Everything you need to design, build, and ship a Slack agent- whether you've been building on Slack for years or this is your very first Slack create agent command. Start with the Slack Developer Program to unlock your free sandbox, then dive into the docs, templates, and SDKs below. 

Start Here (Required for All Participants)

• Slack Developer Program: Required to participate. Joining unlocks your free Slack developer sandbox where you'll build and demo your agent.

• Slack Developer Sandboxes: Provision your test workspace and learn how sandboxes work.

• Slack Platform Docs: The home base for everything Slack platform.

🧩 The Three Hackathon Technologies

Your project must use at least one of the following. Pick the one that fits your idea or combine them.

• Slack AI capabilities & Agent Builder: Use built-in AI to assemble agents quickly. Browse Agent Builder starter templates for HR, IT, Sales, and Support to skip past the boilerplate.

• MCP (Model Context Protocol) server integration: Connect external tools, data sources, and reasoning systems to Slack agents through the open MCP standard.

• Real-Time Search (RTS) API:  Surface fresh, in-workspace context to your agent the moment it's needed.

🛠 SDKs & CLI

• Bolt SDK: Available in JavaScript, Python, and Java. Pick whichever language you're most comfortable with.

• Slack CLI: Spin up a new agent project in seconds with slack create agent.

• Block Kit for richer agent experiences: Design an interactive, well-structured UI for your agent's responses.

🎨 New to Slack? Start Here

If this is your first time building on Slack, including if you're a "vibe coder" who lives in AI-assisted IDEs, these are your fast tracks:

• Run slack create agent from the Slack CLI to scaffold a working project from a template.

• Pick an Agent Builder template (HR, IT, Sales, Support) and remix it into something new.

• Skim the Slack Platform Quickstart "Getting Started" path before diving into APIs.

• Join the #slack-agent-builder-challenge in the Slack Community

🧠 Going Deeper (For Experienced Slack Devs)

If you've shipped on Slack before, here's where to push:

• Combine MCP + RTS to build agents that reason over live workspace context.

• Architect for the Slack Marketplace from day one, especially if you're targeting the Slack Agent for Organizations track, which requires Marketplace submission before the hackathon deadline; here's the Slack Marketplace Core Guidelines.

💬 Community & Support

• Hackathon Slack Channel — Your direct line to the Devpost team and Slack team. This is where to ask questions, find teammates (Up to 4 per team), and share progress.

• Slack Community — The broader developer community.

INSPIRATION:

Need a spark? The best submissions tend to:

• Solve a real, specific workflow problem inside Slack rather than wrap a generic chatbot in a Slack UI.

• Use one of the three required technologies in a way that wouldn't be possible without it.

• Show clear impact — for Slack Agent for Good, that means a measurable social benefit; for Slack Agent for Organizations, that means real adoption potential.

• Have a polished demo video. Judges spend ~5–7 minutes per project, so make the first 60 seconds count.