Unhinged MCP Buildathon with Gala Labs

🧨 Buildathon RFP: Unlocking Instagram DMs with AI

Hosted by Gala Labs - Powered by Build Club
💰 $10,000 in cash prizes
📅 Submission deadline: Friday 27 June 11:59PM PST

Gala Labs has open-sourced a new MCP (Multi-Channel Protocol) server that gives developers direct access to Instagram DMs via LLMs. You can now send messages to any Instagram account programmatically — unlocking a powerful new playground for AI automations, agents, and communication workflows.

To celebrate, we’re launching a global Buildathon to see what the most creative minds can do with this stack.

🔍 What You Can Build

Using the Instagram DM MCP server, build a project that leverages programmatic DMs in a new, useful, or ridiculous way.

Some build ideas from Gala Labs:

• AI Dating Coach: slides into DMs with perfect pickup lines

• Manychat Competitor: automates your entire Instagram sales funnel

• Relationship Builder: maintains parasocial relationships for creators

• Multi-agent chaos system: chains DMs with other channels like email, voice, or search

You’re welcome to go even further — remix, extend, or integrate with other tools.

🏆 Prize Pool

$10,000 in total cash prizes, three cash prizes up for grabs:

• $5k - Breaking the internet (go viral AF)

• $2.5k - Technical Sorcery (coolest technical implementation)

• $2.5k - Holy Sh*t Award (make our jaws drop)

Winners will be selected by the Gala Labs team and expert advisors.

📥 How to Submit

All entries must be submitted via Campus platform on Build Club

To enter:

1. Go to this challenge page and connect your project

2. Create a new project

   • Include your GitHub repo (template repo here)

   • Add a demo video or screenshots if possible

   • Use “Gala Labs Instagram Buildathon” in your project name or description

3. Post your project on Twitter/X

   • Tag @gala_labs

4. Ensure your Build Club project is set to public

🛠 Tech Stack & Resources

• MCP Server GitHub Repo: https://github.com/trypeggy/instagram_dm_mcp

• Built with Node.js and supports any LLM (OpenAI, Claude, etc.)

• Easily composable with other APIs, agents, or workflows

• More features dropping throughout the week — stay tuned

📆 Key Dates

• Deadline: Friday 27 June 11:59PM PST

• Winners announced: The following week via @gala_labs and Build Club

🎯 Why Gala Labs Built This

Most automation platforms today are boring, expensive, or over-engineered. Gala Labs built this Instagram DM MCP server to explore what happens when developers are given direct access to high-signal messaging channels — with no artificial limitations.

We believe some of the most exciting applications of LLMs will come from real-time messaging, social interfaces, and agentic behavior.

Now it’s your turn.

Judges:

• Ebaad Ur Rehman

• Annie Liao

• Tanmay