Forem: Jess Lee

Officially Introducing: The Google AI and Google Cloud Run Badges

Jess Lee — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 17:16:25 +0000

Hey everyone!

If you’ve been building with Google Cloud lately, you might have noticed some shiny new additions to select profiles across the community. While these badges have been making their way into the wild and onto the profiles of early achievers, we wanted to take a moment to officially introduce the Google AI and Google Cloud Run badges to the entire community!

Google AI Badge

The Google AI badge is awarded to members who publish high quality posts about Google AI technology. We award this badge periodically and it's not an easy achievement! If you don't get it the first time, don't be discouraged. All posts about Google AI technology are considered (think Gemini, Antigravity, Google AI Studio, etc).

Google Cloud Run Badge

The Google Cloud Run Badge is awarded to anyone who includes a Cloud Run embed in their DEV post for the first time.

How to Embed Cloud Run

You can embed your Cloud Run deployment directly in your DEV post by using our embed syntax with your Cloud Run URL:

{% embed your_cloud_run_url %}

Learn more here:

Ben Halpern for The DEV Team

Dec 16 '25

You can now embed Cloud Run deployments directly in your DEV posts!

#news #cloud #devto #forem

Comments 10

1 min read

Google Cloud Next Writing Challenge

Want to earn even more badges?! Check out the Google Cloud NEXT Writing Challenge:

Announcing the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Apr 22

Tune In and Join the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge: $1,000 in Prizes!

#devchallenge #googlecloud #cloudnextchallenge

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Comments 27

3 min read

The Stakes:

$1,000 in total prizes (5 winners receiving $200 each).
A DEV++ Membership for the top five authors.
Exclusive DEV badges for winners and participants.

Catch up on the announcements, grab your notes, and start writing! Submissions are due April 29 at 11:59 PM PDT.

Good luck!

Watch the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Sessions and Enter the Writing Challenge. There's $1,000 on the Line!

Jess Lee — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:41:58 +0000

Google Cloud NEXT '26 may have wrapped, but the sessions are all available to watch and our writing challenge is still wide open through April 29.

If you haven't had a chance to dig in yet, this weekend is your window. Watch a session, explore an announcement, form an opinion, and write about it. That's all it takes to be eligible for one of five $200 prizes (plus a DEV++ membership and an exclusive badge).

📺 Catch Up on Google Cloud NEXT '26

All the developer sessions are available in the playlist below: keynotes, deep dives, product walkthroughs, and more. Find the one that sparks something for you and tell us about it.

Google Cloud Live @ Cloud Next 2026 - YouTube

Join the Google Cloud Live team as they livestream from Cloud Next 2026 in Las Vegas. Tune in on day 1 and day 2 for the latest updates, tips, and meet the c...

youtube.com

What to Write About

Pick any announcement, release, or session from NEXT '26 and share your take:

A hands-on tutorial or getting-started guide for a new tool
A reflection on what an announcement means for developers
An opinion on the most underrated update of the event
A first look at something you hadn't seen before

The best submissions will go beyond summary. We want your actual perspective.

How to Enter

Announcing the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Apr 22

Tune In and Join the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge: $1,000 in Prizes!

#devchallenge #googlecloud #cloudnextchallenge

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Comments 19

3 min read

Submissions are due April 29 at 11:59 PM PDT. Winners will be announced May 7.

We can't wait to hear your thoughts.

Happy watching and writing! 🍿

What was your win this week!?

Jess Lee — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋

Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?

All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Checking off that one "boring" admin task you’ve been dreading ✅

Happy Friday!

Congrats to the April Fools Challenge Winners!!

Jess Lee — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:47:21 +0000

We asked you to build something completely useless and you delivered.

The DEV April Fools Challenge brought out some of the most hilariously over-engineered, magnificently pointless, and genuinely funny software we've ever had the pleasure of judging. We laughed, we scratched our heads, and we asked "why on earth did they build this?"

Thank you to everyone who participated. Your willingness to be delightfully foolish made the internet a better (worse?) place.

Now, let's raise our teacups and celebrate our winners! 🫖

🎉 Congratulations To…

Overall Winners

April Fools Challenge Submission ☕️🤡

piyush das

Apr 11

Volex (Volume by Exercise)

#showdev #devchallenge #418challenge

Comments

1 min read

@piyush_das_1624 built Volex: a volume controller you operate by... exercising. Because why reach for a slider when you could do a squat? Impeccably useless, technically functional in its dysfunction, and a genuine threat to couch potato culture everywhere.

