Beyond the Dag: Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Beyond the Dag (the "Contest") is a skills-based contest in which participants build an open-source project on Apache Airflow 3.1 or later and submit it for evaluation by a panel of judges. Entries are scored against the judging criteria below, and prizes are awarded to the highest-scoring entries.

Entry in this Contest constitutes your acceptance of these Official Rules.

1. Binding agreement

To enter, you must agree to these Official Rules (the "Rules"). Please read them before entering. Submitting an entry constitutes your agreement to these Rules. You may not enter, and are not eligible to win, unless you agree to them. These Rules form a binding agreement between you and Astronomer with respect to the Contest.

2. Sponsor

The Contest is presented by Astronomer, Inc., with its principal place of business at 54 W 21st Street, 11th Floor, New York, New York 10010 (the "Sponsor"). The Contest celebrates open-source Apache Airflow. Astronomer is the host and steward of the Contest. The Apache Software Foundation and the Apache Airflow project are not sponsors of, and are not responsible for, this Contest. Apache, Apache Airflow, Airflow, and related marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation or their respective owners, and any use is for identification only.

3. Contest period

The Contest runs as follows. All times are Pacific Time on the dates shown. Entrants are responsible for determining the corresponding time in their own location.

• July 23 — Registration opens
• July 23 - September 17 — Build window
• September 17 — Submissions close
• September 18 – October 8 — Judging
• October 8 — Winners announced

Astronomer may adjust these dates if necessary to preserve the fair administration of the Contest and will publish any material change on the Contest website. Any change will not materially impair entries already submitted unless required by law or circumstances beyond Astronomer's reasonable control.

4. Eligibility

The Contest is open to individuals who, at the time of entry, are at or above the age of majority in their country, state, or province of residence and who are legally able to participate under all laws applicable to them and to Astronomer.

You are not eligible if you are:

• a resident of, or located in, any country, region, or territory subject to U.S. or other applicable export controls or comprehensive sanctions, including [EXCLUDED REGIONS], or any other location where the Contest is prohibited by law;
• a person or entity restricted under applicable export-control or sanctions laws; or
• located in [ANY ADDITIONAL EXCLUDED JURISDICTIONS].

Astronomer personnel and judges. Employees, contractors, and interns of Astronomer, subsidiaries, and affiliates, the judges, the mentors, and the immediate family and household members of each, are not eligible to participate or win a prize.

Astronomer Champions. Members of the Astronomer Champions program are not eligible to participate or win a prize.

You must have access to the internet and the tools needed to build and submit a project. Astronomer may require proof of eligibility, identity, residence, tax status, and compliance with sanctions, export-control, and anti-bribery laws before awarding any prize. Astronomer may resolve eligibility questions in a reasonable manner consistent with these Rules and applicable law.

5. How to enter

No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win. Entry is free.

1. Register during the Contest period at the Contest website by completing the registration form.
2. Build a project that meets the requirements in Section 6.
3. Submit your project before the submission deadline by completing the submission form.

All written materials must be in English to be eligible. Each individual may submit only one entry. Entries are void if they are incomplete, illegible, corrupted, late, or obtained through fraud or any means that undermines the Contest. All entries are deemed submitted by the authorized holder of the email address used to register.

Entries must not contain confidential information, personal information about others without permission, unlawful content, malware, security exploits intended to cause harm, deceptive functionality, or material that infringes or misappropriates any intellectual property, privacy, publicity, contractual, or other right. Entrants are responsible for obtaining all permissions needed for third-party code, datasets, models, assets, trademarks, music, images, video, or other materials included in an entry.

6. What to build and what to submit

Your project must:

• be a new project, created primarily for this Contest, that runs on open-source Apache Airflow 3.1 or later; pre-existing open-source components may be used if they are properly licensed and disclosed;
• be your own original work (see Section 11 on intellectual property);
• be released in a public code repository under an OSI-approved open-source license;
• satisfy the "must use" requirement of at least one of the four categories below; and
• comply with the license terms of any third-party or open-source code, models, data, or assets it relies on.

The four categories:

1. Plugin Powerhouse. Extend Airflow with an Airflow 3.1 plugin. Must use AirflowPlugin with at least one of fastapi_apps, external_views, or react_apps.
2. The Agentic Pipeline. Orchestrate an LLM or agent with the Common AI provider. Must use apache-airflow-providers-common-ai (for example @task.llm, @task.agent, @task.llm_branch, or @task.embed).
3. Keep a Human in the Loop. Build a workflow with a genuine human decision point using the Airflow 3.1 HITL operators. Must use a HITL operator (for example ApprovalOperator, HITLOperator, HITLBranchOperator, or HITLEntryOperator).
4. Airflow Can Do That?! The wildcard track. Must use Airflow as the engine; beyond that, surprise us.

