The Hackathon Skill
A repeatable way to start, prototype, and finish a micro project in a single sitting.
Context
Side projects usually die between "good idea" and "shipped artifact." The middle is where momentum leaks — scope creeps, the file structure gets reinvented, the write-up never happens. I wanted a system that turned the urge to build into a finished thing on the same afternoon, with a public-grade artifact at the end: a project page, a Git history, a list of tools used, and screenshots showing the work mid-flight.
Challenge
Documentation usually slows builders down. Forms, after-action write-ups, post-hoc demos — anything that asks for extra work after the build gets skipped, and the project never becomes a portfolio entry. The capture system had to run during the build without adding friction. The moment it required attention, the next hackathon wouldn't happen.
It also had to behave the same way across the three places I build with Claude — chat, Cowork, and Claude Code — without three forks of the workflow.
Execution
Three-phase skill: Kickoff (capture the brief, scaffold the folder, git init), Build (passive logging of prompts, tools, decisions, milestone screenshots), Ship (compute elapsed time, generate the project page, print push-to-GitHub instructions).
Six templates so every run produces the same structure: LOG.md, INVENTORY.md, transcript.md, project README, project page draft, and a card-meta JSON.
Three bash helpers (init, milestone, ship) so any phase can be triggered from a plain terminal.
Environment detection: in Cowork, screenshots fire automatically. In Claude Code, the user attaches a starting-state image. In chat, the skill prints milestone callouts and the user captures.
Voice rules baked into the page generator — banned phrases stripped before output, so the artifact reads like the rest of the site.
Hackathon #001 is the skill itself. The first run produced this page.
Work
SKILL.md is the source of truth. Every Claude surface reads it and executes the same flow.
Templates and bash helpers — the scaffolding that makes a kickoff a one-line operation.
Hackathon #001 was building this skill. The first portfolio entry is the system that produces portfolio entries.
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