Introduction

Welcome to Hack for Impact NYC 2025! This resource guide is here to help you along your hackathon journey – especially if you’re a beginner. Hackathons can sound intimidating, but they’re actually fun, friendly events where you get to learn and build something cool in a short time. You don’t need to be a coding pro or a tech genius to take part – just bring your curiosity and enthusiasm. We’ve gathered some tips and links to tools, inspiration, and support to get you started.

This year’s hackathon focuses on four impact tracks: Education Equity, Climate Resilience, Urban Challenges, and Responsible AI. The resources below are general-purpose and beginner-friendly – no heavy jargon, we promise – so you can use them no matter which track you’re tackling. Dive in, and remember: the goal is to learn, collaborate, and make an impact. You’ve got this!

Tools and Technologies

Agentic Process Tools

• MCP-Agent: is an open-source framework designed to streamline the creation of production-ready agents by using MCP server and composable agent patterns [Guide].
• LangChain: Widely adopted for building language model-based agents with memory, tool use, and workflow support
• AutoGen: Open-source framework for creating collaborative, multi-agent systems and orchestrating agent workflows
• CrewAI: Python-based toolkit for building role-based, multi-agent teams that coordinate on complex tasks
• SuperAGI: Open-source platform for fully autonomous agents that manage and execute tasks independently
• AgentGPT: User-friendly interface for deploying autonomous agents, ideal for quick prototyping and smaller projects
• Botpress: Visual, no-code/low-code platform for building conversational AI agents with multi-channel support
• LlamaIndex: Framework focused on data management and retrieval for agents working with large datasets

No-Code & Low-Code Builders

• Lovable – AI turns a napkin idea into a working full-stack web app in minutes; great when you have no devs on the team.
• Bubble – Visual drag-and-drop builder that now embeds GPT-style agents to scaffold back-end logic; huge template library.
• Softr – Easiest on-ramp: connect Airtable/Google Sheets and publish a secure client portal or internal tool fast.
• Glide – Converts spreadsheets into mobile/desktop apps; new AI column type lets novices add chat or image-gen features.
• FlutterFlow – Visual builder that exports clean Flutter code; AI assist drafts whole screens from a prompt.