A data engineering hackathon presented by Astronomer
Modern Airflow has evolved beyond just moving data. Prove what you can do with Airflow 3 and win prizes.
Go beyond the basic pipeline. Treat Airflow as a platform, extend it with 3.1 plugins, add agents with the new Common AI provider, and keep a human in the loop where it matters. Use the tracks as inspiration, not limits, and aim for something that shows what Airflow is really capable of.
Check out example projects, like building DAGs inside Minecraft, using Airflow to solve a Rubik's cube, running Doom in the Airflow UI, and more.
Categories
Build an Airflow 3.1 plugin that adds something genuinely useful, or genuinely fun, to the UI or API.
Think: a cost dashboard, a data-quality cockpit, an embedded notebook, a live ops console, a game.
Build a DAG that uses the Common AI provider to do real work with an LLM or an agent.
Think: an incident triage agent, a self-routing pipeline, a research crew that writes a report and files a PR.
Build a workflow with a real human decision point using the HITL operators from Airflow 3.1.
Think: spend approvals, content moderation, a model that won't ship without sign-off, a choose-your-own-adventure pipeline.
Bend Airflow into a place orchestration has no business being, and make us say “wait, that’s a DAG?”
Think: Minecraft, hand gestures, hardware, music, games, art. If it makes a data engineer grin, it belongs here.
Submission & Scoring
Judging may be based primarily on your video and write-up. Judges are not obligated to clone and run your project, so make the demo count — show it working, on screen, in three minutes. Read the official rules →
Prizes
Virtual meet & greet with members of the Apache Airflow PMC
Guest episode on the Data Flowcast podcast
Social spotlight from Astronomer
Judges
Airflow PMC members, committers, Astronomer engineers, and members of the Astronomer Champions program — the community experts who live and breathe Airflow.
Timeline
Mentors & resources
Astronomer Champion mentors are here to support you: talk through your project, brainstorm ideas, and work through roadblocks.
Join Beyond the Dag, the online Airflow hackathon for data engineers, presented by Astronomer. You will receive an email with details on how to submit your project.
Anyone at or above the age of majority in their country of residence, anywhere in the world, except in regions where the Contest is restricted by law or sanctions (see Section 4 of the Official Rules). Data engineers, hobbyists, students, and the Airflow-curious are all welcome. Each entrant builds and submits their own individual project.
Nothing. Entry is free, and no purchase is ever necessary to enter or win.
No. Your project must run on open-source Apache Airflow 3.1 or later, and that is the only requirement. If you want a fast way to get started, the Astro CLI runs Airflow locally and a free Astro trial lets you build in the browser, but neither is required to enter or to win.
It has to be a new project that you build for this Contest, released in a public repository under an open-source license. You can build on existing open-source libraries, providers, and frameworks (that is the point), but the submitted project itself should be created for Beyond the Dag, not a repackaging of something you shipped earlier.
No. Each person can submit only one project, entered in a single category. Pick the category that best fits what you built.
Yes. AI assistants and third-party libraries are fair game, as long as your submission is substantially your own work and respects the licenses of anything it uses. One of the categories, The Agentic Pipeline, is about orchestrating AI inside Airflow in the first place.
Yes. Every entry must live in a public repository under an OSI-approved open-source license. Encouraging open-source contributions is one of the goals of the Contest.
Apache Airflow 3.1 or later. The headline features the categories are built around (plugins, the Common AI provider, and the HITL operators) all rely on 3.1 or later.
A panel of eight judges scores each entry on five criteria: creativity and originality, Airflow 3.1 feature usage, technical implementation, impact and usefulness, and demo and story. Judging happens over roughly two weeks after submissions close. Judges may evaluate primarily from your video and written description, so make the demo count.
Best in each of the four categories and one Overall Winner. Prizes are physical items and experiences, not cash: a hardware prize (the exact item is still being finalized), a guest episode on the Data Flowcast podcast, an Astronomer swag pack, and a virtual meet and greet with the Apache Airflow PMC. See Section 8 of the Official Rules.
No. All prizes are physical items and experiences. Depending on where you live, the value of a prize may count as reportable income, and any taxes or import charges are your responsibility (see Sections 8 and 10 of the Official Rules).
Yes. Astronomer Champions serve as mentors during the build window and hold office hours. Watch the Contest website and the airflow-astronomer channel in Airflow Slack for details.
No. Astronomer employees, contractors, and interns, every member of the Astronomer Champions program, the judges and mentors, and their immediate family and household members are not eligible to participate or win. Astronomer staff and Champions power the event from the other side of the table, as organizers, judges, and mentors.
Register through the form on the Contest website. When your project is ready, submit it through the submission form before the deadline, including your demo video, your public repository link, your written description, and your category. You will receive details by email after you register.
Reach out to us in the #airflow-astronomer channel in Airflow Slack.
