The Napster API Ignite Hackathon is a skill-based competition running alongside Microsoft Ignite 2026. You get access to the Napster API, build something with it over a 20-day window, submit your work, and compete for prizes including a Steam Deck, Microsoft Surface, Napster API credits, and more.
This competition will highlight Napster API’s general availability as an Azure Native Integration and act as a co-promotion of Ignite and Microsoft’s partnership with Napster. As such, we propose a collaborative effort to build awareness for and participation in the hackathon, as well as other opportunities to work together and amplify the event.
The competition is open to individual entrants (no teams) who are 18 or older and legal residents of jurisdictions where the contest is not prohibited. Current Napster employees, contractors, and members of the judging panel are not eligible. Microsoft Ignite 2026 attendance is not required to enter or win. Microsoft employees in particular are encouraged to participate.
No. There is no purchase necessary to enter or win.
Register on https://www.napster.com/microsoftignite26#hackathon. You will receive a Napster API key by email within 24 hours of registration. Keys are scoped to the contest period and automatically expire when submissions close, but all competitors will get additional credits to work with the API.
There is no usage cap on your API key. If you run into issues with your key, reach out through the community Discord.
Anything. There are no restrictions on use case, platform, or integration. Build something new or layer the API into an existing project. You can use third-party APIs, tools, and services alongside the Napster API.
Yes. AI-assisted development is allowed. The submission must be your original work — you are responsible for the concept, architecture, and all code included. Judges will evaluate your technical execution and the originality of your idea.
Post in the community Discord immediately. If an outage significantly affects the build window, Napster reserves the right to extend the submission deadline. Any changes will be communicated in the Discord and on the hackathon page.
A complete entry requires all five of the following:
Submissions are made through the hackathon registration page. You can edit your submission any number of times up until the final deadline. Submissions are final once the entry period closes.
No. One entry per person.
Your API integration must be new work done during the contest period. You can build on top of an existing project, but simply layering the API on top of pre-existing work without meaningful development during the entry window is not the intent of the competition.
| Criterion | Weight | What we're scoring |
|---|---|---|
| Use of the Napster API | 30% | How distinctively does the submission use the API? Submissions that could be built on any generic LLM score lower. |
| Technical Execution | 25% | Does it work? Clean implementation, edge cases handled, something a developer would be proud to show. |
| Creativity | 25% | Did the entrant bring an original idea? Does the scenario surprise the judges? |
| Presentation | 20% | Demo quality and clarity of the written summary. |
The judging panel is led by the following members:
First-place prizing includes a Steam Deck with 1 TB memory ($949.00 USD retail value), a 15-in Microsoft Surface laptop ($1,699.99 USD retail value), and $1,000 USD worth of Napster API credits.
Second place will receive a 15-in Microsoft Surface laptop ($1,699.99 USD retail value) and $750 USD worth of Napster API credits.
Third place will receive a Corsair VOID WIRELESS v2 Gaming Headset ($129.99 USD retail value), a Corsair K70 CORE RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ($99.99 USD retail value), a Corsair IRONCLAW WIRELESS SE Gaming Mouse ($89.99 USD retail value), and $500 USD worth of Napster API credits.
All participants who complete a submission will receive $250 USD in credits for the Napster API.
You do. You retain all rights and intellectual property in your submission. By entering, you grant Napster a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use and display your submission for promotional purposes. Napster will credit you when displaying your work publicly.
Yes. The license grant to Napster is non-exclusive — you are free to publish, license, or open-source your work independently.
Prize winners are responsible for any tax obligations applicable in their jurisdiction. We recommend checking your local rules if you're unsure what applies to you. US winners with prize value over $2,000 will receive a 1099 form from Napster for tax purposes.
No. This contest is sponsored solely by Napster Corp. Microsoft Corporation has no responsibility for the conduct of this contest or the awarding of prizes. References to Microsoft Ignite 2026 are descriptive only and do not imply Microsoft sponsorship or endorsement.
Join the hackathon Discord community. Use it for general questions about the competition or the API, to report technical issues with your key, and to share what you're building. Napster engineers are active in the Discord throughout the competition.
Yes, and we encourage it. Sharing progress and early demos in the Discord has no effect on your submission.
Visit us at our Ignite booth to meet the team behind the API, see demos, and talk through ideas. Microsoft Ignite attendance is not required to enter, submit, or win the hackathon.
Winners confirm shipping details within 5 business days of being notified. Prizes ship within 30 days of confirmation.
Yes. You can edit or remove your submission up until the final deadline by returning to the submission page. After the deadline, submissions are final.
Don’t worry about it. Multiple entries may explore similar scenarios — what matters is your execution, the originality of your approach, and how well you use the API. Judges evaluate each submission on its own merits.
The Napster API lets you create, manage, and deploy AI agents with persistent identity, memory, knowledge, real-world actions, and built-in safety — across text, voice, and video.
