MCP's 1st Birthday - Hosted by Anthropic and Gradio

With additional support from:

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Building on June 2025's success (4,200+ registrations, $1M+ in credits, $15K awards), we're celebrating MCP's official 1st Birthday with our Co-host Anthropic. We are generously supported by OpenAI, Google, Huggingface, Sambanova, ElevenLabs, Modal, Blaxel, LlamaIndex, and Nebius Token Factory—join the revolution's next wave.

To qualify for prizes, you MUST:

• ✅ Be a member of this organization (click "Request to join this org" above)
• ✅ Submit your apps to this organization
• ✅ Include appropriate track tags in your Space README
• ✅ Include a link to your social media post about your project
• ✅ Submit by November 30, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC

Join our Discord Community → Channel: agents-mcp-hackathon-winter25🏆 for latest information and active support during the hackathon.

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🚀 Quick Start (3 Easy Steps)

1️⃣ Join & Register
→ Click "Request to join this org" (top right) + Complete registration form

2️⃣ Pick Your Track
→ [Track 1: Building MCP] or [Track 2: MCP in Action]

3️⃣ Start Building (Nov 14)
→ Join HF Discord for help | Access learning resources

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Join us for the definitive AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) development event—now bigger, better, and more accessible than ever. Build cutting-edge agentic applications powered by Gradio 6, leverage vibe coding to accelerate development, and compete for some of the most amazing 🤑cash prizes and credits.

Why Participate?

What's New This Year

• Co-hosted by Anthropic — with support from our sponsors
• Powered by Gradio 6 — with enhanced mobile capabilities, visual editing, robustness, Svelte 5, and ChatGPT AppsSDK support
• 3 full weekends — to build (Nov 14 - Nov 30)
• Three new categories — Companies (Enterprise), Consumer, and Creatives
• Vibe coding friendly — We welcome vibe-coding nd support the movement with our very own gradio vibe editor
• Social amplification — share your work on a social network, gain visibility
• FREE API Credits — Announced on top of the page

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🔧 Track 1: Building MCP Build MCP servers that extend LLM capabilities. It can be a gradio app or not. Read: Any Gradio app can be an MCP server—create tools for data analysis, API integrations, specialized workflows, or novel capabilities that make AI agents more powerful. What to Build: MCP servers | Tool integrations | Protocol extensions | Multi-tool systems Three Categories: Enterprise MCP Servers - Tag: "building-mcp-track-enterprise" Consumer MCP Servers - Tag: "building-mcp-track-consumer" Creative MCP Servers - Tags: "building-mcp-track-creative" Track Tag: "building-mcp-track-" Examples of tagging your app to participate under a specific track: See example 💰 Prize Pool: 🥇Best overall: $1,500 USD + $1250 Claude API credits 🥈Best MCP server for enterprises: $750 Claude API credits 🥈Best MCP server for consumers: $750 Claude API credits 🥈Best MCP server for creatives: $750 Claude API credits

🤖 Track 2: MCP in Action Create complete AI agent gradio applications that showcase autonomous reasoning, planning, and execution. Use MCP tools, vibe coding, or traditional development—whatever brings your agent vision to life. Three Categories: Enterprise Applications - Tag: "mcp-in-action-track-enterprise" Customer Applications - Tag: "mcp-in-action-track-consumer" Creative Applications - Tags: "mcp-in-action-track-creative" Track Tag: "mcp-in-action-track-" Examples of tagging your app to participate under a specific track: Enterprise | Consumer | Creative 💰 Prize Pool (Per Category): 🥇 First Place: $2,500 USD 🥈 Second Place: $1,000 USD 🥉 Third Place: $500 USD 🥉 Fourth Place: $250 USD

You can submit the same app to multiple tracks! (See example)
You can submit multiple entries! Build as many projects as you want.

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🏆 Main Track Prizes (already covered above)

⭐ Special Awards

• 🌟 Community Choice Award: $750 USD (most social engagement)
• 🏢 Sponsor Choice Awards: (announced with sponsors)
  • Modal Innovation Award: Build with Modal and stand to win $2,500 cash award for the best project!
  • Blaxel Choice Award: Use Blaxel in your submission and you could win a 2,500 cash prize for the best project!
  • LlamaIndex category award: Use LlamaIndex API and tech in your submissions and stand a chance to win $1000 cash prize for the best project!
  • ElevenLabs category award: Use ElevenLabs API in your submissions and stand a chance to win 6 months Scale-tier (~$2K per team member) + Airpods4 Pro (up to 4 members per team) for the best project.
  • OpenAI category award:
    • Best ChatGPT App: Prize: One Year Subscription to ChatGPT Pro & $500 in API Credits
    • Best API Integration: Use OpenAI API in your submissions and stand a chance to win Prize for $1000 in API Credits
  • Google Gemini special category award for Track 2:
  • Build with Gemini API and stand to win $30,000 worth of Gemini API credits from Google!
  • $10k API credits for Enterprise (Companies) category
  • $10k API credits for Consumer category
  • $10k API credits for Creative category
• 🤗 Hugging Face Merch: For most engaging participants and community builders

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📅 Pre-Hackathon Phase

October 13 - November 13

• Sponsor announcements rolling out
• Educational content releases
• Registration opens
• Community building

