The Napster Omniagent API Hackathon is a skill-based competition running alongside Microsoft Build 2026. You get access to the Napster Omniagent API, build something with it over a 20-day window, submit your work, and compete for prizes across four categories.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Monday, May 18 | Registration opens. |
| Thursday, June 3, 11:59 pm PT | Registration closes. |
| Saturday, June 7, 11:59 pm PT | Submissions close. |
| Monday, June 15 | Winners announced. |
The competition is open to individual entrants (no teams) who are 18 or older and legal residents of jurisdictions where the contest is not prohibited. Napster employees, contractors, judges, and immediate family members are not eligible. Microsoft Build 2026 attendance is not required to enter or win.
No. There is no purchase necessary to enter or win.
Register at developers.napster.com/hackathon/register. Your API key will be included in the confirmation email along with links to documentation, sample integrations, and a quickstart guide. Keys are scoped to the contest period and are revoked at the end of the event.
There is no usage cap on your API key. If you run into issues with your key, reach out through the community Discord.
Anything. There are no restrictions on use case, platform, or integration. Build something new or layer the API into an existing project. You can use third-party APIs, tools, and services alongside the Napster Omniagent API.
Yes — we actively encourage it. Use whatever tools make you most productive. The submission must be your original work — you are responsible for the concept, architecture, and all code included — but how you get there is up to you. Judges will evaluate your technical execution and the originality of your idea, not whether you typed every line by hand.
Post in the community Discord immediately. If an outage significantly affects the build window, Napster reserves the right to extend the submission deadline. Any changes will be communicated in the Discord and on the hackathon page.
Email your submission to [email protected] with the following:
Email your submission to [email protected]. You can edit your submission any number of times up until the June 7 deadline. Submissions are final once the entry period closes.
No. One entry per person.
Your API integration must be new work done during the contest period. You can build on top of an existing project, but simply layering the API on top of pre-existing work without meaningful development during the entry window is not the intent of the competition.
| Category | What we're looking for |
|---|---|
| Best agent in production | The submission closest to something you could ship to real users tomorrow. Code quality, error handling, observability, deployment story. |
| Most creative use of voice + video | The submission that best leverages multimodal capabilities — voice, video, or both — in a way that surprises us. |
| Best enterprise application | The submission that most convincingly solves a real enterprise problem — customer support, sales, onboarding, internal ops, or anything where an agent adds clear business value. |
| Wild card | The submission that takes the API somewhere none of us expected. Originality of concept, not just execution. |
| Criterion | Weight | What we're scoring |
|---|---|---|
| Use of the API | 30% | How distinctively does the submission use the API? Submissions that could be built on any generic LLM score lower. |
| Technical Execution | 25% | Does it work? Clean implementation, edge cases handled, something a developer would be proud to show. |
| Creativity | 25% | Did the entrant bring an original idea? Does the scenario surprise the judges? |
| Presentation | 20% | Demo quality and clarity of the written summary. |
The judging panel is led by:
Each of the four category winners receives a prize pack worth nearly $2,000:
Winners are announced on June 15, 2026.
No. If a submission scores highest in more than one category, it wins where it is most differentiated. The runner-up in the other category wins that prize.
You do. You retain all rights and intellectual property in your submission. By entering, you grant Napster a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use and display your submission for promotional purposes. Napster will credit you when displaying your work publicly.
Yes. The license grant to Napster is non-exclusive — you are free to publish, license, or open-source your work independently.
Prize winners are responsible for any tax obligations applicable in their jurisdiction. We recommend checking your local rules if you're unsure what applies to you. US winners with prize value over $600 will receive a 1099 form from Napster for tax purposes.
No. This contest is sponsored solely by Napster Inc. Microsoft Corporation has no responsibility for the conduct of this contest or the awarding of prizes. References to Microsoft Build 2026 are descriptive only and do not imply Microsoft sponsorship or endorsement.
Join the hackathon Discord community. Use it for general questions about the competition or the API, to report technical issues with your key, and to share what you're building. Napster engineers are around during US working hours.
Yes, and we encourage it. Sharing progress and early demos in the Discord has no effect on your submission.
Visit us at booth G-224 at Microsoft Build 2026 (June 2–3, Fort Mason, San Francisco) to meet the team behind the API, see demos, and talk through ideas. Microsoft Build attendance is not required to enter, submit, or win the hackathon.
Winners confirm shipping details within 5 business days of being notified. Prizes ship within 30 days of confirmation.
Yes. You can edit or remove your submission up until the June 7 deadline. After the deadline, submissions are final.
Don't worry about it. Multiple entries may explore similar scenarios — what matters is your execution, the originality of your approach, and how well you use the API. Judges evaluate each submission on its own merits.