A challenge is born.
DigitalOcean launches Hacktoberfest: open four pull requests in October, earn a t-shirt.
About Hacktoberfest
Hacktoberfest’s mission.
Hacktoberfest has run every October since 2014. Here is how it grew, and why this year is about building with open source AI.
The story so far
From four PRs to 300+ events.
What began as a simple pull-request challenge has grown into one of the largest developer traditions in the world. Here’s how we got here and where we will go next.
A generation joins open source.
Thousands of developers made their first contribution and discovered the power of community! As the ecosystem grew, maintainers started to face a massive flood of activity and burnout from the rise of low-effort PRs.
A new chapter.
Under the stewardship of long-time partners Major League Hacking (MLH) and DEV, Hacktoberfest refocuses on high-value, meaningful learning. Online and local events (Fests) everywhere, all about building with open source AI.
The mission
Why we’re doing this.
Hacktoberfest has always been about empowering people to build open software together. For years, that energy was measured by pull requests and developers making their first open-source contributions. But open source was never defined by a PR counter. Open source is a philosophy centered on transparency and collective ownership.
In an era where AI tools make low-effort PRs easier than ever to generate, maintainers face unprecedented volume and noise. This year, Hacktoberfest is focused on high-value, meaningful learning: giving everyone the tools and knowledge to experiment and build with open artificial intelligence.
By joining Hacktoberfest, online or in-person, you can expect to learn about open-weight models, open source agents, and more. We believe open innovation must be prioritized alongside proprietary tools for an ecosystem to remain healthy and resilient. Instead of counting PRs, you’ll write your first skills.md, build your own open-source agent, fine-tune an open-weight model, or go wherever your curiosity takes you.
Hacktoberfest 2026 is about meeting you wherever you are in your open source AI journey because we believe AI belongs to everyone.