A Summer-Long Invitation to Build Something Just Because

Not every line of code needs to solve a problem. Some can exist purely to make you laugh, learn, or marvel. For the Love of Code is a global, summer-long hackathon open to developers at every level, inviting you to finally start the project that's been rattling around your head — a web app, CLI tool, game, AI experiment, or anything in between. Build solo, with friends, or alongside GitHub Copilot.

The event runs from July 16 to September 22, 2025. Winners in each category get 12 months of GitHub Copilot Pro+, and top entries will be featured on the GitHub blog. The actual prize, of course, is an excuse to spend time on something you love.

Six Categories, Zero Limits

The hackathon organizes entries into six playful categories, each with ready-made inspiration to get you started.

Buttons, beeps, and blinkenlights is for hardware hacks — real or simulated — that light up, make noise, or feel like they escaped a 1990s RadioShack. Think interactive, tactile, and a little chaotic.

Agents of change covers AI-powered experiences, agents, or bots that help, hinder, or hilariously misunderstand you. From LLM-powered changelog writers that dramatize every fix to PR reviewers with the personality of a sarcastic senior dev, this category invites all things assistant-y and absurd.

Terminal talent is home to command-line tools, extensions, and TUI projects — clever utilities with personality, beautiful interfaces, or quirky scripts that make the shell feel alive. A command-line karaoke machine and a GitHub CLI extension doling out horoscopes based on your issues both fit the bill.

Game on hands you the controller. Build something playable, puzzling, or just plain fun: prototyping a game idea, remixing mechanics, or mashing up genres. Retro-inspired arcade games and adventures with AI-generated plot twists both qualify.

World wide wonders is for any web project that makes people smile, think, learn, or click "view source." Whether it's a username-roasting web app, a 90s-style site with pixel art loading bars and pop-up ads, or your first HTML experiment, it belongs here.

Everything but the kitchen sink is the wild card. Extensions, plugins, tools, GitHub Actions, prototypes that turned into something useful — a Git hook that plays sitcom laugh tracks, a VS Code extension that reviews your functions like Yelp, or a rewrite of something in Rust for the sake of it. If it doesn't fit anywhere else, it fits here.

Who Can Join and How

Students, maintainers, weekend tinkerers, seasoned pros, and curious beginners are all welcome. Solo or in a squad — if you write code or want to, this is for you.

  1. Build something joyful by 11:59 p.m. Anywhere on Earth (AoE) on September 22, 2025.
  2. Push your code to a public GitHub repository.
  3. Submit via the official submission form at gh.io/ftloc-submit.

The organizers picked the AoE deadline, they note, to avoid time zone math and daylight saving time debates. Progress can be tagged with #ForTheLoveOfCode for a chance to be featured on GitHub Explore and social media.

How to Enter

The rules are intentionally light: open source is encouraged, Git Copilot is optional but welcome, and each participant can submit up to 42 projects (yes, that number is deliberate). Every entry must live in a public GitHub repository with a clear README. The full terms and conditions are worth reading before you submit — they cover the details that matter when prizes are involved.

Projects are judged by a panel of GitHub Stars, Campus Experts, and staff. They’re scoring for joyfulness, execution, technical difficulty, ingenuity, and category fit, with figurative bonus points for surprising uses of Copilot. Three winners will be picked per category and announced on the GitHub blog by October 22, 2025.

Practical Answers

Participation Basics

  • Teams: Solo or group entries both work, with a hard cap of 10 people per team.
  • Eligibility: Anyone 13 or older with a GitHub account, subject to regional restrictions in the official rules.
  • Time commitment: As much or as little as you like — a single afternoon of vibe coding is fine, and so is stretching the work across several weekends.
  • Experience level: Beginners are explicitly welcome; the organizers have pointed to starter docs and tutorials for people new to GitHub, Git, or Copilot.

Submission Details

  • Deadline: 11:59 p.m. on September 22, 2025, anywhere on Earth (UTC−12). Judging locks in the repo state at that instant, though you’re free to keep developing afterward.
  • Typos in the form: Resubmit with corrected info — only the latest submission is reviewed.
  • Old projects: Reusing an existing prototype is allowed as long as the project is built or rebuilt during the hackathon window.
  • Non-software projects: Hardware hacks, interactive art, generative work, and anything else that involves code counts, provided it’s hosted in a public repo.

What You Can Use

Paid tools, licensed software, and APIs are all fair game — just document any dependencies or subscriptions in the README and keep sensitive information like API keys out of your commits. Copilot is explicitly encouraged for riffing, prototyping, debugging, and naming projects. Forking, remixing, and boilerplate are also fine.

There are a few explicit no-gos: keep content respectful, safe, and fun. No NSFW material, hateful speech, or anything that violates GitHub’s Code of Conduct. Weird is welcome; harmful isn’t.

Prizes and Recognition

There’s no cash prize. Winners receive Copilot Pro+, blog coverage, and the associated internet glory. If you win in multiple categories, expect a single prize per participant, though other qualifying entries will still get shoutouts. Declining the prize is allowed — the project will still be featured. Winners are judged on creativity and execution, with “best use of Copilot” and surprise awards deliberately kept loose, looking for clever, funny, or unexpectedly practical applications — even standout documentation or sheer chaos energy counts.

Showcasing Your Work

Videos or demos aren’t mandatory but are encouraged: GIFs, screenshots, and short clips bring projects to life and increase visibility. External demos (on itch.io, Vercel, or similar) are fine if linked from the README or submission form, but the code itself must live on GitHub. Entries may be featured on livestreams, social media, or at GitHub Universe with credit given.

Full rules and regional restrictions are in the official terms and conditions. Anything not covered there can be raised in the community discussion. Participants are asked to follow the Code of Conduct.