Agentware 2026 — Build an Agent You Can Walk Away From

Agentware runs November 27 to 30, 2026, online, with a $1,800 prize pool. It is a free 72-hour hackathon for AI agents that do real work on their own and can be trusted to run unattended. Software only, teams of one to four.

✯ The Tracks

Pick one of six tracks. Every track is scored on the same rubric.

• Inbox & Calendar — triage, replies, follow-ups, scheduling, a daily digest.
• Life Admin — bills and renewals, forms and paperwork, travel, groceries.
• Research & Study — watch your sources and keep notes, references and deadlines in order.
• Browser Agent — navigate, fill in forms and extract data on sites with no API.
• Developer Workflow — PR triage, code review, failed-build diagnosis, on-call first response.
• Open Track — build your own, as long as it runs unattended.

✯ How It Is Scored

Each project is rated on five weighted criteria: Autonomy (30%), Usefulness (25%), Reliability (20%), Engineering (15%) and Demo (10%). A safety bonus of up to 4 points rewards guardrails, live monitoring, a kill switch and an audit trail. At kickoff the organisers release a trap pack of hostile inputs: prompt injections, conflicting instructions and broken data. What the agent does when it fails counts toward Reliability.

✯ Key Dates

• November 27, 2026, 18:00 UTC — kickoff, trap pack released.
• November 30, 2026, 18:00 UTC — code freeze, submissions due.
• November 30 to December 10 — judging.
• December 11, 2026 — winners announced.

Registration and the full rules are at agentwarehack.com.