Quackathon · Track 02 · Hardware: Physical Perception

Your AI agent is blind.
Give it eyes this weekend.

Afferens is the data pipeline for AI agents — verified perception of the physical world through one hardware-agnostic API. Sign up, make a real perception call in 60 seconds, and build an agent that actually sees.

Watch it perceive — right now

No signup, no code. Hit a modality and see the structured perception an agent gets back.

POST /api/perception → VISION200 OK

Vision is live now. Spatial, acoustic, environmental & molecular are rolling out — same API shape.

From zero to first call in 60 seconds

curl
curl -X POST https://afferens.com/api/perception \
  -H "X-API-KEY: <YOUR_KEY>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "image_url": "https://your-frame.jpg" }'
javascript
const res = await fetch("https://afferens.com/api/perception", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "X-API-KEY": process.env.AFFERENS_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ image_url: frameUrl }),
})
const perception = await res.json()  // grounded scene your agent can act on

Agent-native — drop it into your coding agent

Add the Afferens MCP server to Claude Code, Cursor, or OpenClaw — your agent perceives on its own, mid-task. One block in your MCP config.

mcp config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "afferens": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@afferens/mcp"], "env": { "AFFERENS_KEY": "<YOUR_KEY>" } }
  }
}

What to build

Things that are only possible because the agent can perceive — not toy apps anyone could ship with any tool.

Surroundings narrator

A wearable/phone agent that perceives the scene and describes it out loud. Accessibility, travel, hands-free field work.

Verify-before-act robot

A robot/arm that perceives the scene and confirms the target before it moves. Closes the "agent hallucinated the action" gap.

Voice-first kiosk

A kiosk that reacts to what — and who — it sees, and holds a real conversation about it.

Shelf / inventory auditor

Point a camera, get structured stock + planogram data back as JSON.

Safety-check drone

Perceives hazards in a space and refuses to proceed until it reads clear.

AR repair assistant

Perceives the device in front of the user and guides the fix step by step.

QC line agent

Perceives defects on a line, flags and logs them with visual evidence.

Your idea

Anything where 'the agent has to actually see the world' is the hard part. That's the bar.

Credits & rewards

Build for free this weekend

Sign up and get Afferens API credits to build with across the 48 hours. Your key works the second you land in the dashboard.

Claim your key →

Unlock stacked sponsor credits

Grab a Founders' Pass and unlock stacked sponsor credits — including Lovable Pro — on top of your Afferens tokens.

See the Founders' Pass →

How Track 02 is judged

Does it work

A live, running demo beats a deck. Show the agent perceiving.

Is it shipped

Public GitHub repo + a 2-minute demo video. Working code wins.

Does it answer the brief

Track 02: an AI agent grounded in the physical world. Perception is the point.

Bring an idea where the agent has to see the world.

We'll give it eyes. We're in the Quackathon Discord all weekend.