Announcing the Kong Agentic AI Hackathon
Kong-quer the Agentic AI Hackathon 🚀
Calling all builders, tinkerers, and API innovators. The Kong Hackathon is back for API Summit 2025!
This year, we’re challenging developers worldwide to create projects that don’t just react, they think, adapt, and act. The theme? Agentic AI: solutions that take initiative, make decisions, and solve real-world problems without being told what to do at every step.
Whether you're a solo hacker or a full-stack dream team, this is your chance to push boundaries, sharpen your skills, and get recognized for your work with $10,000 in prizes up for grabs. Sign up now!
The future is agentic - control it
For years, we've built software that just waits for a request and sends a response. That's changing. We're now building agentic AI, smart systems that don't wait. They have goals, they plan, and they act on their own to get things done. Think of them less like a passive tool and more like an autonomous teammate.
But giving AI this much freedom is risky. Without guardrails, you get chaos: spiraling costs from uncontrolled API calls, new security holes, and zero visibility into what the agent is actually doing. It’s a recipe for a production nightmare.
This is where the AI gateway comes in. It's the essential infrastructure that sits between your agent and the APIs it needs to use. The gateway is your control plane. It enforces security, manages costs, and gives you the observability you need to trust your AI.
For the Kong Agentic AI Hackathon, your mission is to bridge these two worlds. The challenge isn't just about building a clever agent "brain." It's about connecting that brain to the real world through a secure and scalable gateway.
Nail this relationship between the agent and the gateway, and you'll build something that's not just a cool demo, but a production-ready application. Let's build.
Need inspiration?
The most powerful projects solve real problems. For this hackathon, draw your inspiration from how global enterprises and past winners have used Kong to innovate.
Check out some of the projects from last year’s hackathon:
- AI Sentiment Wire Tap Plugin
- API Monetization Plugin
- AI Anomaly Detection Plugin
- AI Attack Detection Plugin
- AI Load Forecast Plugin
Join our Slack community to find inspiration, guidance, and resources to help you build.
Why build? Glad you asked 🏆
We get it. Building something new takes time. But here’s why it’s worth it:
- Real rewards: $10,000 in prizes spread across seven winners
- Community spotlight: Be featured at Kong’s API Summit, on our blog, and across our social channels
- Proof of awesome: Digital badges, swag, and bragging rights
- Built-in learning: Ship something useful with cutting-edge tools
TL;DR 🔥
- Build something new with Kong + Agentic AI
- Submission window: Sept 15–30, 2025
- Join as a solo dev or a team (up to 5)
- Judged on creativity, technical depth, impact & use of Kong
- $10,000 in prizes + digital badges for all valid entries
Don’t overthink it — just start building! Sometimes the best ideas are the ones that surprise even you. 🔗 Join the Hackathon
Got questions? Hit us up on Slack. Let’s build something awesome together.