Answer from your own documents
Build something that answers questions from documents you provide. You decide which documents.
Every answer must cite the passage it came from.
That is the only rule. What you build inside it is yours to imagine — there is no spec to follow and no right answer. Bring the idea you have been sitting on, or invent one in the room. The best builds are the ones nobody saw coming.
Some directions people take
Optional. These are examples, not a menu — the point of this track is that you choose.
- A handbook or policy assistant
- A lease or contract reader
- A rules reference for a game
- A study assistant for your own notes
Things to keep in mind
- Configure the application to state when an answer is not in the documents.
- Spend your time on how the documents are split. Retrieval quality depends on it.
- Use documents you know well, so you can verify the answers.
Built something? Two minutes, and it lands in the showcase. Half-finished is fine.
How the session flows
Every Coding Jam follows the same shape, whichever track the room takes.
- 0:00 – 0:15Intro
Grab a name tag and a slice, say hello to the instructor, and meet the people either side of you — you'll be asking them things later, so it pays to know their names now. Low pressure, high creativity, ship something messy. Then a quick word on what the room is building tonight, and you're off.
- 0:15 – 0:30Credits & setup
The instructor shares the Google Cloud credits with the room. Everyone gets their environment ready — whichever tool they brought. Nobody should be installing anything once the build starts.
- 0:30 – 1:35Build
Heads down, and enjoy it — this is the part everyone came for. The agent does the typing; you decide what it's making. Ask the room when you get stuck; someone two seats away hit the same wall ten minutes ago. Want more structure? The codelab walks the spec-driven route — Setup → Plan → Review → Build → API → Verify — but nobody has to follow it.
- 1:35 – 2:00Share & submit
Show the room what you made — two minutes, screen-shared from your seat. Half-finished is welcome; the wobbly ones are usually the most interesting. Say what surprised you along the way, and cheer for everyone else while you're at it. Then submit your build before you leave. This is the one thing not to skip — it's what puts your name and your chapter on the showcase, and it takes about two minutes.