April Fools Challenge Submission ☕️🤡

Rusil Koirala

Apr 9

Finally a productivity app that understands you

#showdev #devchallenge #418challenge

Comments

1 min read

@rusilkoirala gave us the most honest productivity tool ever conceived: a procrastination app that helps you procrastinate on your procrastination. We couldn't stop clicking around the app. Or maybe we just didn't want to get back to work. Either way, mission accomplished.

Best Google AI Usage

April Fools Challenge Submission ☕️🤡

L. Cordero

Apr 4

STEEP: Your repo's fortune, steeped in truth.

#showdev #devchallenge #418challenge #learning

Comments 2

7 min read

@earlgreyhot1701d steeped their repos in fortune and truth with a submission that shows what happens when you let Google AI read your git history like tea leaves. A perfect marriage of mysticism and version control. Sort of.

Best Ode to Larry Masinter

April Fools Challenge Submission ☕️🤡

Saquib Shahid

Apr 9

BrewOS 3000: The $47M Enterprise Coffee Platform That Has Never Made Coffee

#showdev #devchallenge #418challenge #aprilfool

Comments

3 min read

@devsaquib introduced BrewOS 3000: a $47M enterprise coffee platform that has, to date, never made a single cup of coffee. The 418 is strong with this one. The pitch deck alone deserves an award. We are a teapot. We will always be a teapot.

Community Favorite

April Fools Challenge Submission ☕️🤡

Alonso

Apr 3

PURESLOP.md — teach your AI agent to write terrible code.

#showdev #devchallenge #418challenge #agents

Comments 13

3 min read

@alonsarias built a CLI that drops a single markdown file into your repo and instructs your AI coding agent to produce the most over-commented, any-typed, deeply-nested code imaginable. Three lines to 40 lines. Same result. Zero value added. Perfect!

Prizes

Each winner will receive:

A surprise teapot or coffee maker with appropriate fixings (~$50 USD value)
DEV++ Membership
Exclusive DEV Badge

All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.

What's Next?

The fun doesn't stop here — we have two active challenges you won't want to miss:

Share your OpenClaw experience

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Apr 16

Join the OpenClaw Challenge: $1,200 Prize Pool!

#devchallenge #openclawchallenge #openclaw #ai

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Comments 30

4 min read

Submissions due April 26 — Build something with OpenClaw or share your knowledge about it. Six winners, $200 each.

Announcing the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Apr 22

Tune In and Join the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge: $1,000 in Prizes!

#devchallenge #googlecloud #cloudnextchallenge

140

Comments 20

3 min read

Submissions due April 29 — Explore the Google Cloud NEXT '26 announcements and share your take for a chance at one of five $200 prizes.

Thank you everyone for giving us a good laugh. See you next April 🫖

Tune In and Join the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge: $1,000 in Prizes!

Jess Lee — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:09:18 +0000

Google Cloud NEXT '26 is kicking off today (April 22) and runs through April 24 – we're launching this new writing challenge right alongside it!

Running through April 29, the Google Cloud NEXT Writing Challenge is your invitation to explore, experiment, and write about what has you most excited from this year's releases, keynotes, and sessions – tune into the livestream and dig into the announcements as they drop.

Tune In to Google Cloud NEXT '26

Catch everything as it unfolds live here on DEV, from April 22 - 24:

📺 Opening Keynote Livestream: Live today (April 22) at 9:00 AM PT
👩‍💻 Developer Keynote: Tune in tomorrow (April 23) at 10:30 AM PT

We'll be streaming both keynotes directly on the DEV homepage.

In addition to the keynotes, we'll be streaming developer sessions all throughout the two days, so keep an eye on the DEV homepage across the full run of Google Cloud NEXT!

Our Prompt

Explore the Google Cloud NEXT '26 announcements and pick the release, update, or livestream session that speaks to you, and tell us about it.

We encourage you to play around with any new products (if applicable) to form your opinions but even if you're in the "reading the docs" phase, we want your take. Share your highlights and critiques with us!

Google Cloud NEXT Challenge Submission Template

Your submission might look like:

A hands-on tutorial or walkthrough of something you tried
A written reflection on an announcement or keynote point and what it means for developers
An opinion piece on the update you think is most underrated or overlooked
A first-look or "getting started" guide for a new tool or feature

The most compelling submissions will go beyond summary, they'll offer a genuine perspective for the community.

Judging Criteria

Clarity & Quality: Is it well-written, engaging, and easy to follow?
Usefulness: Will the community learn something or be inspired by reading it?
Depth & Insight: Does it go beyond surface-level summary to offer a genuine perspective?

Prizes

Five winners will each receive:

$200 USD
DEV++ Membership
Exclusive DEV badge

All participants will a valid submission will receive a completion badge.

