes to <WORKING_FOLDER>/domain-notes/<domain-slug>/hackathons.md.
disable-model-invocation	false
allowed-tools	Read, Write, WebSearch, WebFetch, Bash(mkdir *), Bash(test *), Bash(date *)

Find Hackathons

Hackathons as outreach surface, not just coding contests. A 48-hour event with the founders of 5 companies you want to talk to is often a higher-leverage week than 5 cold emails.

Inputs

$ARGUMENTS:

• Required: <domain>.
• Optional: --geography=<region> — defaults to USER_LOCATION + virtual events.
• Optional: --horizon=<3mo|6mo|12mo> (default 6mo).
• Optional: --prize-floor=<USD> — filter out tiny / vanity events.
• Optional: --virtual-only / --in-person-only.

Examples

/career:ecosystem hackathons "ai agents"
/career:ecosystem hackathons "devtools" --geography="EMEA" --horizon=3mo
/career:ecosystem hackathons "policy tech" --virtual-only

Procedure

1. Paths

Output: ${WORKING_FOLDER}/domain-notes/${domain-slug}/hackathons.md.

2. Enumerate

Sources: Devpost, MLH, lablab.ai, ETHGlobal (for crypto/web3-adjacent), AngelHack, vendor-sponsored hackathons (OpenAI / Anthropic / Pinecone / etc), local meetup hackathons.

For each event, capture:

• Name + dates.
• Format: virtual / in-person / hybrid.
• Theme alignment to domain.
• Sponsors / judges / mentors — this is the high-signal field. Founders, VCs, eng leaders attending in a mentor capacity = direct line.
• Prize structure.
• Team size + solo allowed?
• Submission requirements (so user can size the build).
• Outreach value (low / med / high) — based on who's attending.

3. Write the note

# Hackathons — {{domain}}

> Domain: {{domain}}
> Geography: {{geography}}
> Horizon: {{horizon}}
> Surveyed: {{date}}

## High outreach value

| event | dates | format | sponsors / judges (the surface) | theme | prize | source |

## Worth doing for the build (low outreach value)

(same columns)

## Skip

| event | reason |

## Sources

1. ...

4. Print summary

note: domain-notes/<domain-slug>/hackathons.md
high outreach value: <n>
build-only: <n>

next: 
  high outreach → /career:plan week (block hackathon dates)
  follow-up → /career:outreach draft <judge-or-sponsor> --template=warm-followup post-event

Guardrails

• "High outreach value" requires named sponsors/judges that match the user's target list. Don't grade up on hype.
• Submission requirements must be honest about scope — hackathon hand-waves ("build something cool with X") rarely produce shippable artifacts.
• Don't recommend events you can't verify dates for. "TBA 2026" is not a recommendation.

Failure modes

• No upcoming events → write empty file with ## Status: nothing in horizon and recommend re-running quarterly.