Zero Dependency 2026 - Build Real Software With No Packages. Prove It.

Half your code is now written by an AI that hallucinates the other half's package names. That's not a joke. Across 576,000 samples, 19.7% of the packages AI coding models suggested didn't exist - and attackers have started pre-registering those exact hallucinated names, waiting for someone to npm install a package that was never real to begin with. Meanwhile, public registries catalogued 454,600 new malicious packages in 2025 alone, pushing the cumulative total past 1.2 million. A modern web app now pulls in 1,200+ dependencies once you count the full transitive tree - for software that, ten years ago, would have shipped with a fraction of that. That's precisely what Zero Dependency 2026 is about. Organized by Hackathon Raptors, Zero Dependency is a 72-hour online global hackathon where participants build genuinely useful software - CLIs, parsers, servers, databases, security tools - using nothing but their programming language's standard library. No frameworks. No packages. No supply chain to inherit. Just your language and your engineering skill. Why Zero Dependency? Modern AI coding assistants can generate code fast, and they reach for a dependency by reflex - sometimes one that doesn't exist. But real engineering isn't judged by how many packages you imported. It's judged by questions like: - Do you actually understand what the library you'd normally import is doing underneath? - Can you build the thing yourself, correctly, from primitives? - Does your code handle the edge cases a package would've handled for you? - Is the implementation idiomatic, or a fight against the standard library? - Could a judge verify your dependency manifest is empty in five seconds? Zero Dependency is designed around these questions. Instead of rewarding whoever pulls in the most packages the fastest, the hackathon rewards teams who can prove they didn't need to. About the Hackathon 🌍 Global Online Hackathon ⏳ 72 Hours 💰 $1,800 Prize Pool 👥 Solo or Teams of up to 4 🎓 Open to students, professionals, researchers, and developers worldwide 💸 Completely Free to Participate Whether you're a backend engineer, a tooling/DX person, a security engineer, a database-curious systems programmer, or just someone who's felt something die inside after npm install -ing a one-line function - Zero Dependency offers a genuinely different kind of challenge. What You'll Build Every participating team will: - Pick one of six tracks. - Define a real problem worth solving. - Design and implement the solution using only their language's standard library. - Test the implementation against real edge cases. - Document every technical decision and trade-off. - Verify the final artifact has zero third-party runtime dependencies. - Submit a working demo and full dependency proof. Unlike many hackathons, success isn't determined by flashy pitches. The emphasis is on functionality, honest craft, idiomatic code, and a dependency manifest a judge can verify at a glance. Six Tracks Track A - Developer Tools & CLI Linters, formatters, task runners, git utilities, file utilities. The daily-driver tools most people reach for a dozen packages to build. Track B - Parsers & Data Formats JSON/CSV/Markdown/config parsers, template engines, regex engines, serializers. The things everyone imports and almost nobody has written. Track C - Web & Network HTTP servers, routers, clients, static-site servers, DNS tools, raw TCP chat apps. Built on stdlib networking primitives alone. Track D - Data & Storage Key-value stores, embedded databases, caches, log-structured stores, search indexes. The layer most apps rent from a library and never look inside. Track E - Security & Crypto Utilities Password managers, TOTP/2FA generators, file encryptors, hashers, secrets scanners. Compose trusted stdlib crypto primitives correctly - never roll your own cipher. Track F - Open / Wildcard Games, visualizers, interpreters, compression tools, schedulers - anything genuinely useful that a reasonable engineer would assume needs packages. Justify the build in your README. What Counts as "Zero Dependency" The one rule that defines the event: zero third-party runtime dependencies. - JavaScript / TypeScript - Node/Deno/Bun built-ins only. package.json dependencies is{} . - Python - standard library only. No pip install . - Go - stdlib only. go.mod has norequire block. - Rust - std only.Cargo.toml [dependencies] is empty. - C / C++ - libc and POSIX only. No vendored third-party libraries. - Java / Kotlin / C# - platform standard library (JDK/BCL) only. No Maven/NuGet runtime deps. Your compiler, build tool, and a stdlib test tool are fine. If your language ships no test framework at all, a dev-only test dependency is allowed - but it must never ship in the artifact, and it must be disclosed in STDLIB.md . Vendoring a library's source into your repo to fake an empty manifest still counts as a dependency. Disclose it, or it scores against you. Submission Requirements Each team must submit: - Public GitHub Repository - Working Implementation - One-Command Build Instructions - Empty Dependency Manifest - Dependency Proof (command output or CI log showing zero third-party deps) - README.md - what it does, how to run it, its limits - STDLIB.md - every stdlib-for-package substitution you made - 5-Minute Demo Video The project should build with a single documented command and be publicly accessible during judging. Judging Criteria Projects are evaluated using a weighted scoring system: Functionality & Usefulness (35%) Does it build with one command, run, and do something a real person would want? Zero-Dependency Craft (30%) How effectively did you replace what you'd normally import? STDLIB.md quality lives here. Code Quality & Idiom (25%) Does the code read as idiomatic to a senior reviewer, or as a fight against the standard library? Innovation (10%) Creative wildcard picks. Genuinely surprising things built with nothing but stdlib. Bonus Points - Single File (+5) - Ship the entire project as one genuinely useful source file. - Reproducible Build (+5) - Build the artifact twice, produce byte-identical output, publish both hashes. - Package Killer (+3) - Cleanly reimplement a package people actually install, documented in STDLIB.md . - STDLIB Log (+3) - Submit a STDLIB.md with 10+ real, non-trivial stdlib-for-package substitutions. AI Tools Are Allowed Zero Dependency embraces modern development workflows. Participants are free to use: - Claude Code - Cursor - Aider - GitHub Copilot - Local AI models - Other AI coding assistants AI usage itself is not scored. What's scored is whether the final implementation works, follows the zero-dependency constraint, and can be explained and defended by the team. Rules Some important rules include: - Team size: 1-4 members. - All project code must be written during the official 72-hour hackathon. - Planning, research, and AI prompt preparation are allowed beforehand - no code commits before kickoff. - The final artifact must have zero third-party runtime dependencies. - The project must build using a single documented command. - Vendoring third-party source to fake an empty manifest is not allowed without disclosure. - Public GitHub repository required at submission time. - Submissions must target one of the six official tracks. - Open-source licenses must be respected. - AI coding assistants are permitted. Important Dates | Event | Date | |---|---| | Registration Opens | 31 July 2026 | | Team Formation | 24 August 2026 | | Cheat-Sheets Posted | 26 August 2026 | | Hackathon Kickoff | 28 August 2026 · 18:00 UTC | | Code Freeze / Submission Deadline | 31 August 2026 · 18:00 UTC | | Judging Window | 31 August - 10 September 2026 | | Write-Up Side Quest Closes | 8 September 2026 | | Winners Announced | 11 September 2026 | Prizes 🏆 Total Prize Pool: $1,800 USD 🥇 1st Place - $800 - Grand Prize 🥈 2nd Place - $400 - Runner-Up 🥉 3rd Place - $200 - Third Place 📦 Package Killer - $100 - Best Reimplementation ✍️ Write-Up Side Quest - $300 ($100 × 3) Publish a technical write-up about your build: what you reimplemented, what the stdlib made painful, the package you made look unnecessary. Tag Hackathon Raptors. Top 3, judged on insight, not follower count. Who Should Join? Zero Dependency is ideal for: - Backend & Systems Engineers - Tooling & DX Engineers - Security Engineers - Database & Storage Curious Developers - Language Nerds & Compiler Folks - Polyglots & Generalists - Students looking to work on real-world engineering fundamentals If you've ever wanted to know what's actually inside the library you import every day - or prove you can ship real software without one - this hackathon is for you. Join the Community All announcements, cheat-sheets, rule clarifications, FAQs, submission guidelines, and live support will be shared exclusively on the Hackathon Raptors Discord. 👉 Website: https://www.zerodepshack.com/ 👉 Hackathon Raptors: https://raptors.dev 👉 Discord: https://discord.gg/XPfcH7VT2H Final Thoughts Zero Dependency isn't just another "build anything" hackathon. It's a challenge centered on one of the most overlooked engineering problems of the AI era: we've outsourced so much to our dependency trees that most of us couldn't tell you what's actually inside them - and the AI writing our code doesn't always know either, sometimes reaching for packages that were never real. If you're excited about systems programming, parsers, networking, storage engines, security, or just proving you still know what's underneath the packages you import - this is your weekend. Registration is now open. Pick your track, empty your manifest, and build something real. Top comments (0)