How To Participate

Explore the Google Cloud NEXT '26 announcements, then publish a post on DEV using the submission template provided above.

Please review our judging criteria, rules, guidelines, and FAQ page before submitting so you understand our participation guidelines and official contest rules such as eligibility requirements.

Important Dates

April 22: Google Cloud NEXT Writing Challenge begins!
April 23: Developer Keynote at 10:30 AM PDT
April 24: Google Cloud NEXT wraps!
April 29: Submissions due at 11:59 PM PDT
May 7: Winners Announced

We can't wait to read what you discover. Questions about the challenge? Ask them below.

Good luck and happy writing!

What does the term 'hacker' mean to you?

Jess Lee — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:21:20 +0000

Looking for a pure answer here -- don't overthink it!

update: also share what you think 'hacker' means to others!

Congrats to the Notion MCP Challenge Winners!

Jess Lee — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 16:30:22 +0000

The results are in!

We're thrilled to announce our winners for the Notion MCP Challenge! From dynamic creative journals to meal planning assistants and resume tailoring tools, the range of submissions was impressive.

The creativity and technical depth on display made judging genuinely difficult. Every entry showed real thought about how to leverage Notion MCP in meaningful ways. While we wish we could recognize every submission, here are the three that stood out the most.

Congrats to our winners!

🏆 First Place: NoteRunway

Notion MCP Challenge Submission 🧠

Giorgi Kobaidze

Mar 29

NoteRunway: Because Your Notion Workspace Deserves an Elite Crew

#devchallenge #notionchallenge #mcp #ai

Comments 30

7 min read

@georgekobaidze built an AI-powered workspace management tool that feels like having a flight control tower for Notion. The hybrid architecture was impressive: direct API access for speed on bulk reads, and Notion MCP as a safety layer for all destructive writes. For anyone drowning in hundreds of orphaned pages and forgotten API keys, this one's for you.

🏅 Runner Ups: DevNotion & Relay

Notion MCP Challenge Submission 🧠

Yash Kumar Saini

Mar 27

Turning Weekly GitHub Activity Into Blog Posts on Notion + DEV.to

#devchallenge #notionchallenge #mcp #ai

Comments 32

7 min read

@yashksaini solved a problem we all know too well: Monday standup amnesia. DevNotion is a 3-agent pipeline that automatically harvests a week of GitHub activity every Sunday, narrates it into a first-person blog post, and publishes a planner-style page to Notion and a draft article to DEV. Cool, well-written, and the kind of automation you'd actually run every week.

Notion MCP Challenge Submission 🧠

Christian Apostol

Mar 30

Relay - An Incident Management Assistant That Lets You Focus On Fixing The Problem

#devchallenge #notionchallenge #mcp #ai

Comments

3 min read

@caposto tackled a high-stakes real-world problem with Relay: an incident management assistant that handles all the documentation in real-time. A tool like this would be genuinely invaluable at enterprise scale. By letting the agent decide how to interact with the workspace rather than hardcoding specific tool calls, Relay takes full advantage of what MCP makes possible.

Prizes

Our winner will receive:

An invitation to chat with Ivan Zhao, Co-Founder and CEO of Notion
$500 USD
DEV++ Subscription
Exclusive DEV Winner Badge

Both runner-ups will each receive:

$500 USD
DEV++ Subscription
Exclusive DEV Winner Badge

All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile.

Our Sponsor

A huge thank you to Notion for partnering with us on this challenge. Seeing what the community built with Notion MCP is a testament to how powerful AI-native workflows can be when developers get creative with the right tools.

What's Next?

Our second DEV Weekend Challenge is happening now! With Earth Day just around the corner, we welcome you to build something inspired by the planet. Submissions are due April 20, 2026 6:59 AM UTC.

Earth Day theme and specific tech categories

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Apr 17

Join our DEV Weekend Challenge — $1,000 in Prizes Across TEN winners! Submissions Due April 20 at 6:59 AM UTC.

#devchallenge #weekendchallenge

Comments 16

4 min read

The OpenClaw Challenge is running through April 26 with a $1,200 prize pool across two prompts: build something with OpenClaw, or publish a post that educates and inspires. Six winners total, each taking home $200 and a DEV++ Membership.

Share your OpenClaw experience

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Apr 16

Join the OpenClaw Challenge: $1,200 Prize Pool!

#devchallenge #openclawchallenge #openclaw #ai

Comments 11

4 min read

Thank you to everyone who participated. We hope you had fun, pushed your skills, and maybe even gave your Notion workspace a much-needed checkup along the way.

See you next time!

What was your win this week?!

