STATUS: REGISTRATION_OPEN OCT 16–18 2026 // HANGAR J1-BIS, MARSEILLE 83 SEATS LEFT
NULLNIGHT_48H register

boot nullnight.sys — power grid ok — 300 seats detected — countdown armed

48 hours / 300 hackers / one warehouse / Marseille

start fri 16 oct, 20:00 freeze sun 18 oct, 16:00 pool €18,750 entry free
claim a seat read the log

no dress code. no pitch decks. no sleep() calls.

[01] — git log --oneline --graph

The schedule is a commit log_

Forty-eight hours, committed one entry at a time. Branches open when the tracks split. Everything merges back for finals.

FRI OCT 16 — NIGHT ZERO

  1. f1a9e0c17:00 check-in opens — badge flash at the loading dock
  2. 8c24b7d18:00 doors open — opening ceremony, Bay A
  3. 3e7f51219:00 team formation — pitch wall goes livebranch: tracks/*
  4. a04c9df20:00 hacking starts — countdown armedtag: T-48:00
  5. 5b81f3623:00 mentor office hours, round one — 14 mentors on the floor

SAT OCT 17 — THE LONG MIDDLE

  1. c92d04a02:00 ramen drop no.1 — 300 bowls, Bay C, first come first slurped
  2. 77e3ab104:00 quiet floor opens — mezzanine, mats and dim light until 10:00
  3. e15c8d909:00 breakfast + git stand-up — one line per team, no exceptions
  4. 4faa62014:00 hardware bench workshop — sensors on a budget, Bay B
  5. b3d17ce21:00 midpoint demo — optional, brutal, useful

SUN OCT 18 — MERGE WINDOW

  1. 09e6f4b02:00 ramen drop no.2 — the survivors' round
  2. d7c25a816:00 code freeze — submissions closemerge: tracks/* → main
  3. 62b0e1918:00 finals — top 8 demo live on the main stage, 4 minutes each
  4. ff0448a20:00 T-00:00 — winners announced, hangar lights uptag: v1.0-ship

[02] — man 1 tracks

Four tracks, four man pages_

Pick one at team formation. Each track has its own jury bench and its own €1,000 pot on top of the main board.

ZERO-INFRA(1)NULLNIGHT Manual

NAME

zero-infra — build something real that runs on no servers at all

SYNOPSIS

nullnight build --track=zero-infra [--team SIZE<=4] [--stack ANY]

JUDGING

  • 40% does it actually run with the wifi cable pulled
  • 35% usefulness for a real human this week
  • 25% engineering taste under the hood
DEAD-SIGNAL(1)NULLNIGHT Manual

NAME

dead-signal — communication that survives a blackout, a storm, a festival crowd

SYNOPSIS

nullnight build --track=dead-signal [--radio | --mesh | --sneakernet]

JUDGING

  • 40% resilience — we will unplug things during your demo
  • 30% range and honesty of the field test
  • 30% clarity of the failure story
NIGHT-VISION(1)NULLNIGHT Manual

NAME

night-vision — make an invisible dataset visible, moving, undeniable

SYNOPSIS

nullnight build --track=night-vision [--source OPEN_DATA] [--live]

JUDGING

  • 40% did the room gasp when the screen turned on
  • 35% rigor — no chart crimes, sources cited
  • 25% live data over canned data
OPEN-PORT(1)NULLNIGHT Manual

NAME

open-port — the wildcard. anything, as long as it ships in 48 hours

SYNOPSIS

nullnight build --track=open-port [--anything] [--no-excuses]

JUDGING

  • 50% ambition divided by excuses
  • 30% demo quality — live or it didn't happen
  • 20% would the jury use it tomorrow

[03] — sort -k3 -rn prizes.tsv

The leaderboard pays out_

Cash, no equity strings, no "credits". Wired to the team account within 14 days of finals.

rankprizepool
01Grand prize — best build of the night, any track€10,000
02Runner-up — jury's second call€4,000
03Third place — the podium's last step€2,000
T×4Track winners — one per track (zero-infra, dead-signal, night-vision, open-port)€1,000 ea.
CCommunity pick — voted by all 300 badges€500
MBest commit message — judged at 03:00, obviously€250
total pool€18,750

[04] — man 5 floorplan

One warehouse, mapped_

Hangar J1-bis, 4,200 m² on the north quay. Everything happens under one roof — including the sleeping.

DOCK / CHECK-IN MEZZANINE quiet floor 04:00-10:00 BAY B hardware bench, 24V max BAY A main stage + finals STAGE BAY C food — ramen drops here DESK FLOOR — 300 SEATS G1 G2 N 20 m
  • 4,200 m² under one roof
  • 300 desks, power at every seat
  • 2× fiber uplinks + 2 diesel generators
  • zero meeting rooms, on purpose

[05] — cat sponsors.txt

Powered by people who pay the power bill_

Three tiers. Kernel keeps the lights on, Daemon keeps the ramen hot, Cron keeps the coffee coming.

TIER 1 // KERNEL

OCTOPORTSHIP FROM THE DOCKS HEXLAB SYSTEMSBARE-METAL CLOUD

TIER 2 // DAEMON

VOLTBAYBATTERIES framedropVIDEO API kernelhausDEV TOOLING packet&coEDGE NETWORK

TIER 3 // CRON

südwatt portside.dev nullcache la fabrique binaire quai•31 ampère & fils

[06] — less RFC-0048.txt

RFC-0048: rules of engagement_

The key words MUST, MUST NOT and MAY are to be interpreted the way you already know.

Request for Comments: 0048 — NULLNIGHT working group Category: Standards Track
  1. Teams MUST be 1–4 humans. Bots are welcome on the team, but they do not count toward headcount.
  2. All project code MUST be written inside the 48-hour window. Libraries and boilerplate are fine; pre-existing products are not.
  3. You MAY use any stack, any model, any API. If it runs on stage, it counts.
  4. Code MUST be pushed to a public repo before the 16:00 Sunday freeze. Unpushed code does not exist.
  5. Demos MUST be live. Slides are not demos. Videos are not demos.
  6. Hardware builds MUST NOT exceed 24V without a sign-off from the bench crew in Bay B.
  7. Sleep is legal. The mezzanine quiet floor runs 04:00–10:00 both nights. Snoring is tolerated; alarms are not.
  8. Be excellent to each other. One warning, then kill -9.

[07] — ssh register.nullnight.dev

Claim your seat_

register.sh — nullnight — 80×24

hacker@nullnight:~$ ./register --check-seats

> 300 seats total — 217 claimed — 83 remaining

[██████████████░░░░░░] 72%

> entry: free — bring a laptop, an ID, and an appetite

hacker@nullnight:~$ ./register --team "your-team" --size 4

execute registration confirmation lands in your inbox within 60 seconds