u/Togapr33

Mod Tools Hackathon!

Hi mods!

I’m u/Togapr33 with Reddit’s Community team, where I lead marketing for Reddit’s Developer Platform. 

In case you’re not familiar, Reddit’s Developer Platform gives developers a way to build apps that work directly on Reddit. As a moderator, you can bring these apps into your community – everything from mod tools to community experiences to games. (You can see a comprehensive list of apps for mods here!)

And as someone who has spent the last couple of years talking with mods about Developer Platform tools, I’ve seen firsthand how important effective tools are to running your communities. That’s why we're excited to announce a virtual Reddit hackathon from April 29 to May 27 focused entirely on building and upgrading moderation tools.

This is an opportunity to inspire developers to create new community tools or improve the ones you already rely on. If you’re a developer yourself, maybe you’ll throw your hat in the ring and build something too! 

What we're looking for

We’d love to see developers in this hackathon build tools with Reddit’s Developer Platform that directly help with day-to-day moderation, like:

• Better queue management
• Automated enforcement tools
• Creative community-building tools
• Anything that makes modding easier and improves community health

Did I mention we're offering a total of $45,000 in prizes? 

Prize categories

1. New Mod Tool: For brand-new tools built with Reddit’s Developer Platform that make moderation easier
   • Grand Prize: $10,000 for the most innovative tool that solves a significant moderator pain point
   • 5 Runner-Ups: $1,000 each
2. Ported App: For existing bots or tools migrated from the Data API to Devvit 
   • Grand Prize: $10,000 for the most successful migration of an existing, widely-used moderation bot. These apps can also be eligible for our new App Migration Program.
   • 5 Runner-Ups: $1,000 each
3. Moderator’s Choice: Chosen by experienced Reddit mods
   • Prize: $10,000.
4. Helper Award: For participants who help others through testing, support, troubleshooting, or collaboration 
   • 6 Winners: $500 each
5. Feedback Award: For thoughtful, actionable, constructive feedback on tools, resources, bugs and issues encountered during the event 
   • 10 Winners: $200 each

 

If you know a developer who has built an essential tool for your community, please share this with them! This is the perfect time for them to earn a cash prize while upgrading that tool for stability and ease of installation. Enrollment is open now!

Winning apps are also eligible for the Reddit Developer Funds and our App Migration Program.

We can't wait to see what gets built during this hackathon and how it makes moderation on Reddit better.

Lastly, if you have an idea for a mod tool that should be built and want to link up with a developer, check out our hackathon post on r/devvit or join our Devvit Discord.

https://preview.redd.it/xrja5qm416yg1.png?width=1372&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd99ffd29ebe3890fe5e31cbbcc2fe3f77fee1e1

Hi devs!

We’re excited to cordially invite you all to our next virtual hackathon - running from April 29 to May 27! 

This go round, we’re offering $45,000 in prizes for new mod tools built on Reddit’s Developer Platform that empower moderators, as well as existing mod apps & bots ported from our Data API to Devvit. 

Enroll here!

TLDR on the hackathon: create a utility, automation, or moderation tool that solves existing community pain points using our Developer Platform. We have two categories with grand prizes:

• New Mod Tool Category: Build a brand-new utility or tool designed to make both leading and moderating communities easier. We would like to see time saving moderator tools, utilities for thoughtful engagement, and experiences that delight communities across the site.
• Ported Data API App Category: Port a Reddit bot over to Devvit. We want to see these tools become more stable, faster, and easier for mods to install via the App Directory. We are excited to see individual community tools become generalized for broader mod benefit, as well as bespoke subreddit tools finding a home on Devvit. *Noting that you should be the bot owner, or have written permission to port the bot you are submitting for this event.

What Should You Build
We are looking for tools that range from automated enforcement, to better queue management, to creative community-building utilities. The best apps reduce moderation load, improve community operation, or serve to incentivize good behavior in the community. You can take a look at a list of mod tool app ideas here or in our Devvit Discord.

These apps can also have a custom post component, or operate entirely in the background. Additionally, your tool should also be easy to understand, install, and provide a great experience for moderators using the tool.

You can check out some developer documentation to help you get started – our quickstart guide and our bot porting guide on migrating Data API bots to Devvit.

So What Are The Awards?

• Grand Prize: Best New Mod Tool – $10,000
  • For the most innovative tool or utility that solves a significant pain point for moderators.
• Best Ported Bot – $10,000
  • This award recognizes the most successful migration of an existing Data API moderation bot or tool to Devvit. Noting that existing Data API bots must have been operating on Reddit prior to March 2026 and support one or more existing communities with 500 or more Weekly Active Users.
• Moderator’s Choice - $10,000
  • A select award that respected moderators of the community choose to give to their favorite developer platform app.

   

• Runner Up: New Mod Tool (5x) – $1,000 each
• Runner Up: Ported Bot (5x) – $1,000 each
• Helper Award (6x) – $500 each
  • We are looking for signals from your fellow contestants that the time you took to help them genuinely improved their experience. Often this is in the form of active support in our communities, playtesting apps, sharing code snippets, troubleshooting issues, etc.
• Feedback Award (10x) – $200 each: 
  • We are looking for detailed, candid, actionable, and constructive feedback. This may include specific feature requests, details which resources are most or least helpful, bugs and issues encountered, process improvements etc.

Apps that participate in this event can also be eligible for Reddit Developer Funds, as well as our App Migration Program.

For full contest rules, submission guidelines, resources, and judging criteria, please view the hackathon on DevPost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to join our Discord for live support: here. We will be hosting multiple office hours every week for drop-in questions in our Discord.

We can’t wait to see what you build!