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Build Small Hackathon — small models, big adventure
Hosted by  Gradio · Hugging Face Anchor Sponsors  OpenBMB · OpenAI · NVIDIA · Modal Cash & Prizes  $48k+
🎉 The winners are in!
The judges have spoken — 22 winning projects across both tracks, the sponsor podiums, and the special & community awards are logged now in the Prize Ledger. A handful of sponsor prizes (NVIDIA Nemotron, Modal, OpenAI) — 7 in all — are still being decided; those land next week.
→   See the Prize Ledger   ←
From Your Hosts
Hugging Face Logo
Hugging Face
$15,000 into the cash prize pool, plus $20 in Hugging Face credits for every participant. We're not just hosting the trail — we're packing the provisions too.
Anchor Sponsors
OpenAI Logo

$10,000 in cash prizes, plus $100 in Codex credits for the first 1,000 participants.

NVIDIA Logo

Two RTX 5080 GPUs🔥 as physical prizes.

Modal Logo

$250 in Modal credits for every participant, plus $20,000 in credits for the winners.

OpenBMB Logo

$10,000 in special category prizes — split across both tracks for the standout OpenBMB picks.

Supporting Sponsors
Cohere Logo
Cohere
$5,000 in cash prize contribution to the pool.
JetBrains Logo
JetBrains
$5,000 in cash prize contribution to the pool.
Black Forest Labs Logo
Black Forest Labs
$3,000 in cash prize contribution to the pool.
❋ Chapter Zero — Why this exists

The pace of AI over the last year has been anxiety-inducing. Labs release larger and larger models that do more of the things that make us feel human — writing, drawing, speaking, coding. No wonder more than half of us think the risks of AI outweigh the benefits.

We're sponsoring a hackathon to take things back to how they felt in 2021 — when models were small enough to tinker with, and the vibe was fun and hopeful about how this technology could improve our lives.

This hackathon is different. Rather than using a giant LLM to ship yet another B2B SaaS, we wanted you to think small. Armed with only 32 billion parameters, solve a problem someone you know is facing — or build something whimsical.

❋ Two Tracks · Pick your trail

Choose your own adventure.

Chapter One
🏡

Backyard AI

Solve a real problem for someone you actually know. Pick a person — a neighbor, a parent, a small-business owner on your street — and build something that makes their day measurably better.

Judged on
  • Problem is specific and real
  • The person actually used it
  • Honest fit between problem and the small-model constraint
  • Polish of the Gradio app
Chapter Two
🍄

An Adventure in Thousand Token Wood

Build something delightful that wouldn't exist without AI. Wander somewhere weirder. A toy, a tiny game, a strange interactive story, an art experiment that surprises you. The AI should be doing the fun thing — not just helping you build it. Strange is good. Joyful is the bar.

Judged on
  • Genuinely delightful (would you show a friend?)
  • AI is load-bearing for the experience
  • Originality of concept
  • Polish of the Gradio app
❋ The Constraints — Three rules of the trail

Pack light.

1

Small Models Only

Total parameters must be ≤ 32 billion. The model fits on a laptop. So should your ambition.

2

Built on Gradio

Your app must be a Gradio app, hosted as a Hugging Face Space. That's the canvas.

3

Show, Don't Tell

A short demo video and a social-media post are part of the submission. Make it sing.

❋ Bonus Quests · Six earnable merit badges

Stack 'em on your sash.

None required. Each one grants extra points for your submission. Hover a patch to see it lift.

🔌
Off the Grid
No cloud APIs. The whole thing runs on the model in front of you.
Local-first
🎯
Well-Tuned
Your app uses a fine-tuned model you've published on Hugging Face.
Fine-tuned
🎨
Off-Brand
A custom frontend that pushes past the default Gradio look (Hint: see `gr.Server`).
Custom UI
🦙
Llama Champion
Your model runs through the llama.cpp runtime.
llama.cpp
📡
Sharing is Caring
You shared your agent trace on the Hub for everyone to learn from.
Open trace
📓
Field Notes
You wrote a blog post or report about what you built and what you learned.
Write-up
❋ The Awards · What you're competing for

The trophy cabinet.

Every submission to a main track competes for that track's podium. Sponsor and special awards are separate categories on top — one great app can take home more than one.