Define your agent once, deploy it to web, WebSocket, or phone, and it maintains context across every interaction. Full documentation can be found at developers.napster.com/docs. This section covers the key steps to get building quickly.
Every agent you build has five core capabilities:
Define your agent's role, persona, voice, and visual appearance. These persist across every session and surface.
Give your agent domain expertise by ingesting files, FAQs, and structured data. It draws on this to answer questions accurately.
Your agent remembers who it's talking to and what was discussed — across sessions and channels. When a user returns, the conversation picks up where it left off.
Connect your agent to real systems through tools and functions so it can trigger workflows and generate content, not just talk.
Content moderation, crisis detection, topic restrictions, and full session auditability are always active at the platform level.
The API also supports real-time video avatars with lip sync, ~30 languages, and 2,000+ pre-built companion personas.
Once you register, your API key will be waiting in your inbox. Keep your API key private. Never expose it in client-side code, only use it server-side.
All API requests use the X-Api-Key header:
-H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY"The companion defines your agent's identity, how it looks and behaves. You can browse the catalog of pre-built companions or create a custom one.
curl -X GET https://companion-api.napster.com/public/companions/napster-stock \ -H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY"
curl -X POST https://companion-api.napster.com/public/companions \ -H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "firstName": "Alex", "lastName": "Chen", "description": "A senior tech support specialist. Warm, patient, explains technical concepts in plain language.", "pictureUrl": "https://example.com/images/alex-avatar.png" }'
Save the companion id from the response — you'll need it in Step 4.
Knowledge gives your agent domain expertise. Tools let it take real actions.
# Create a collection curl -X POST https://companion-api.napster.com/public/knowledge-bases \ -H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY" \ -d '{"name": "My Docs"}' # Upload a file to it curl -X POST https://companion-api.napster.com/public/knowledge-bases/kb_abc123/files \ -H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY" \ -d '{"url": "https://example.com/docs/guide.pdf"}'
curl -X POST https://companion-api.napster.com/public/functions \ -H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY" \ -d '{ "data": { "name": "get_order_status", "description": "Look up a customer order by order ID", "parameters": {"type": "object", "properties": {"orderId": {"type": "string"}}} }, "url": "https://your-server.com/api/order-status", "flow": "explicit" }'
Bring everything together into a single persistent agent:
curl -X POST https://companion-api.napster.com/public/agents \ -H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "companionId": "comp_abc123", "name": "My Hackathon Agent", "voiceId": "alloy", "language": "English", "functions": ["fn_abc123"], "knowledgeBaseId": "kb_abc123", "providerSettings": {"temperature": 0.7} }'
The id in the response is what you use to deploy the agent to any channel.
The same agent can run on WebRTC (browser, with audio and video), WebSockets (audio-only, for custom integrations), or SIP (phone calls). Create a connection to start a session:
curl -X POST https://companion-api.napster.com/public/agents/agent_abc123/connections \ -H "X-Api-Key: $NAPSTER_API_KEY" \ -d '{"channelType": "webrtc"}'
npm install @touchcastllc/napster-companion-api @reduxjs/toolkitimport { NapsterCompanionApiSdk } from "@touchcastllc/napster-companion-api"; import "@touchcastllc/napster-companion-api/styles"; const result = await NapsterCompanionApiSdk.init(token, { mountContainer: document.getElementById("agent-container"), position: "bottom-right", });
The Web SDK works with React, Vue, Angular, and vanilla JavaScript. See the full channel guides at developers.napster.com/docs for WebSocket and SIP setup.
Your submission requires two things: a hosted, runnable build (a live URL or deployable repository that judges can interact with directly) and a demo video of up to 3 minutes. Both are required. A few best practices:
These are meant to spark thinking, not constrain it. The best submission will probably be something we didn't put on this list. But if you're staring at a blank page, start here.
Deploy one Omniagent across a VS Code extension (via WebSocket) and a browser-based code review interface (via WebRTC), sharing memory of what the developer is working on. The same agent that answered a question in the IDE already knows the context when the developer opens the review view. The integration with real developer tooling is the differentiator here.
Job interviews, salary negotiations, difficult feedback conversations. The agent plays the other person and uses memory to track how the user’s performance changes across practice sessions. It’s a use case where video presence and persistent memory both do real work.
An agent that joins a live stream or virtual event as a visible participant — answering audience questions via WebRTC in real time, with a knowledge base scoped to that event. Think of it as the layer between a live host and a large audience that the host can’t individually respond to. Production focus: latency, handling simultaneous sessions, and graceful fallback when questions fall outside the knowledge base.
A screenplay, a funding round, a product launch — something with many moving parts over weeks. The agent holds the full context of the project across every session: decisions made, open questions, next steps. Each conversation continues from where the last one ended. The demo should show the agent referencing something specific from a much earlier session unprompted — that’s what makes the memory capability tangible.
Thank you, we'll be in touch soon.
Thank you, we'll be in touch soon.