Jess Lee — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

👋👋👋👋

Looking back on your week -- what was something you're proud of?

All wins count -- big or small 🎉

Examples of 'wins' include:

Getting a promotion!
Starting a new project
Fixing a tricky bug
Calling an old friend instead of just texting 📱

Happy Friday!

Join our DEV Weekend Challenge — $1,000 in Prizes Across TEN winners! Submissions Due April 20 at 6:59 AM UTC.

Jess Lee — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 02:00:01 +0000

We're excited to kick off another DEV Weekend Challenge, a short bite-sized challenge planned to fit into your weekend. We know the submission window is tight, so we've set the timing to ensure that no matter where you are in the world, you'll have the majority of your Saturday and Sunday to participate.

We’ll select four overall winners and six prize category winners who utilize a specific technology as part of their challenge submission.

Let’s get to it!

Our Prompt

With Earth Day just around the corner, we welcome you to build something inspired by the planet.

Please interpret this prompt however you’d like. Honoring your favorite green spaces? Solving carbon emissions? Reimagining our entire planetary relationship? Any angle is fair game!

Prize Categories

This challenge introduces something new: six prize categories for participants who incorporate a specific technology into their project. You don't need to use any of these tools to be eligible for our overall winner spots but if you're curious about any of the tech, this is a great excuse to give one a try.

Best use of Backboard
Best use of Auth0 for Agents
Best use of Google Gemini
Best use of Snowflake
Best use of GitHub Copilot
Best use of Solana

Pro Tip: since prize category winners are drawn from a smaller pool of submissions, your odds of taking home a prize are meaningfully higher.

Note: You may use multiple technologies in a single submission to qualify for multiple categories, but participants are limited to one win per challenge.

Judging Criteria

All submissions will be judged on the following:

Relevance to Theme: Does the project clearly connect to the challenge theme?
Creativity: Is the concept original or is it an interesting take on a familiar problem?
Technical Execution: Is the project functional, well-built, and easy to use?
Writing Quality: Is the submission post clearly written and engaging?
Use of Prize Category Technology (optional): If pursuing a prize category, does the submission meaningfully incorporate the chosen technology?

Prizes

Ten winners will each take home:

$100 USD
DEV++ Membership
Exclusive DEV badge

All participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.

How To Participate

Publish a post on DEV using the submission template below. Your post should give us an overview of the community you built for, what you made, and a demo of your project.

Weekend Challenge Submission Template

Please review our judging criteria, rules, guidelines, and FAQ page before submitting so you understand our participation guidelines and official contest rules such as eligibility requirements.

Need Help?

Check out our official challenge page for resources to help you get started with tech from our prize category partners.

Important Dates

Launch Time: April 17, 2026 2:00 AM UTC
Submissions Due: April 20, 2026 6:59 AM UTC

Here's what that looks like across a few timezones:

Timezone	Launch Time (Local)	Submissions Due (Local)
PDT	Thursday, Apr 16 at 7:00 PM	Sunday, Apr 19 at 11:59 PM
EDT	Thursday, Apr 16 at 10:00 PM	Monday, Apr 20 at 2:59 AM
GMT	Friday, Apr 17 at 2:00 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 6:59 AM
CEST	Friday, Apr 17 at 4:00 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 8:59 AM
IST	Friday, Apr 17 at 7:30 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 12:29 PM
JST	Friday, Apr 17 at 11:00 AM	Monday, Apr 20 at 3:59 PM
AEST	Friday, Apr 17 at 12:00 PM	Monday, Apr 20 at 4:59 PM

Winners will be Announced on Thursday, April 30.

Questions about the challenge? Drop them in the comments below.

Good luck!!

Congrats to the 2026 WeCoded Challenge Winners!

Jess Lee — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:34:36 +0000

The results are in! We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2026 WeCoded Challenge.

Over the past few weeks, the community has been buzzing with your personal stories and frontend interpretations of gender equity in tech. We invited you to celebrate underrepresented voices, and the response was nothing short of inspiring. From vulnerable accounts of career pivots to artful depictions of strength through diversity, your contributions have been a joy to review.

Selecting winners from such a meaningful pool of submissions was no easy feat for our judges. Your posts help make the WeCoded celebration more meaningful, but there were a few standouts that we are particularly excited to highlight today.

Let's give a round of applause to our winners!

Congratulations To…

Echoes of Experience Winners

@abarron traces her path in tech back to an Alicia Keys concert, an online message board, and fixing computers over AIM as a teenager. Her story is a testament to the importance of online community, something we here at DEV care a lot about.

