The results are in for the final week of our Hacktoberfest DEV Challenges! For Ghost in the Machine, we asked you to build something spooky, or something that honors the past in the spirit of Día de los Muertos, with open-weight models or open-source AI.
You took the theme in every direction we hoped for, and plenty we didn't see coming. We saw digital ofrendas, ghosts of forgotten repos, and séances for dead code. Many of you showed exactly why open innovation matters here: family stories, inboxes, and photos that never leave your own machine.
Thank you for your patience while we reviewed every submission, and thank you to everyone who built with us this week and all month long. Now, let's celebrate our winners!
🎉 Congratulations To…
Featured Category Winners
Best Use of Render
Best Use of TabPFN
Best Use of Tinker
Best Use of Arduino
Best Use of DigitalOcean
Best Use of Gemma
Partner Category Winners
Best Use of Auth0 for AI Agents
Best Use of Backboard
Best Use of Browserbase
Best Use of ElevenLabs
Best Use of Entire
Best Use of GitHub Copilot
Best Use of Mastra
Best Use of MongoDB Atlas
Best Use of Sentry Agent Tracing
Best Use of SerpApi
Best Use of Temporal
Best Use of Tiger Data
Best Use of Ultramarine
Best Use of a .tech Domain
Prizes
- Overall winner: $250 USD, a DEV++ membership, and an exclusive DEV badge
- Featured category winners: $200 USD and an exclusive DEV badge each
- Partner category winners: $100 USD and an exclusive DEV badge each
All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.
A huge thank you to our partners for making these prizes possible, this week and all month long!
That's a Wrap on Hacktoberfest 2026
Five challenges, five themes, and more open-source AI projects than we ever imagined. Thank you to every builder, partner and community member who showed up week after week. You made this the biggest Hacktoberfest on DEV yet.
What's Next?
The fun doesn't stop here! The Presage SmartSpectra SDK Challenge is live now through November 22, with $3,000 in prizes across ten winners:
Happy coding, and see you next Hacktoberfest! 👻🌼
Top comments (27)
Congratulations to our Overall winner, @mzee04! 🏆
And a huge congrats to our featured category winners: @srgcy (Render), @malbolged (TabPFN), @derbyps (Tinker), @abhinavkrishna3211 (Arduino), @tanmaygajjar26 (DigitalOcean) and @tushar_shah (Gemma)! 🎉
Thank you all for closing out Hacktoberfest with such haunting builds. 🪦
Thank you so much, Jem and the DEV team! Writing that diary experiment was one of the most fun builds I've done. Huge congrats to @srgcy, @malbolged, @derbyps, @abhinavkrishna3211, @tanmaygajjar26 and @tushar_shah, and I'm off to read all your entries now! 👻
Thanks and cheers to all the folks
Congratulations to all the winners! 🎉
Huge congrats to @mzee04 for the Overall win, and to every featured and partner category winner. The range this week was wonderful, from a tiny AI keeping a diary to ghost stories mapped across Ireland.
Thank you to the DEV Team and all the partners for hosting such a creative month. This was my first Hacktoberfest challenge series, and building Ghost Tales taught me a lot about open-source AI. I'm off to read the winning entries and learn from them.
See you in the next challenge! 👻
Thanks man! I appreciate it!
Congrats to the final week of HacktoberFest!
Good work all of you!
Congrats @mzee04, @srgcy, @malbolged, @derbyps, @abhinavkrishna3211, @tanmaygajjar26 and @tushar_shah! Well deserved, everyone! 🎉❤️
Thanks and cheers to rest all
Congrats to all the winners!! 😸🎉
Congratulations all, great run!
Congrats to our partner category winners! 🎉👻
@bin4yi (Auth0 for AI Agents), @vrranjith (Backboard), @ronaksarda (Browserbase), @finallyjay (ElevenLabs), @thy_orion (Entire), @emarc99 (GitHub Copilot) and @hongpengtan0max (Mastra), amazing work!
Thank you soo very much team 🫡🫡🫡
Thanks to the awesome DEV team for hosting the fest and challenges!
More partner category winners to celebrate! 🎃🌼
@carlosjcastrog (MongoDB Atlas), @bladeharper_ec7070d6e28be (Sentry Agent Tracing), @kakeroth (SerpApi), @mohamedaminehamdi (Temporal), @workstationritalks (Tiger Data), @kourtneylee1611 (Ultramarine) and @samarth_kumble_a91ad88634 (.tech Domain), congratulations!
Thank you so much, Jem, and thanks to the whole DEV team! Linkmortem was built in five intense days, and seeing it recognized for MongoDB Atlas means a lot to me. Congrats to all the other winners! 🎃🙌
Congrats @bin4yi, @vrranjith, @ronaksarda, @finallyjay, @thy_orion, @emarc99, @hongpengtan0max, @carlosjcastrog, @bladeharper_ec7070d6e28be and @kakeroth! 🎉❤️
Congrats all the winners 🏆
and best wishes to all those who participated 🥰