Main track
1 winner
Best overall project
MacBook Neo
The strongest product built and shipped over the weekend.
Judged on the idea, the execution, and how Zerops is used.
The Zerops Challenge
Sponsor testimonial
“Working with Kunal and WeMakeDevs gave Zerops a real boost. In just three days, the challenge brought us 1,000+ new sign-ups, triggered over 10,000 build and deployment pipelines, and resulted in 250+ valid projects built on the platform.
Zerops is a powerful platform that is still relatively under the radar, and this hackathon put it in front of a huge number of builders in a very short amount of time. It also gave the platform a great real-world stress test and generated a level of activity that would have been difficult to achieve through traditional campaigns.
Kunal was extremely responsive, easy to work with, and very fast when it came to execution and solving problems along the way. If your goal is to reach a large number of developers and actually get them to build with your product, working with Kunal and WeMakeDevs is definitely worth trying. 10/10 recommended.”
Francesco Ciulla
Head of Developer Relations, Zerops
01 / About
From concept to a working product
Now
Registration open
Sign in, fill in the registration form, and you're on the list.
Sat, Aug 8
Kickoff livestream
The challenge, the rules, and a real application built and deployed with ZCP. Watch the stream.
Aug 8–9
48 hours to build
Build the product and get it deployed on Zerops. Registration stays open through August 8.
Sun, Aug 9
Submissions close
File your project in the same panel before the deadline.
From idea to live
No planning phase, no slide decks. Forty-eight hours, concept to deployed product.
Any stack, no limits
No fixed tracks, no prescribed categories. Bring whatever fits the idea.
Real infrastructure
Production-grade infrastructure, not a local demo or a screen recording.
Built to last
Your application keeps working through judging, not just at launch.
02 / Prizes
Two tracks, two winners
One for the best project, one for the best social post. The theme is open-ended: build anything you like, as long as the project uses Zerops.
Social track
1 winner
Top social post
Logitech MX Master 3
The build post that best shows the work behind the project.
Judged on the clarity of the story, the demo, and its reach.
Credits pool
$5,000
In Zerops credits, split across standout projects that make real use of the platform.
03 / The challenge
Take your project from code to orbit
Build an application, service, platform, or developer tool, and deploy it on Zerops.
Example project
Illustration only
One way a project could be put together on Zerops. None of it is required, and a single container counts, so take as much or as little of this as your product needs.
Public traffic
Frontend
Static or SSR
API
Any runtime
Private network
Database
Postgres, Mongo…
Cache
Valkey, KeyDB
Workers
Queues, cron
Storage
Object store
What counts as finished
- The project is reachable through a live URL.
- Zerops is meaningfully involved in how it is built, deployed, or operated.
- The source is public, and the deployment stays up through judging.
04 / Build with ZCP
Let your agent ship projects, from prompt to live url.
ZCP · Zerops Control Plane
A coding agent that works inside your project, not beside it
- 01Reads your live services
- 02Writes code and wiring
- 03Deploys to Zerops
- 04Verifies it runs
Round again on a failure, with the logs, until it works
- 01
Sign up
A Zerops account is the only one the challenge needs, and it takes about a minute.
$15 in credits, free
- 02
Start a project with ZCP
Turn on ZCP and authorise your own coding agent.
- Claude Code
- Codex
- Antigravity
- Grok Build
- Cursor CLI
Runtime, workspace and browser VS Code, in one go.
- 03
Prompt, and it ships
Describe what you want, in the agent panel or the remote IDE.
Build a task board for my team. Tasks should stay saved after a refresh.
You get back a live URL.
Building and deploying a 7-service app with ZCP, start to finish
Eleftheria Batsou
Building on real infrastructure: a ZCP walkthrough
Zerops
Zerops
The cloud underneath all of that, and where everything ZCP builds is deployed: runtimes, containers, databases, brokers and storage in one project, wired together over a private network.
- Application runtimes
- Linux containers
- Managed databases
- Object storage
- Message brokers
- Search engines
- Private networking
- Build pipelines
zerops.yaml
written for you
zerops: - setup: api build: base: nodejs@22 buildCommands: - bun install - bun run build deployFiles: ./ run: base: nodejs@22 ports: - port: 3000 httpSupport: true start: bun run startOne file describes how the application is built, deployed, and run. Your agent writes and maintains it as you prompt. Write it yourself and push, if you'd rather.
