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Nivara Catalyst Challenge Official Rules (YC F25 Edition)

What Nivara measures, how the challenge works, and how to win.

The Goal

Prove your impact. This challenge is exclusive to YC F25 founders. Compete to achieve the highest total Nivara Catalyst Score (NCS) by December 15, 2025. Nivara measures impact, complexity, and risk to capture how meaningfully you are shipping progress, not how often you commit.

NCS focuses on the impact of your code on your business and whether it moves the needle, not how many lines of code you contributed.

How It Works

  1. Sign in with GitHub to join the challenge.
  2. Connect your repositories through the Nivara GitHub App.
  3. Code as you normally do. Each commit automatically generates a Nivara Catalyst Score using Nivara’s AI model.
  4. Leaderboard rankings are individual, based on each developer’s cumulative NCS across all connected repos.
  5. The founder team of the individual ranked #1 wins the grand prize.

Winning Criteria

  • Only YC F25 founders are eligible.
  • The individual developer with the highest total Nivara Catalyst Score by December 15, 2025 wins.
  • The entire founder team of that individual receives round-trip flights to Hawaii.
  • In the event of a tie, the higher average commit impact decides the winner.

Fair Play & Eligibility

  • Only commits from connected GitHub repos are counted.
  • Automated or bot commits will not be counted.
  • AI generated code is welcome. Innovation counts as impact.
  • Attempts to manipulate or falsify commit data result in disqualification.

Timeline

  • Challenge Opens: 12 November 2025
  • Closes: December 15, 2025 (11:59 PM PT)
  • Results Announced: within one week of closing

Support

Need help or have questions? Email us at founders@getnivara.com.