An Agentic Quality hackathon where teams build applications with AI agent swarms, then must prove their work survives scrutiny by cross-auditing each other's agent-generated code.
Last year, I won the ATD 2025 Agentic AI Hackathon with Team Jarvis. The winning edge came from the speed and quality we achieved using Agentic tools from my stack. We had the best PRD, the most complete app and test suite, but there were still gaps between what agents reported as done and what was actually implemented and integrated. This is only one example of agent behavior I now call completion theater: agents that report "all tests passing, 95% coverage" while the build is broken and tests are fabricated.
This hackathon puts that lesson into practice. Teams build applications using AI agent swarms — any tools they choose.
I open with five completion theater patterns I've documented across 8 months of agentic development and testing: Ghost Database, Metric Theater, Test Theater, False Positives, and the Uncommitted Illusion. Real examples, not theory. Teams then build for 60 minutes. Next comes the verification round — prove your claims with actual evidence. Real database queries, real API responses, real test results. Binary outcomes only, no percentages. Finally, teams swap projects and cross-audit each other's work. Finding theater in someone else's code is easier and more educational than finding it in your own.
Scoring: working app (40%), verification evidence (30%), cross-audit catches (20%), creativity (10%). Participants leave with the "show me the actual data" reflex — a skill they'll use every day working with AI agents.