Hackathon Starter Kit 2026: Copy This Tech Stack and Ship in 24 Hours

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The winning hack: Teams that pre-configure their stack before the hackathon start building features immediately. Teams that set up from scratch waste 6+ hours on boilerplate. Here’s your ready-to-go kit.

The Stack (Why This Combination)

Frontend: Next.js 14+ (App Router)
UI: shadcn/ui + Tailwind CSS
Backend: Next.js API Routes (or separate FastAPI if heavy ML)
Database: Supabase (PostgreSQL + Auth + Storage)
AI: Claude API or OpenAI
Deploy: Vercel
Total setup time: 15 minutes

Step 1: Clone the Starter

npx create-next-app@latest my-hackathon --typescript --tailwind --app
cd my-hackathon
npx shadcn@latest init
npx shadcn@latest add button card input form dialog toast

You now have: Next.js + TypeScript + Tailwind + beautiful UI components.

Step 2: Add Auth (5 minutes with Supabase)

npm install @supabase/supabase-js @supabase/auth-helpers-nextjs

Create a Supabase project (free), copy the keys, add Google OAuth. Done – you have login/signup without writing auth code.

Step 3: Add AI (5 minutes)

npm install ai @ai-sdk/anthropic
# or
npm install ai @ai-sdk/openai

One API route for AI chat:

// app/api/chat/route.ts
import { anthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';
import { streamText } from 'ai';

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { messages } = await req.json();
  const result = streamText({ model: anthropic('claude-sonnet-4-20250514'), messages });
  return result.toDataStreamResponse();
}

Step 4: Deploy (2 minutes)

git init && git add . && git commit -m "init"
# Push to GitHub, connect to Vercel
vercel

Live URL in 30 seconds. Every future git push auto-deploys.

What You Have in 15 Minutes

  • Deployed Next.js app with custom domain
  • Authentication (Google login, email/password)
  • Database (PostgreSQL via Supabase)
  • AI chat integration (Claude or GPT)
  • Beautiful UI components (just compose them)
  • Auto-deploy on every git push

Now you spend the remaining 23 hours and 45 minutes building your ACTUAL idea instead of fighting boilerplate.

Alternative Stacks

Python-Heavy (ML/Data Projects)

Backend: FastAPI + Python
Frontend: Streamlit (fast) or Next.js (polished)
ML: scikit-learn / PyTorch + Hugging Face
Database: Supabase or SQLite
Deploy: Railway (backend) + Vercel (frontend)

Mobile App

Framework: React Native (Expo) or Flutter
Backend: Supabase (BaaS - skip building backend)
Deploy: Expo Go (instant testing on phone)

Pre-Hackathon Checklist

  • [ ] Starter kit cloned and running locally
  • [ ] Vercel account connected to GitHub
  • [ ] Supabase project created (save URL + keys)
  • [ ] AI API key obtained and tested
  • [ ] AI coding tools installed (Cursor + Claude)
  • [ ] Team roles assigned (who builds what)

Winning playbook | Register for a hackathon

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