WeCoded 2026: Echoes of Experience 💜

Ava Barron

Mar 30

The story of how Alicia Keys accidentally got me a career in tech

#devchallenge #wecoded #dei #career

Comments 4

8 min read

@it_is_margarita tells the story about three generations of a family (a factory worker, a librarian, and a young reader) all drawn to logic and systems. Their reflection on what equity actually looks like is one of the most thoughtful takes we received.

WeCoded 2026: Echoes of Experience 💜

Margarita

Mar 23

It Wasn't Brave. It Was Just Tuesday.

#wecoded #devchallenge #frontend #caree

Comments

4 min read

@earlgreyhot1701d came to a SheBuilds event on International Women's Day with a detailed exit strategy and a fully scoped brief for a concert history tracker she had built with Claude the night before. The decision to stay didn't just lead to a finished app, but a new understanding of what it means to build.

WeCoded 2026: Echoes of Experience 💜

L. Cordero

Mar 9

I Planned an Exit Strategy. I Stayed the Whole Time.

#devchallenge #wecoded #dei #career

Comments 7

5 min read

Frontend Art: Gender Equity Winners

@anchildress1 designed, wrote, narrated, and produced Carbon Trace: an immersive web experience about growing up in an Appalachian coal town and finding her way into engineering. She voiced it herself (in her native accent), backed it with 685 unit tests and 220 E2E tests, and brought full backend discipline to a frontend art project.

WeCoded 2026: Frontend Art 💜

Ashley Childress

Apr 3

Forged Between Coal and Code

#wecoded #devchallenge #frontend #css

Comments 5

12 min read

@nickwatton built a particle system animation of gender flags in celebration of their trans son. It's personal, it's beautiful, and shared with the hope that others will learn from it and make it their own.

WeCoded 2026: Frontend Art 💜

Nick Watton

Mar 22

Gender Fluid

#wecoded #devchallenge #frontend #css

Comments 2

1 min read

@commonlayer built an interactive terminal experience where the medium is the message: a genderless 3D face, a monochrome screen, and a path you have to walk yourself. Each command is imbued with meaning to reinforce the idea that we all must make our own path, "not just watch it go by."

WeCoded 2026: Frontend Art 💜

Florent Cleron

Mar 18

Less Heard — A Terminal Sketch on Gender Equity in Tech

#wecoded #frontend #threejs #devchallenge

Comments

2 min read

Our winners will receive a DEV++ Membership and an exclusive DEV badge.

All Participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile.

What's Next?

The OpenClaw Challenge is running through April 26 with a $1,200 prize pool across two prompts: build something with OpenClaw, or publish a post that educates and inspires. Six winners total, each taking home $200 and a DEV++ Membership.

Share your OpenClaw experience

Jess Lee for The DEV Team

Apr 16

Join the OpenClaw Challenge: $1,200 Prize Pool!

#devchallenge #openclawchallenge #openclaw #ai

120

Comments 22

4 min read

Thank you to everyone who took the time to write, share, and support one another during this challenge. You make DEV a better place.

See you at the next one!

Forem: Jess Lee

Top 7 Featured DEV Posts of the Week

Officially Introducing: The Google AI and Google Cloud Run Badges

Google AI Badge

Google Cloud Run Badge

How to Embed Cloud Run

Google Cloud Next Writing Challenge

Watch the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Sessions and Enter the Writing Challenge. There's $1,000 on the Line!

📺 Catch Up on Google Cloud NEXT '26

What to Write About

How to Enter

What was your win this week!?

Congrats to the April Fools Challenge Winners!!

🎉 Congratulations To…

Overall Winners

Best Google AI Usage

Best Ode to Larry Masinter

Community Favorite

Prizes

What's Next?

Tune In and Join the Google Cloud NEXT '26 Writing Challenge: $1,000 in Prizes!

Tune In to Google Cloud NEXT '26

Our Prompt

Judging Criteria

Prizes

How To Participate

Important Dates

What does the term 'hacker' mean to you?

Top 7 Featured DEV Posts of the Week

Congrats to the Notion MCP Challenge Winners!

🏆 First Place: NoteRunway

🏅 Runner Ups: DevNotion & Relay

Prizes

Our Sponsor

What's Next?

What was your win this week?!

Join our DEV Weekend Challenge — $1,000 in Prizes Across TEN winners! Submissions Due April 20 at 6:59 AM UTC.

Our Prompt

Prize Categories

Judging Criteria

Prizes

How To Participate

Need Help?

Important Dates

Congrats to the 2026 WeCoded Challenge Winners!

Congratulations To…

Echoes of Experience Winners

Frontend Art: Gender Equity Winners

What's Next?