From Prompt to Edge AI — Hackathon Participants Create Mobile Apps in Less Than An Hour

On Thursday, October 22, 2026, developers, solutions engineers, and tech enthusiasts gathered at the Omni Fort Lauderdale for Prompt to Edge AI: The Couchbase Skills Challenge. As part of Couchbase Catalyst, this hands-on hackathon aimed to demonstrate how quickly always-on mobile applications can be brought to life using natural language prompts, Claude skills, and Couchbase Capella.

Couchbase Catalyst 2026

Couchbase Catalyst 2026 brought together industry leaders, partners, and developers to explore next-generation solutions in the agentic era. Check out our latest press release to see how the expanded AI Data Plane reduces token costs by up to 45% and streamlines enterprise AI agent deployments. Opening keynotes highlighted co-innovating AI agents and edge architectures, setting a vibrant backdrop for the hands-on building challenge. Attendees were encouraged to prepare ahead of time by configuring their laptops with Xcode or Android Studio and creating a free-tier Couchbase Capella account. 

Agent Skills and the hackathon challenge

The core engine behind the hackathon was a suite of specialized Agent Skills for Couchbase Mobile. These skills automate complex tasks—such as backend provisioning, data modeling with scopes and collections, access control, and Sync Gateway configuration—allowing builders to generate native iOS or Android mobile applications using simple natural language prompts.

Participants needed no prior Couchbase experience. By prompting an AI Coding Assistant, such as Claude or Cursor with statements like “I want to build a Couchbase Mobile app,” the skill guided them through selecting their platform, configuring backend sync with Capella, and generating a functional offline-first application.

Pro Tip: These skills integrate seamlessly with Claude, Antigravity, and GitHub Copilot—test them out using your preferred AI assistant!

Ready, set, build! The hackathon experience

At 8:30 a.m., over 15 builders jumped straight into their projects, eager to get started. Equipped with their laptops, Capella free-tier accounts, and local emulators, developers spent the morning prompting AI models to build and refine their own custom edge applications.

In less than an hour of active prompting, attendees successfully generated complete mobile applications featuring local data storage via Couchbase Lite, automated conflict resolution, and seamless data synchronization with Serviços de Aplicativo Capella.

Examples of applications that were built

Hackathon participants created a wide range of innovative mobile applications tailored for edge resilience and field operations. Key projects included:

• Healthcare Field Operations: Mobile tools leveraging embedded small language models for local retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and client-side edge AI inference with no per-token cost.
• Industrial Diagnostics: Offline-capable maintenance tools built for remote equipment troubleshooting and service support.
• Collaborative Retail & Messaging: Real-time sample applications illustrating seamless multi-device data synchronization.

These applications highlighted Couchbase Mobile’s ability to maintain high availability and seamless data convergence even when network connectivity drops.

Congratulations to our winner!

A massive round of applause to David Branco, Director of Engineering at ArcTouch, who earned first place in the skills challenge. David impressed the audience with a standout mobile app created in under an hour, showcasing the incredible synergy between generative AI models and Couchbase Mobile. His project leveraged Apple Foundation Models to execute real-time message translations between English-speaking managers and Portuguese-speaking team members. The hackathon clearly demonstrated how natural language prompting with Claude skills rapidly accelerates the delivery of powerful edge AI experiences.

Special thanks to all of our amazing Hackathon participants and Couchbase facilitators for making this a truly special event.

For more information:

Ready to try building your own edge-ready mobile app with Couchbase Agent Skills? Check out these helpful resources:

• Explore the Couchbase Mobile Skills GitHub Repository
• Discover Couchbase Capella and Mobile
• Try the Retail Couchbase Mobile Sample Application
• Explore the Couchbase AI Data Platform