About this event
About the Hackathon
Port Mortem 2026 is a 72-hour online hackathon focused on AI-assisted software migration and cross-language code porting. Participants will rewrite a real open-source project from one programming language to another while preserving its functionality, correctness, and engineering quality.
Rather than simply generating code, teams are expected to demonstrate behavioral equivalence through testing, benchmarking, and documentation. The challenge emphasizes engineering discipline, software quality, and production-ready implementations.
Event Website:
https://coderesurrection.com/2026
Stay Updated:
Join the official Hackathon Raptors Discord server for all announcements, rule clarifications, repository releases, submission instructions, FAQs, and live event support.
Important updates will be communicated exclusively through Discord.
Discord Invite:
https://discord.gg/XPfcH7VT2H
Eligibility
- Open to students, professionals, researchers, and software developers worldwide.
- Participants from any college, university, organization, or country are welcome.
- Solo participation is allowed.
- Teams may consist of 1–4 members.
- Inter-college teams are allowed.
- Inter-specialization and cross-disciplinary teams are allowed.
Event Format
Registration Phase
- Register individually or as a team.
- Join the official Discord server for announcements, discussions, and support.
Repository Selection
At hackathon kickoff, participants will choose a repository from a curated pool of eligible open-source projects or submit an alternative repository for approval (subject to organizer guidelines).
Development Phase (72 Hours)
Teams will:
- Port the selected project into the target programming language.
- Preserve the original behavior and functionality.
- Validate correctness using the original test suite whenever possible.
- Benchmark the implementation.
- Document architectural decisions and implementation trade-offs.
Submission
Each team must submit:
- Public GitHub repository
- Build instructions
- Working implementation
- Benchmark report
- DECISIONS.md
- Differential testing/fuzzing artifacts (if applicable)
- Demo video
Tracks
Participants may choose one of the following migration tracks:
- C → Rust
- Zig → Rust
- TypeScript → Go
- Python → Rust
- Go → Rust
- JavaScript → Go or Rust
- C → Zig
- Open Pair (Any Language → Any Language)
Prizes
Total Prize Pool: $1,800
🏆 1st Place — Grand Prize ($800)
Awarded to the team that delivers the highest-quality migration with excellent behavioral equivalence, strong engineering practices, successful testing, and an idiomatic implementation in the target language.
🥈 2nd Place — Runner-Up ($400)
Recognizes outstanding technical execution, robust architecture, comprehensive testing, and well-supported benchmarking.
🥉 3rd Place ($200)
Awarded to a migration that stands out through technical creativity, an interesting language pair, or valuable discoveries made during the porting process.
🐞 Bug Catcher Award ($100)
Presented to the team that discovers and documents the most significant bug in the original project through differential testing, fuzzing, or careful analysis.
📝 Side Quest — The Write-Up (NEW) ($300 Total)
3 Winners × $100 each
Generating a working port is only half the challenge. Demonstrating how you verified its correctness is equally important.
Publish a technical write-up explaining your migration journey, engineering decisions, debugging process, testing strategy, benchmarks, lessons learned, or architectural trade-offs.
Eligible platforms include:
- X (Twitter)
- LinkedIn
- Dev.to
- Hashnode
- Medium
- Any developer-focused publishing platform
Requirements:
- Tag Hackathon Raptors.
- Write-ups may be published anytime after the hackathon begins.
- Submission deadline: 10 August 2026, 18:00 UTC.
- Winners announced alongside the main results on 14 August 2026.
Judging focuses on technical depth, clarity, engineering insights, and authenticity—not follower count or popularity. This side quest is completely optional and does not affect the main hackathon rankings.
Judging Criteria
Functionality & Reliability (40%)
- Build quality, successful execution, and test suite compatibility.
Behavioral Equivalence (30%)
- Accuracy of the migration, differential testing, benchmarking, and performance analysis.
Code Quality (20%)
- Idiomatic implementation, maintainability, engineering practices, and documentation.
Innovation (10%)
- Creative solutions, architectural improvements, and valuable enhancements.
Bonus points may be awarded for:
- Differential fuzzing
- Minimal unsafe code
- Discovering bugs in the original project
- Exceptional engineering documentation
Rules
- Team size: 1–4 members.
- All development must be completed during the official 72-hour hackathon period.
- AI coding assistants and developer tools are permitted.
- The submitted repository must be public at submission time.
- The project must build using a single documented command.
- Source-language runtime wrappers or proxy implementations are not permitted.
- Teams should preserve the original test suite wherever feasible. Any modifications must be documented.
- Participants must comply with all open-source licensing requirements.
- Plagiarism or submission of pre-existing ports may result in disqualification.
Timeline
- Registration Opens: 29 June 2026
- Hackathon Begins: 31 July 2026
- Submission Deadline: 3 August 2026
- Judging: 3–13 August 2026
- Winner Announcement: 14 August 2026