The Carnival — a Hack Club event
Make 
projects, not excuses.
Carnival is Hack Club's fair for builders of little things — extensions, plugins, and widgets for the tools you already live in. Ship one open source, and every honest hour you track becomes $4 toward your dream setup.
the gates close on July 31, 2026 at 23:59 UTC —
How it works
Three stops between you and the prize booth.
Find an itch
Start with a real annoyance, a workflow gap, or a playful idea people will actually want to keep around. Quality-of-life upgrades win; thin wrappers usually don't.
Build it in the open
Publish clear code, a usable release, a README with screenshots — enough that a stranger can install it and get it. Then go find real people to try it.
Cash in your tickets
Track honest time with Hackatime, submit what you built, and the hours turn into grant money for your setup — plus bonuses for standout work.
One serious thing: don't cheat Hackatime. No bots, no fake key presses, no UI tricks — that's a ban from Hackatime and future Hack Club events.
The fine print, written big
- Solve a real annoyance or quality-of-life problem.
- Make it open source and usable by real people.
- Aim for at least 5 real users before you submit.
- No double-dipping with other programs or events.
- Thin wrappers, remixes, and fake time don't count.
Step right up
Bonus prizes stack on top of your tracked hours.
+$10First on a new editor
Ship the first original extension for an editor or app nobody else has claimed yet.
+$25Goes viral
Make something people love — think 100+ GitHub stars or 250+ social likes.
+$5–20Wildcard
Extra love for projects that are especially creative, funny, or technically sharp.
The prize booth
Grants are for making your workflow better, faster, or weirder in the best possible way.
Creative tools
- Procreate license
- JetBrains IDE license
- Design tools
- Cursor Pro
Hardware & setup
- Peripherals
- Computer upgrades
- Development hardware
- Specialty devices
Infrastructure
- Domain credits
- Cloud hosting
- API access
- Development services
Come say hi
The fastest way to get unstuck is to show people the messy version. The #carnival channel is full of people doing exactly that — and when you're ready, start a project and let the hours count.
Honest questions
Plugins, add-ons, widgets, and other tools that extend an existing app or editor all count. The key is that it meaningfully improves or transforms the experience.
Use Hackatime to log real coding hours. Carnival converts those honest hours into grant money at +$4 per hour, so accuracy matters.
No. Carnival is solo only, so each submission needs to be built and submitted by one person.
No. Double-dipping is not allowed. The work you submit to Carnival should not also be claimed for another grant program or event payout.
That is still fair game. If nobody has shipped for that tool yet, you may even qualify for the first-on-a-new-editor bonus.
Still unsure? Ask in #carnival or browse the editors and apps.