Recap: Hackathon in Christmas spirit.

Translation management with Langbox.

During an earlier hackathon, the foundations were laid for a central translation management tool: one place where all translations from different projects can come together and be managed. From buttons and notifications to product texts, everything that is normally scattered around is brought together here in an organised way. This hackathon focused on the next step: developing the tool further and preparing it for daily use by multiple teams.

A productive day.

The goal was clear: to make the tool more robust and better prepared for daily use by multiple people. The day started with tidying up. Existing structures were reviewed and tightened up, with a special focus on roles and responsibilities. For instance, a separate translator role was introduced, allowing translators to see only what is relevant to them.

In addition, translations used by the tool itself were added, providing more consistency in the interface. Autocompletion of strings made working faster and reduced the risk of errors or duplicate translations. Important steps were also taken under the bonnet: an API and webhooks lay the foundation for integrations and automatic synchronisation with other systems. Finally, revisions were added, allowing translations to be saved and restored. A small addition with big impact, especially when several people work together. The result: a tool that not only can do more, but also gives more confidence.

SSH Tooling: security first.

SSH Tooling also received attention. This internal tool acts as a central place to manage public SSH keys across all servers. During the hackathon, the tooling was critically reviewed and remaining issues were resolved. A list of improvements was also drawn up to make the tool ready for production. The added value is clear: faster insight into who has access to which servers, and the ability to monitor and manage this from a central location. This removes an important security risk and makes management a lot clearer.

AI insights within the DMP.

Another team looked at the future of AI within the DMP. As these environments have a rich and unique set of data, there is a huge opportunity here. The idea: add a chat function that allows customers to ask questions directly about their own data.

An important foundation for this was laid during the hackathon. Dummy data was added to a demo environment, a chat interface was built with Livewire and linked to an LLM for streamed responses, so that the chat feel is really true. Research was also done on prompting: how to build queries as generically as possible, so that the same AI setup can be used for multiple use cases. This forms the basis for a plug-and-play AI module within the DMP.

AI guidelines voor agentic coding.

Finally, it looked at AI guidelines for agentic coding. It explored how repositories can be enriched with additional context so that AI better understands how a project is put together and generates code that matches existing standards. It also explored whether tooling could help automate this process. The ultimate goal: to support developers with better AI output, leaving more time for complex logic and content choices.

Merry Christmas!

After the snacks were prepared, each group presented its part during the final presentations. It was clear how much work had been done, and after the final presentations, the hackathon ended as it began: relaxed. The Italian Christmas drinks officially heralded the holiday season. Outside was a pizza cart where delicious pizzas were baked with care and skill, while inside everyone gathered to look back on an intense, productive and enjoyable year. Top day!