🔨 Hackathon Period

• November 14 (Friday, 12:00 AM UTC) - 🚀 Hackathon opens!
• November 14/15 - 📺 Kickoff stream on YouTube (time TBA)
• November 17-28 - 💬 Office hours with Gradio team and sponsors
• November 30 (Saturday, 11:59 PM UTC) - ⏰ Final submissions due

🏅 Post-Hackathon Phase

• December 1-14 - 👨‍⚖️ Judging period
• December 15 - 🎉 Winners announcement and showcase

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All Tracks - General Requirements

1. Publish your project as an HuggingFace Space in this organization
2. Add the appropriate track tag to your Space README.md:
   • "building-mcp-track-xx" for Track 1
   • "mcp-in-action-track-xx" for Track 2
3. Include a link to your social media post (X, LinkedIn, etc.) about your project. This is required. You can publish your app on social media anytime from Nov 14-30.
4. Include a demo video (1-5 minutes) showing your project in action. For example, look at some of the submissions from the Hackathon in June:
   • Example 1
   • Example 2
   • Example 3
5. Original work only - All work must be created during the hackathon period (Nov 14-30)
6. If you're participating as a team:
   • Ensure all team members have joined this HF organization.
   • All members must register for the hackathon using the registration link.
   • Please add the HF usernames of all team members to your HuggingFace Space's readme.
   • A community member has provided detailed instructions for team-based hackathon participation, available here.

Track-Specific Requirements

🔧 Track 1: Building MCP

• Must be a functioning MCP server
• Can be a gradio app
• Include video showing integration with an MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.)
• Document the tool's purpose, capabilities, and usage

🤖 Track 2: MCP in Action

• Must demonstrate autonomous Agents behavior (planning, reasoning, execution)
• Must use MCP servers as tools
• Must be a gradio app
• Bonus points for showcasing advanced Agent features like Context Engineering, RAG, etc
  • Learn more: Anthropic | LangChain | dbreunig
• Show clear user value and practical application

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Projects will be evaluated on:

• Submissions should be complete - HF Space + Social media post + Documentation in the Space readme + Demo Video recording of your Space
• Design/Polished UI-UX - How polished, intuitive, and easy-to-use the app is?
• Functionality - To what extent did the app uses the relevant Gradio functionalities (Gradio 6, MCPs, Agentic Chatbots etc)?
• Creativity - How innovative or original is the project idea and implementation?
• Documentation - How well communicated is the implementation in the README and/or demo video?
• Real-world impact - How much potential does the project have for real-world usefulness or application?

Community Choice Award based on:

• Social media engagement (likes, shares, comments)
• Space interactions (Discussions tab) on Hugging Face
• Discord community engagement

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💻 Resources & Getting Started

📚 Click to see Technical Documentation

Official Documentation

• Getting Started with MCP in Gradio
• Gradio Documentation
• Gradio Custom Components Guide
• Vibe Coding with Gradio
• Agent Development Patterns

Educational Content

• MCP Course | Agent Course
• Office Hours: Live sessions with experts (schedule will announced early in the week of Nov 17)

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

❓ I'm new to MCP. Can I still participate?

Absolutely! We provide comprehensive tutorials on MCP and will have office hours throughout to support participants.

🛠️ Can I use vibe coding tools like Bolt, Lovable, or Cursor?

Yes! Use any tools that help you build. We celebrate results, not just process.

🔨 Do I need to build everything from scratch?

No. You can use existing libraries, frameworks, and tools. Just ensure your core contribution is original and created during the hackathon.

👥 Can I participate solo or do I need a team?

Both! Participate individually or in teams of 2-5 members.

🔄 What if I participated in the June hackathon?

Welcome back! Build something new or significantly evolve your previous project. Previous winners are eligible.

💻 Is there a specific programming language requirement?

Gradio is Python-based, but you can integrate other languages/services as needed.

❓ How do I get help during the hackathon?

Discord support, office hours, documentation, and community help available throughout.

🎯 Can I submit to multiple tracks?

Yes! Submit the same project to multiple tracks or create multiple separate projects.

💰 Will I receive the $25 HF credits?

Yes! We are running the credit-assignment scripts almost every day. You should see the $25 HF credits in your account if you satify these 3 conditions:

• You are registered with us for the hackathon,
• You are a member of this HF org: MCP 1st Birthday
• You have a valid credit card linked to your HF profile

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👥 Connect & Community

• 💬 Discord: Join #agents-mcp-hackathon-winter25🏆
• 🐦 Twitter/X: @Gradio
• 💼 LinkedIn: Gradio

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⚖️ Policies & Rules

📋 Click to see Policies & Guidelines

By participating, you agree to:

• Code of Conduct
• Submission Guidelines
• Intellectual Property Policy

Important Rules:

• ✅ All submissions must be original work
• ✅ Projects must be created between November 14-30, 2025
• ✅ Open source licenses encouraged (MIT, Apache 2.0, etc.)
• ✅ Participants retain IP rights to their work
• ✅ By submitting, you grant Hugging Face/Gradio right to showcase your work
• ✅ By participating, you grant Hugging Face/Gradio right to reach out with promotional messages

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