Ralphthon
Participant Guide
Welcome to Ralphthon SF, builder! This guide is your all-in-one resource for the event. Please read carefully — most answers are here.
Your project must build in at least one of the three problem statements below.
Statement 1: Codex-Powered Services
Build a service with Codex as the engine behind it. OpenClaw, Pencil.dev, OpenCode — they all plug Codex in as the brain and ship a product on top. Do the same. Your project must integrate OpenAI Codex — how you integrate it is up to you (MCP Server, Agents SDK, Direct API, or any other way).
Statement 2: Humanless — Services for AI Agents
Build a service where the primary user is an AI agent. Not a human dashboard with an API bolted on — a service designed agent-first. Maybe there's no GUI at all. Maybe the only onboarding tutorial is written for AI. When your customer is an AI agent, everything changes. Make Something Agents Want.
- • Moltbook — A social network where 1.6M+ AI agents register profiles, discover each other, and collaborate — no human ever signs up.
- • RentAHuman — Agents that need something done in the physical world post tasks; humans pick them up. The agent is the customer, the human is the contractor.
Statement 3: AI Applications
Build an AI-powered application that solves a real problem. It doesn't have to be a fully autonomous agent — it just has to be useful, creative, and well-built. Think AI-native products that people would actually want to use. The focus is on craft, user experience, and shipping something polished.
Think: proactive, agentic, long-running, factory, autonomous, multi-agent, workflow.
Projects will be immediately disqualified if they fall into any of these categories:
- • Basic RAG Applications
- • Streamlit Applications
- • Image Analyzers
- • "AI for Education" Chatbot
- • AI Job Application Screener
- • AI Nutrition Coach
- • Personality Analyzers
W&B Office — 400 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110, 2F
- • Take the elevator to the 2nd floor
- • Parking is extremely limited — consider rideshare or public transit
Wi-Fi
Network: W&B Guest
Password: Gumption
Join the Ralphthon Discord for team formation, announcements, and Q&A:
- #announcements — Official updates from organizers
- #team-building — Find teammates (max team size: 4)
- #live-and-updates — Live updates during the event
- #questions — Ask organizers anything
- • Team Size: Maximum of 4 members per team. Solo participants are welcome.
- • Open Source: Repositories must be public.
- • New Work Only: You may not present existing projects as your own work. Judges will check.
- • Demo Requirements: Your demo must highlight only features built during the hackathon. Failure to clearly identify original contributions = disqualification.
- • The Lobster Rule: At 12:30 PM, agents run autonomously. If you want to touch your laptop during the autonomous phase, you must put on the lobster costume first. The real competition is how well you delegate, not how much you code.
- • Banned Projects: Projects will be disqualified if they violate legal, ethical, or platform policies, or use code/data/assets you don't have rights to.
📹 Media Notice
This hackathon is being filmed by a professional video crew. If you prefer not to appear on camera, please let us know at check-in — we'll provide a sticker for your name badge so the crew knows to keep you out of frame.
Bring your tools, not your product code.
You're welcome to bring:
- • Assets like images, video, audio, datasets, and design files
- • Public APIs, SDKs, open-source libraries, and frameworks
- • Your dev tools, environment setup, and generic boilerplate
What you can't bring is pre-written custom code for your submission.
- • No product-specific logic
- • No pre-built features
Teams should submit when they have completed hacking. You will need to provide:
- 1. Public GitHub repository URL
- 2. Live demo link (if applicable)
- 3. 1-minute demo video highlighting what your team built during the hackathon
- 4. All team members listed
Please double-check that your repository is public and your demo link is accessible.
Round One
Judges walk the floor, visiting each team's table. Each team has ~3 minutes to live demo, followed by 1-2 minutes of Q&A.
Show us what you have built. Please do not show us a presentation. We'll be checking to ensure your project was built entirely during the event; no previous work is allowed.
Round Two: Finals
Top teams demo on stage in front of all judges and attendees. Same format: ~3 minutes demo + 1-2 minutes Q&A. Same criteria as above, with equal weighting for each category.
Sponsored by OpenAI.
To claim your $100 API credits, submit the form by 9:50 AM:
https://forms.gle/PooSdcf9kTSuzS3d6SF and Seoul connected simultaneously via Google Meet. 10-minute talks, topic free.
Questions? Reach out to GB Jeong — bong@team-attention.com