Build AI Coding Loops and Win $5,000 — TestSprite Season 3 Hackathon

Hey everyone! 👋

We've got something exciting lined up, and if you've been building with AI coding agents, this one's going to be right up your alley.

TestSprite is running its Season 3 Hackathon, themed around Loop Engineering — and it's all about trying the part of the AI coding workflow most people skip: the verification loop.

🔁 The Concept

Here's the core idea: your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, whatever you're working with) writes the code. The open-source TestSprite CLI acts as a real user who is running real tests against your live app and returning verdicts. Then your agent reads the failure bundle, fixes the root cause, and reruns. Passes bank. The loop continues.

Write → Verify → Fix → Verify Again → repeat

💰 $5,000 Prize Pool — Two Ways to Win

Project Awards — $3,000 split across 5 winners. More details at event page: testsprite.com/hackathon-s3.

CLI Improvement Bonus — a separate $2,000 standing bounty for merged PRs that enhance the CLI. This one has no deadline and doesn't affect your Project Award score.

🛠 What You Need

TestSprite CLI installed (Node ≥ 20, free credits)

A deployed public URL — the CLI tests in the cloud, no localhost

A public GitHub repo with commit history as proof the loop ran

An agent-written LOOP.md — one plain-English line per iteration, written by the agent as it runs

No hand-writing the log. The agent writes it. Judges read it first.

📋 How to Submit

Two steps:

Push your repo with LOOP.md + README with your app's live URL

Submit your live URL, repo link, and TestSprite account on a Google Form in Discord #hackathon-s3-submissions

Demo video is optional but encouraged — it boosts your ranking.

🏆 Judging Breakdown

40 pts — Project Quality: does the live app actually work well?

40 pts — Loop Quality: did a real loop run and catch real failures?

20 pts + 5 bonus — Innovation: creative project or loop design, +5 for wiring the checker into CI/CD

More Bonus engagement pts

📅 Timeline

Jun 30 · 5PM PDT — Launch & setup

Jun 30 – Jul 7 — Build & loop

Jul 7 · 4:59PM PDT — Submissions close

Jul 13 — Winners announced on X & Discord

👉 How to Join

Follow @TestSprite on X — winner reveals go out there first

Join the Discord: discord.com/invite/GXWFjCe4an — rules, Q&A, and submissions all live here

Install the CLI: github.com/TestSprite/testsprite-cli

Full details at testsprite.com/hackathon-s3.

Questions? Drop them in the comments or in Discord — we'll be around. Let's see what you build! 🚀