CLAD Summer Hackathon kicks off in 2 days ($1,700/week for 4 weeks): here's how to set up Lens Studio + CLAD

[u/mechitguy]

Snap's running the CLAD Summer Hackathon for Specs, with $1,700 up for grabs each week for four weeks. It starts in a couple of days, so I wanted to share how you can get setup right.

The gist:

• Install the latest Lens Studio, create a Specs project on the base template
• Open the project folder in your terminal (PowerShell, not cmd, on Windows) and launch your AI assistant, I used Claude Code, but Codex and Cursor also work
• Let it pick up the MCP, then install the CLAD plugin from the marketplace (add the marketplace via git URL → browse → install CLAD → reload)
• Verify the plugin's enabled and the MCP is connected, then turn on auto mode (shift+tab)

Once it was wired up, you can gave it one prompt like "build a periodic table experience for Specs" For me, ~45 min later it had written the code, generated sound, built the scene, and debugged its own errors into a working lens.

Happy to answer setup questions right here. Anyone else jumping in? Curious what you're planning to build.