05 / How participation works
Four steps, one weekend
Register, build, post, submit. Step three is not optional, and it has a shape.
- Step 01
Register
Takes a minute, and it's the only way in. Do it before you start building.
- Step 02
Build on Zerops
Make something meaningful, and deploy it on Zerops. ZCP and your own agent are the quickest way there.
- Step 03
Share your build
Post publicly about what you built and how Zerops is used.
- Step 04
Submit your project
File the form here with your repository, live URL, demo, and post.
Your build post
Step three is a public post about what you built, and the link to it goes in the submission form. It has to carry:
- The name of your project
- A short explanation of what it does
- A short video of the working product
- A link to the live deployment
- A brief explanation of how Zerops is used
- @WeMakeDevs and @zeropsio tagged in the post
AI-use policy
Read before you submitAI can help you build it. It can't build it for you.
Use it for code, debugging, tests, design, or docs. A project generated entirely by AI, with no meaningful work of your own, is rejected - however good it looks.
What you're held to
- Every AI tool you used, disclosed in the submission form
- Meaningful original work and contribution of your own
- An understanding of the code you're submitting
- The architecture and the decisions behind it, explained to judges
06 / Kickoff livestream
Watch it done, before you do it
Saturday, August 8. Kunal and Francesco take ZCP end to end, live.
Saturday, August 8 · Livestream
A real application, built and deployed live
The challenge and what a submission needs, then the ZCP quickstart run end to end on a working project. Bring your questions and ask them before you start building.
- Kunal KushwahaWeMakeDevs
- Francesco CiullaZerops
- 01Deploy an AI Agent recipe
- 02Authorise a coding agent
- 03Ask for a feature in plain English
- 04Deploy it, and verify it works
07 / What can you build
Bring your own idea, or start from one of these
Any category, as long as the finished project is deployed on Zerops.
AI products
A research assistant, document platform, support agent, or knowledge search tool with a real backend behind it.
Developer tools
An uptime monitor, deployment dashboard, API workspace, feature flag service, or status page.
Real-time applications
A collaborative editor, multiplayer workspace, live incident room, or shared planning tool.
Processing platforms
Document conversion, image processing, report generation, data ingestion, webhooks, or scheduled jobs.
SaaS products
A booking platform, project management tool, creator product, or business operations dashboard.
Zerops tools
A zerops.yaml generator, deployment analyser, migration assistant, or architecture visualiser.
08 / FAQ
Got questions?
Is the event online?
Yes. The event is completely online, and you can take part from anywhere.
Where do I register?
Right here. The registration block sits at the top of this page - sign in, register, and you're in.
Where do I submit my project?
On this page too. The submission form opens when the event starts, and you won't need to fill in a separate external form anywhere else.
What is the main technical requirement?
Your project must be deployed on Zerops, and Zerops must be meaningfully involved in how the application is built, deployed, or operated.
What is ZCP, and do I have to use it?
ZCP is the Zerops Control Plane: a workspace where your own coding agent builds inside your Zerops project, deploys it, and verifies the result, with browser VS Code and a terminal beside it. It is the fastest route from an idea to a live URL, and the ZCP quickstart walks through the whole thing. You aren't obliged to use it - deploy however you prefer, as long as the finished project runs on Zerops.
Which coding agents can I use with ZCP?
Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, Grok Build, and Cursor CLI. You connect your own subscription or API credentials: Zerops provides the infrastructure, not the agent, and your model credentials stay yours.
Can I use any programming language or framework?
Yes. You may use any programming language, framework, database, or open-source technology that works for your project and your deployment.
Can I participate as part of a team?
No. The challenge is solo only. You build on your own, and each participant submits a single project.
Can I use AI coding tools?
Yes, for development, debugging, testing, design, or documentation - and you must disclose it in the submission form. What you can't do is submit something you don't understand: you should be able to explain the architecture, the code, and the decisions behind them. Projects generated entirely by AI, with no meaningful contribution of your own, will be rejected.
Does the project need to be open source?
Not fully, but we do need to read the code to judge it. A public repository is the simplest way to give us that; a private one shared with the judges is fine too.
Does the project need to remain live?
Yes. The deployed application must remain available until judging is complete.
Where can I ask for help?
The WeMakeDevs Discord, on the official event channels. Questions about Zerops itself are best answered by the Zerops documentation and community, both linked on this page.
One weekend, one deployment, one shot at orbit.
Registration is open now, and it closes when the event does. Read the rules before you start building.