Agentware 2026 — Build an Agent You Can Walk Away From

Agentware runs November 27 to 30, 2026, online, with a $1,800 prize pool. It is a free 72-hour hackathon for AI agents that do real work on their own and can be trusted to run unattended. Software only, teams of one to four. The Tracks Pick one of six tracks. Every track is scored on the same rubric. Inbox & Calendar — triage, replies, follow-ups, scheduling, a daily digest. Life Admin — bills and renewals, forms and paperwork, travel, groceries. Research & Study — watch your sources and keep notes, references and deadlines in order. Browser Agent — navigate, fill in forms and extract data on sites with no API. Developer Workflow — PR triage, code review, failed-build diagnosis, on-call first response. Open Track — build your own, as long as it runs unattended. How It Is Scored Each project is rated on five weighted criteria: Autonomy (30%), Usefulness (25%), Reliability (20%), Engineering (15%) and Demo (10%). A safety bonus of up to 4 points rewards guardrails, live monitoring, a kill switch and an audit trail. At kickoff the organisers release a trap pack of hostile inputs: prompt injections, conflicting instructions and broken data. What the agent does when it fails counts toward Reliability. Key Dates November 27, 2026, 18:00 UTC — kickoff, trap pack released. November 30, 2026, 18:00 UTC — code freeze, submissions due. November 30 to December 10 — judging. December 11, 2026 — winners announced. Registration and the full rules are at agentwarehack.com. Stay tuned.