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Michelle Duke for GitHub

Posted on • Edited on

GitHub Actions Hackathon update ⏰

We hope you are all having a great time hacking, and creating Actions for the GitHub Actions Hackathon.

There are only two and half weeks left until submissions close! 🙌 Whilst some of you might be waiting until the last minute, we already have a number of submissions for the Actions Hackathon.

If you are keen to sign up, and you haven't check out the details, how to submit, and prizes on offer, check out DEV's post on the hackathon:

Actions Hackathon submission update

We're past the half way mark for the Actions Hackathon. There are already over 50 submissions 💥. Some of the submissions are super creative, and others, really useful.

Some of the submissions to date include, headless CMS, dynamic Twitter headers, battling racism, reporting the number of COVID cases, and more.

I encourage people who are submitting their Actions to create really good blog posts for their submission. Tell us why you are building the Action, why it matters, and how it works. Don't just link to the Action, tell a story. Remember, there are ✨ prizes ✨ for this hackathon! We're also more likely to feature your entry if your Action is clear, and has a good story or use case.

So get creative. Build a cool Action from an existing Action and tell us how it works.

There's help available

If you're a little worried about the hackathon, there's help available. Whether it's technical, or you just want to bounce around ideas, drop a note on the GitHub Actions help thread.

Myself (@mishmanners) and @blackgirlbytes have been answering questions, so keep them coming.

Some people have also written blog posts about their work in progress. This is great for getting feedback, and helps in telling the story about your hackathon journey. Tell us what you hope to achieve, and what you hope your Action to do. Include in the blog post which category you think you'll be entering for the hackathon. You might also like to include inspiration for your Action.

TL;DR if you want to participate

There's still plenty of time to enter the hackathon. You'll need to create an Action from an existing Action and write a blog post about it. Include a link to your Action in the blog post, as well as the #actionshackathon21 tag. Get your entry in before December 8. All participants get SWAG!

Prizes and SWAG 🏆

Everyone who participates in the hackathon receives SWAG. If you create a (valid) Action and submit a blog post, you'll receive a DEV sticker pack, and a special badge on your DEV profile.

There are also prizes for each category. With five categories to choose from, that's five lots of prizes. For each category, there will be a winner, and two runners up.

🥇 Winners receive a $1,500 USD gift card or equivalent, $300 USD credit to the DEV Shop, and sticker packs from GitHub and DEV. Each winner will also get a DEV “Actions Hackathon 2021” grand prize winner badge on their DEV profile.

🥈 Runners up receive a $250 USD gift card or equivalent, $150 USD credit to the DEV Shop, and sticker packs from GitHub and DEV. Runners up will also get a DEV “Actions Hackathon 2021” runner-up badge on their DEV profile.

With these cool prizes, there's definitely another reason to enter the GitHub Actions Hackathon.

Get in on the Action

Join the GitHub Actions Hackathon today. It's not too late!

For more information on the hackathon, prize categories, ✨ prizes ✨ on offer, and exact dates, check out the GitHub Actions Hackathon blog post. Looking forward to seeing your submission.

Top comments (3)

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shehab7osny profile image
Shehab Hosny • Edited

Hi @mishmanners
Thank you a lot for organizing such an event. I really do appreciate it.

I already posted the following question in the Help Thread, but since this whole post is about my question, I would like to re-ask it with some in-depth details.

So, lets take the following GitHub Action for instance from the marketplace:
actions/cache

Should I focus on developing a Workflow that is helpful for developers and include the actions/cache as it is mentioned in the main Hackathon post utilize existing GitHub Actions to create workflows? This would be something as below:

YAML file

    - name: Cache Dependencies
      uses: actions/cache@v2
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Or should I focus on developing an Action based on the actions/cache as it is mentioned in this post create an Action FROM an existing Action? This would be something as below:

YAML file

    - name: Cache Dependencies
      uses: shehab7osny/new_GitHub_Action_based_on_cache_action
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As the GitHub Actions Documentation states, Actions are individual tasks that you can combine to create jobs and customize your workflow.
On the other hand, Workflows are custom automated processes that you can set up in your repository to build, test, package, release, or deploy any project on GitHub

I'm so sorry for any disturbance caused but I just wanted to get some clarification before the submission. Your efforts are much appreciated.

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mishmanners profile image
Michelle Duke

You can do either 😄 it's up to you, as long as whatever you are creating is new, and you write a blog post on it.

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guifalourd profile image
Guillaume Falourd

I just submitted my article on DEV for the GHA hackathon: dev.to/guifalourd/test-command-lin... 🚀