Your submission must include:

• a demo video, three minutes or less, publicly viewable on YouTube, Vimeo, or a comparable service (judges are not obligated to watch past the three-minute mark);
• a link to the public code repository, including a README and the open-source license;
• a written description: what the project does, how it works, and what was hard;
• the category you are entering, the Airflow features used, and instructions to run it locally.

Judging may be based primarily on your video and written description. Judges are not obligated to clone, build, or run your project, so make the demo count.

7. Judging and winner selection

During and after the build window, Astronomer or its representatives may review each entry to confirm it meets the requirements. Astronomer may disqualify any entry that does not comply with these Rules, that cannot be evaluated, or that would expose Astronomer or others to legal, security, reputational, or operational risk.

Eligible entries will be evaluated by a panel of eight (8) judges selected by Astronomer, from Astronomer and the Astronomer Champions program. Judging takes place over an approximately two-week period. Astronomer may extend the judging period in case of high demand.

Each entry is scored on the following criteria:

1. Creativity and originality — 25%
2. Airflow feature usage — 25%
3. Technical implementation — 10%
4. Impact and usefulness — 20%
5. Demo and story — 20%

Prizes awarded:

• Best in Category for each of the four categories (four winners total).
• Overall Winner, the single highest-scoring entry across all categories (one winner).

The entries with the highest overall scores are selected as the potential winners in each category. If a potential winner is disqualified or declines, the next highest-scoring eligible entry may be selected. If no eligible entry is received in a category, no prize will be awarded for it.

In the event of a tie, the tied entries will be ranked first by the higher Airflow 3.1 feature usage score, then by the higher technical implementation score, then by the higher creativity and originality score. If a tie remains, the judges may conduct an additional review using the same criteria to select the potential winner. Judges must disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest and must not score an entry where they provided material assistance to the entrant or otherwise cannot evaluate the entry impartially.

The Overall Winner may also be a Best in Category winner unless Astronomer states otherwise in the final prize table before entries open. If awards are intended to be mutually exclusive, Astronomer will specify the order of selection and any reallocation process in the final Rules.

The judges' and Astronomer's determinations are final and binding in all matters relating to the Contest.

8. Prizes

This Contest awards non-cash prizes. There is no cash component and no cash alternative. The final prize table must state each prize, the number of prizes available, and the approximate retail value ("ARV") of each prize before entries open.

All Winners will also receive: Virtual meet & greet with members of the Apache Airflow PMC; Guest episode on the Data Flowcast podcast; Social spotlight from Astronomer.

Prize conditions:

• Prizes are non-transferable. No substitution or cash equivalent is offered, except that Astronomer may substitute a prize of equal or greater value if an advertised prize becomes unavailable or cannot lawfully or reasonably be awarded.
• The total number of prizes is limited to those listed above. Odds of winning depend on the number and quality of eligible entries.
• Physical prizes will be shipped. If Astronomer cannot ship a physical prize to a winner's location for legal or logistical reasons, Astronomer may offer a substitute of comparable value or, where no substitute is possible, the prize may be forfeited.
• The podcast appearance and PMC meet and greet are scheduled at mutually agreeable times and are subject to participant availability.
• Prizes are awarded "as is". Except for any standard manufacturer's warranty, Astronomer makes no warranty regarding any prize.
• Any experiential prize has no retail value beyond the stated ARV, is subject to scheduling, availability, recording and publicity requirements, and may be modified or cancelled if necessary for legal, safety, operational, or availability reasons.

9. Prize notification and acceptance

Potential winners will be notified by email at the address used to register, on or about the announcement date. A potential winner must respond within ten (10) days of the first notification attempt. If a potential winner does not respond in time, cannot be contacted, is found ineligible, or declines, the prize may be forfeited and an alternate may be selected.

Where required, a potential winner may need to sign and return a declaration of eligibility, a liability release, a publicity release, and any tax, sanctions-screening, export-control, identity, or shipping documentation Astronomer reasonably requires, including IRS Form W-9 or W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E where applicable, within ten (10) days of request, before any prize is awarded. Failure to provide required documentation may result in forfeiture. A minor's parent or legal guardian must sign on the minor's behalf where applicable.

10. Taxes

Each winner is solely responsible for any taxes, duties, customs charges, or other costs associated with accepting and using a prize. Depending on the winner's jurisdiction and the value of the prize, the value of a non-cash prize may be treated as reportable income. Astronomer may require tax or identity documentation before awarding a prize and may report or withhold where required by law.

