Submitting Your Build

This is for hardware projects only. Submit your build after you've designed your project, received your parts, and built it IRL. Software projects don't need this step since they're reviewed through the project submission process.

If you haven't submitted your project for review yet, do that first.

Once you've physically built your hardware project, you can submit your build for review. Approved builds earn you additional fruits to spend in the shop.

Similar to submitting your project, there are minimum requirements. Missing any of these will get your project returned.

95% of rejections come from problems that take 5 minutes to fix

Read the requirements below carefully before you submit. Missing files, broken links, or an unclear README are the most common rejection reasons, and every one of them is cheap to fix upfront.

Meet All Project Requirements

Submitting your build still requires you to meet all the requirements from submitting your project. Make sure those are still in order.

Show Your Project Built IRL

At minimum, you should include:

Photos of your finished project, built in real life
A demo video showing it off and how it works (share it on YouTube or Reddit)

Update Your Repository

Make sure your GitHub repo reflects the final state of your project:

Updated README with IRL photos
Any firmware changes made during building
Final BOM with actual parts used (not just what you planned)
Notes on anything you'd do differently next time

When Your Build Doesn't Work: Update Ships

Hardware doesn't always cooperate. A chip fries, a PCB trace is wrong, a part arrives dead, firmware corrupts flash. You don't have to abandon your project when this happens. After any approved ship, you can submit another one on the same project, called an update ship.

Every update ship is one of two things, decided by whether you tick the I need funding for this ship checkbox on the cart panel:

Option 1: I Need Funding (Fix-Path)

If your project is broken and you need replacement parts to fix it, tick I need funding for this ship on the cart panel before you submit. On approval, Hack Club will send you a fresh grant for the updated build cost instead of rewarding fruit.

You have to document your findings to take this path. The reviewer needs to see what went wrong and what you're changing:

A new journal entry explaining the failure (what happened, when, and how you diagnosed it)
Photos of the broken build, plus any debugging you did to confirm the problem
What parts you're replacing and why
An updated BOM with the replacement parts and updated total cost

Vague "it didn't work, send more money" update ships will be returned. Be specific.

Option 2: I'm Done (Build-Complete)

If the build works and you're finished, leave the funding checkbox unchecked and submit. The system treats this as your final build review: on approval you'll earn fruit for all the hours you logged since the last ship, AND every pending fruit you accumulated on this project from earlier ships unlocks at the same time.

There's no separate "this ship is finished" checkbox. The funding box itself is the toggle: ticked means "I need parts money", unticked means "I'm done, give me my fruit". Pick one per ship.

Every update ship needs proof of new work since the last approval. That means either strictly more Hackatime hours, or at least one new journal entry with real hours logged. Resubmitting without new work will bounce the ship back, regardless of which path you pick.