Another weekend challenge! Build an Always-On Agent, get a jacket
Build an always-on agent using AWS, and win an AWS Builder Jacket! (Limited quantities!). Runs July 17th- 20th.
Welcome to the Build an Always-On Agent Weekend Challenge! It's Builder Center's anniversary month, one year of building together, and we're celebrating the best way we know how, with more building. This is your chance to build something useful, learn new AWS skills, and earn an awesome prize, all in one weekend. The first 100 qualifying submissions earn an AWS Builder Jacket. No random drawing. If you complete the challenge and are one of the first 100 to submit, you win. Let's go!
Last weekend, over a hundred of you built productivity apps in two days, and they were great. A pattern we loved seeing: open the app, paste something in, get something useful back. This weekend, let's take that same idea and give it legs. Build an agent that does the work on its own and has the result ready and waiting for you. The best productivity tool is the one you never even have to open.
What You'll Build 🏗️
Create a personal AI-powered agent that runs on its own. Instead of waiting for you to click a button, it wakes up on a schedule or reacts to an event, does something useful while you're away, and has the result ready when you get back. Here are some ideas to spark your creativity:
· Morning brief agent: Runs at 6 AM and drafts your day before you wake up
· Watcher: Keeps an eye on something that changes and pings you only when it matters
· Overnight tidy-up: Sorts, tags, or summarizes a backlog on a schedule so you start clean
· Stale-thread nudge: Notices work that's gone quiet and drafts the follow-up for you
Deploy your agent using AWS Free Tier services - for new accounts, access up to $200 in Free Tier credits covering Amazon Bedrock, Nova models, EventBridge Scheduler, Lambda, and more.
Win an AWS Builder Jacket! 🏆
The first 100 qualifying submissions will each receive an AWS Builder Jacket (approx. $99 value).
There is no lottery, no voting. Be one of the first 100 to submit a qualifying entry and the jacket is yours.
How to Participate 🎯
1. Build your agent. Create an AI-powered agent that runs on its own (triggered by a schedule or an event, not by a button click), deployed on at least one AWS service
2. Write your article. Publish an article on AWS Builder Center that meets the requirements below between July 17, 12:00 AM PT and July 20, 2026, 1:00 PM PT
Article Requirements ✍️
Your article must be at least 500 words and include:
| Section | What to Include |
|---|---|
| Title | Must include: "Weekend Agent Challenge: [Name of Your Agent]" |
| Tag | Add the tag: #agents |
| Vision & What the Agent Does | Describe the purpose of your agent, the problem it solves, what triggers it to run, what it does on its own, and how it reports back |
| How You Built It | Your development process, key decisions, challenges encountered, and how you overcame them |
| AWS Services Used / Architecture Overview | List the AWS services used and provide a brief architecture overview, including how the agent is triggered. Diagrams encouraged! |
| What You Learned | Reflect on new skills, services, or approaches you discovered during the challenge |
| Link to App or Repo | A working link to your deployed app OR a public GitHub repo with your source code |
**
Timeline
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Challenge opens | July 17, 2026 at 12:00 AM PT |
| Challenge deadline | July 20, 2026 at 1:00 PM PT |
| Evaluation complete | Within 2 weeks of deadline |
| Winners notified | Via email + updated Builder Center article |
**
One tip: the best part of this challenge is that it happened without you, so make that easy to see. A screenshot of the schedule firing, the report your agent sent you, or a short clip of the trigger kicking it off all show your agent doing its thing.
One year in, and we're just getting started. Let's celebrate the way we know best, by building something amazing!
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