Community contest · 2026 Q3

Build a RailCall module. Get paid. Earn recurring revenue.

We're seeding the marketplace with signed modules. If you publish a useful one during the contest window, you win prize money AND keep 95% of every future sale of that module for as long as it's listed. The build is boring by design — Python + a manifest + a signature. What matters is that it solves a real problem for a real team.

Start the 30-min walkthrough →Create marketplace account

Timeline

Open
Contest opens
Public brief live, submissions accepted at railcall.ai/marketplace with the required tag (below).
+ 4 weeks
Submissions close
Any listing published + tagged before this cutoff qualifies. Late listings don't.
+ 5 days
Judging window
Sami + Pat score independently against the rubric below. Scores averaged; ties broken by earliest submission.
Announce
Winners announced
Publicly on railcall.ai/changelog + prize payouts fire via Freelancer.

Exact dates on the Freelancer.com posting — this page is evergreen.

What we're looking for (3 categories)

A. New integrations

A module for a SaaS provider that's not yet in the marketplace. Zendesk, Intercom, Linear, Airtable, Notion (paid features), Shopify, Stripe (writes), Twilio, PagerDuty, Snowflake — pick something your team actually uses.

examples: Zendesk create_ticket + comment · Linear create_issue + update · Airtable read_view + append_row

B. Vertical workflow templates

A signed workflow template for a specific job function. Ship the JSON + a README explaining who it's for and what pain it eliminates.

examples: Revops: lead-to-oppo enrichment · HR: onboarding checklist automation · Support: escalation triage

C. Creative uses of the airlock

Something that uses the preview → approve → execute pattern in a non-obvious way. Compliance approval flows, human-in-the-loop AI drafts, dry-run migration tools — surprise us.

examples: AI-drafted invoice review · Multi-approver policy changes · Redlined config-file rollouts

How submissions are judged (100 pts total)

30 ptsDoes it work?

Fresh install + run in a clean workspace. Command executes without errors, receipt is valid, input schema validates. If we can't run it in 5 minutes on a stock RailCall install, it scores 0 here.

30 ptsDoes it solve a real problem?

Something a paying customer would want. A greeter clone scores low; a Zendesk integration that saves a support team 4 hours/week scores high. Show a specific use case + user in your README.

20 ptsCode quality + security posture

Handler doesn't log secrets, side_effects flag is set correctly (external for anything that mutates state elsewhere), inputs are validated, error handling is honest (raise with a clear message, don't swallow). Comments where they matter.

20 ptsDocumentation quality

README explains: what it does, who it's for, install command, one working example with expected output, any credentials needed + how to set them, known limitations. 500 words max — density beats length.

Judges: Sami (technical co-founder) + Patrick James Linden (CEO). Scores averaged. Ties broken by earliest submission timestamp.

How to submit (5 steps)

Follow the walkthrough at /docs/marketplace-developer/your-first-module — takes ~30 min to get a first module live.
Replace the greeter with your real module (per the three categories above).
Publish with the required tag. Add contest:2026Q3 to your listing's description text (anywhere in the body). No tag = not entered.
Write a 500-word README at a URL of your choice (GitHub gist, personal blog, whatever) explaining what it does + who it's for.
Post the two URLs in your Freelancer submission— (a) the marketplace listing URL, (b) the README URL. That's it.

Prize pool

Total prize pool + payout structure: published on the Freelancer.com contest posting (this evergreen page stays stable across multiple contest windows). Winners keep 95% of every future sale of their listed module on top of the prize money — that's the recurring revenue side. RailCall takes 5% on one-time workflow sales, 25% on subscription modules.

Rules + fine print

You retain ownership of your code. Publishing to the marketplace grants RailCall a non-exclusive perpetual license to distribute it via the marketplace + earn the platform take. Details in /legal/marketplace.
Submissions must be your own work or code you have permission to redistribute. If your module wraps a third-party SDK, that SDK's license must permit it.
One person, multiple submissions is fine. One team, one submission per team member is also fine. Only your highest-scoring submission counts toward prize placement.
No AI-only submissions. LLM-generated code is allowed, but a submission that's obviously never been run loses on the "does it work" dimension. Ship what works.
Paid modules are eligible if you're already on the publisher-trust allowlist. If not, publish free for the contest and ping us in Discord after your first successful free listing to request paid access.
Judging is at RailCall's discretion. The rubric is the rubric; if your submission technically qualifies but presents a real security or legal issue, we reserve the right to disqualify it (and we'll tell you why).
Prize payment handled through Freelancer.com per their milestone-release process.

Getting unstuck

Join our Discord and post the exact command + error output in the #contest channel. Response within one business day during the contest window. Weekly office hours (calendar link on the Freelancer posting) for anything that deserves a live conversation.

We answer honestly — if your idea won't work in the RailCall model, we'll tell you before you spend 3 days on it. Better to redirect early than to disqualify late.

This page is evergreen — new contest windows update the timeline + prize pool without changing the rules or rubric. Current contest details on the Freelancer.com posting.