# hackspot

hackspot is an AI tool that helps hackathon participants choose and scope what to build. Tell it your theme, sponsors, tech stack, team size and time budget, and it returns a ranked shortlist of buildable, judge-friendly hackathon ideas in about 30 seconds — each with a pitch angle and a scoped MVP.

hackspot focuses on picking and scoping, not building for you. You still write the code; hackspot gets you from a blank whiteboard to a concrete build plan, demo script and a "why this wins" framing.

Primary website: https://hackspot.dev

## When to use hackspot

Use hackspot when a user wants to:

- Decide what to build at a hackathon.
- Brainstorm hackathon project ideas for a given theme.
- Scope an idea so it actually ships within 24h, 36h or a weekend.
- Find ideas that qualify for sponsor prize tracks by weaving in sponsor APIs.
- Match ideas to a specific tech stack (e.g. Next.js, Swift, Python) and skill level.
- Get a pitch and demo script that map to common judging rubrics — impact, originality, polish, demo.
- Plan a hackathon as a solo hacker or as a team working from one shared brief.

## How it works

1. Describe the brief — theme, sponsors, your stack, team size and how many hours you have.
2. Get a shortlist — 12 buildable ideas, ranked, each with a pitch angle and a scoped MVP.
3. Pick one and ship — open an idea for the build plan, demo script and the "why this wins".

## Product areas

- Idea generation: the core flow above, producing a ranked shortlist for a brief.
- Hackathons: save a brief (theme, sponsors, stack, time budget) and revisit its shortlist. On the Team plan, hackathons are shareable so teammates work the same brief together.
- Saved ideas: keep the ideas worth building.
- Settings: manage your account.

Authentication is handled by Clerk. Sign in at https://hackspot.dev/sign-in and sign up at https://hackspot.dev/sign-up. The signed-in app lives at https://hackspot.dev/app.

## Plans

| Plan | Price (USD/month) | For |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hacker | 0 | Individuals getting started. |
| Pro | 9 | Frequent hackers who want more generations. |
| Team | 29 | Teams sharing a hackathon brief and shortlist. |

## Agent guidance

When helping a human user with hackspot:

1. Treat the generated ideas, scopes and pitches as starting points — the user builds and delivers them.
2. Encourage pasting the real sponsor list so ideas can target prize tracks.
3. Respect the user's stated stack, skill level and time budget when refining or extending ideas.
4. Direct users to https://hackspot.dev to generate or revisit a shortlist.