Main Track Awards · $18,000
🏡

Backyard AI

Top four submissions on this trail.
1st First Place$4,000
2nd Second Place$2,500
3rd Third Place$1,500
4th Fourth Place$1,000
🍄

Thousand Token Wood

Top four submissions on this trail.
1st First Place$4,000
2nd Second Place$2,500
3rd Third Place$1,500
4th Fourth Place$1,000
🗳️
Community Choice — by Hugging Face
One winner, voted by the community. The app the trail itself loved most.
$2,000
Sponsor Awards
🏮

OpenBMB Awards

$10,000 total — three prizes in each of the two tracks for the standout OpenBMB picks.
1st First, per track$2,500
2nd Second, per track$1,500
3rd Third, per track$1,000
🌀

OpenAI Track

$10,000 total — OpenAI's own podium across all submissions.
1st First Place$5,000
2nd Second Place$3,000
3rd Third Place$2,000
🟩

NVIDIA Nemotron Quest

Two physical GPUs for the standout Nemotron builds.
×2 WinnersRTX 5080 each
🟢

Modal Awards

$20,000 in Modal credits for the top Modal-powered apps.
1st First Place$10,000 credits
2nd Second Place$7,000 credits
3rd Third Place$3,000 credits
Special Awards · $8,000
$2,000
🎖️ Bonus Quest Champion
The most merit badges stacked on a single sash. Collect 'em all.
$1,500
🎨 Off-Brand Award
The best custom UI pushing past the default Gradio look. gr.Server is your friend.
$1,500
🐜 Tiny Titan
The best app built on a genuinely tiny model — think ≤4B parameters.
$1,000
🎬 Best Demo
The full package: great app, great demo video, great social post.
$1,000
🤖 Best Agent
The best agentic app — all under the 32B cap, of course.
$1,000
🃏 Judges' Wildcard
For the entry that's amazing but fits no category. We know you're out there.
❋ How it worked

The trail, start to finish.

Registration and submissions are closed — here's the route every builder followed, kept for the record.

Review the four steps builders took＋
I
Register Closed
Registrations closed June 3, 2026. Builders who registered and joined this org were set for the trail.
II
Find your people
Builders met teammates, joined the AMAs, and connected with Gradio and HF folks in the Discord.
III
Build & ship
Each team built a Gradio app and hosted it as a Space under this org.
IV
Submit
Final submissions — a Space link, a short demo video, and a social post — landed by the June 15 deadline.
❋ Where things stand

The winners are in.

Judging's wrapped and the results are live. Here's what's decided — and the last few prizes still to come.

✓

Judged

Gradio, Hugging Face, and our sponsor teams reviewed every eligible submission against each track and prize rubric — verifying parameter caps and entry criteria along the way.

✓

Winners announced

22 winning projects — both track podiums, the OpenBMB and community picks, and six special awards — are up now in the Prize Ledger.

3

Still being decided

Seven more prizes — the NVIDIA Nemotron GPU plus the Modal and OpenAI podiums — are still in judging. We'll announce those next week.

❋ Tools for the trail

Useful trailheads.

📖  The Field Guide — rules, prizes & kit→ 📓  ML Intern→ 📚  Gradio Guides→ 🛠  Gradio's gr.Server — fully custom UIs→ 🦙  Getting Started with Llama.cpp→
❋ Timeline · A hand-drawn map

Two weekends in the woods.

Trail map
✓
May 07 – June 3, 2026
Registration window.Closed. Sign-ups wrapped June 3.
✓
June 5, 2026
Hack window began.Two weekends to build, ship, and demo.
✓
Mid-window
Live AMA.Sponsors and the Gradio team answered your questions.
✓
June 15, 2026
Submissions closed.Spaces, demo videos, and social posts locked in.
✓
July 10, 2026
Winners announced.22 winning projects went up in the Prize Ledger — track podiums, sponsor & special awards.
★
Next week
Final sponsor prizes.You are here. NVIDIA Nemotron, Modal & OpenAI — 7 prizes still being decided.

You built something small.

Two weekends. Two tracks. Hundreds of Spaces shipped on models that fit on a laptop — and 22 of them just took home the win. Thanks for hitting the trail.

→   See the Prize Ledger   ←

22 winners announced · 7 sponsor prizes still to come next week.

Prize Ledger · Submissions · Discord · Field Guide

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CXR Draft Auditor
Accompanying collection for the CXR Draft Auditor project: https://huggingface.co/spaces/build-small-hackathon/cxr-draft-auditor.
CXR Draft Auditor
Accompanying collection for the CXR Draft Auditor project: https://huggingface.co/spaces/build-small-hackathon/cxr-draft-auditor.
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