From the very beginning, we’ve tried to build Hive differently.

Instead of waiting until everything was finished, we’re sharing prototypes, engineering decisions, design iterations, successes and setbacks as they happened. Every blog post, video and update is part of the journey because we believe great products are built through collaboration, not behind closed doors.

When we sent our first Hive Community Survey, one message appeared again and again.

People didn’t just want to follow the project.

They wanted to be part of it.

HiveLab is our answer to that feedback.

What is HiveLab?

HiveLab is the community space where ideas become real projects.

It’s a place for people passionate about Raspberry Pi, homelabs, self-hosting, Kubernetes, edge computing, AI and open infrastructure to build, share and learn together.

Our goal isn’t simply to collect project ideas.

We want HiveLab to become a growing library of real-world workloads, tutorials, benchmarks and engineering experiences created by the community, for the community.

Initially, HiveLab will live in our Reddit community, where members will be able to share progress, ask questions, publish guides and showcase what they’ve built.

Over time, we hope it becomes one of the best places to discover practical projects running on Hive.

The first HiveLab community call

As Hive development continues, we’d like to invite a small group of community members to help us demonstrate what Hive is capable of.

This first HiveLab call isn’t about beta testing.

It’s about building.

We’re looking for people with interesting project ideas that can showcase Hive’s capabilities while creating something genuinely useful for the community.

Whether it’s an AI platform, a Kubernetes deployment, a self-hosted service, an edge computing workload, a monitoring stack or something we haven’t even imagined yet, we want to see what the community can create.

The projects selected during this first round will become the first official HiveLab community projects.

What we’re looking for

We’re not necessarily looking for the most complex project.

We’re looking for projects that:

• showcase what Hive is capable of
• solve real problems
• can inspire other builders
• generate useful documentation or tutorials
• encourage discussion within the community

The best projects aren’t always the biggest ones.

Sometimes the most valuable project is simply the one that teaches others something new.

How to apply

Applications for this first HiveLab round will NOT be published publicly.

Instead, they’ll be included exclusively in our second Hive Community Survey.

Inside that survey you’ll find an optional section where you’ll be able to submit your application by telling us:

• who you are
• what you’d like to build
• why you think your project would benefit the Hive community

We’ll carefully review every proposal before selecting a small number of participants.

If your project is selected, we’ll contact you directly to organise remote access to Hive and schedule your development period.

Applications will only be available through our second Hive Community Survey, so you’ll need to be subscribed to the Hive mailing list before it’s sent. If you haven’t joined yet, you can subscribe using the form below. If you’re not subscribed by then, you’ll have to wait for a future HiveLab call.

Working together

Selected participants won’t simply receive access to Hive.

We’ll work together throughout the process.

We’ll help organise remote access, discuss technical requirements and support each project as it develops.

Where possible, we’d also love participants to document their experience:

• A short write-up
• A YouTube video
• A social media post
• A benchmark
• A tutorial

Anything that helps other members of the community learn from your work.

HiveLab isn’t only about building projects.

It’s about sharing knowledge.

Recognition

Community members selected for this first HiveLab round will receive:

• Remote access to Hive during their allocated development period
• Direct contact with the engineering team
• VIP Kickstarter status with our best launch conditions and priority access
• Exclusive Hive merchandise
• Recognition as one of the first HiveLab builders

More importantly, your project will become part of HiveLab and help demonstrate what’s possible with Hive before it even launches.

This is only the beginning

We don’t see HiveLab as a one-time initiative.

We see it as a long-term community where builders can continue sharing projects, ideas and experiences.

This first call is simply the beginning.

If you’ve ever wanted to build something interesting with a distributed ARM platform, we’d love to see what you come up with.

Make sure you’re subscribed to the Hive mailing list before our second Community Survey is sent. You’ll find the subscription form just below this article.

We can’t wait to see what we’ll build together.