11. Intellectual property

You retain ownership of your entry. The Contest does not transfer ownership of your code or content to Astronomer.

By submitting an entry, you grant Astronomer and its designees a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, edit for length or format, and create excerpts of your entry, your name, and your submission materials (including the demo video, screenshots, and written description) for the purposes of administering, judging, reporting on, and promoting the Contest and its results, across any media. This license does not require additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.

Because every entry must be released under an open-source license (Section 6), Astronomer's and the public's use of your submitted code is also governed by that license. You represent that you have the right to grant this license and to release the project under the stated open-source license.

You must not include third-party trademarks, copyrighted materials, datasets, model outputs, personal information, likenesses, music, images, video, or other content unless you have all rights, licenses, consents, and permissions necessary for submission, public display, judging, and promotional use under these Rules.

12. Open-source contributions

This Contest encourages contributions that make Apache Airflow more valuable. Any contribution you make to Apache Airflow or related open-source projects must follow that project's own contribution process, licensing, and code of conduct. Contributing to, or being merged into, an open-source project is not a condition of winning and is not guaranteed by Astronomer.

13. Permitted tools and conduct

You may use AI coding assistants and third-party libraries to build your entry, provided the final submission meets the originality and licensing requirements in Section 6. You must not submit work that is not substantially your own, that infringes another party's rights, or that violates any third-party terms.

You agree to conduct yourself respectfully toward other participants, judges, mentors, and Astronomer staff throughout the Contest. Astronomer may disqualify any entrant who cheats, tampers with the Contest, submits fraudulent information, harasses or abuses others, attempts to compromise any system, or violates applicable law, platform terms, community rules, or these Rules.

14. Publicity

Except where prohibited by law, by accepting a prize you consent to Astronomer's use of your name, likeness, city and country of residence, entry, and statements about the Contest for advertising and promotional purposes, in any media, without further notice or compensation.

15. Privacy

Personal information you provide is collected and used to administer the Contest, verify eligibility, communicate with you, judge entries, prevent fraud or abuse, comply with legal obligations, and fulfill and publicize prizes. Astronomer handles personal information in accordance with its privacy policy at [TBD]. Your information may be shared with judges, mentors, vendors, prize providers, legal and tax advisors, and service providers as needed for these purposes, and may be processed in countries other than your own, including the United States, which may have different data-protection laws. Where required, you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information by contacting [TBD]. If you do not provide required information, Astronomer may disqualify your entry or withhold a prize.

16. Warranty, indemnity, and release

You represent and warrant that your entry is your own original work or is properly licensed for your use, that you have the right to submit it and grant the licenses in these Rules, that it complies with all applicable laws and platform terms, and that it does not infringe, misappropriate, or violate the intellectual property, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, contractual, data-protection, export-control, or other rights of any third party.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Astronomer and its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents (the "Contest Entities") from any claims, losses, damages, costs, and expenses arising from your entry, your participation, your breach of these Rules, or your acceptance or use of a prize.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release the Contest Entities from any liability relating to the Contest, including any technical failure of the Contest website or submission process, any error in handling entries, and any matter relating to a prize.

17. General conditions and right to modify

Astronomer may disqualify any entrant who violates these Rules or undermines the fair operation of the Contest. If the Contest cannot run as planned for any reason (including fraud, technical failure, unlawful conduct, force majeure, insufficient eligible entries, or any cause that corrupts its administration, security, integrity, or fairness), Astronomer may cancel, suspend, or modify the Contest in a reasonable manner consistent with applicable law. Astronomer is not responsible for technical failures, lost or misdirected entries, or any problem beyond its reasonable control that affects an entrant's ability to participate.

18. Not an offer of employment

Nothing in this Contest, including submitting an entry or winning a prize, creates an offer or contract of employment, or any agency, fiduciary, or confidential relationship, between any entrant and Astronomer or any Contest Entity.

19. Governing law and disputes

These Rules are governed by the laws of the State of New York, U.S.A., without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, except that mandatory consumer-protection laws of an entrant's jurisdiction may apply where they cannot lawfully be waived. Subject to any non-waivable rights, entrants agree that disputes will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York, and entrants consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there. [LEGAL to confirm whether arbitration, class-action waiver, jury waiver, and international consumer-law carveouts should be added before launch.] If any provision of these Rules is held invalid, the remaining provisions remain in effect.

20. Winners list and contact

To request a list of winners after the Contest, or for any question about these Rules, contact [TBD].

If there is any conflict between these Official Rules and any FAQ, marketing material, social post, community announcement, or other Contest communication, these Official Rules control.