Using AI Coding Agents (RSNA 2026)

This page is for teams at the RSNA 2026 Vibe Coding Hackathon (Nov 29 to Dec 2, McCormick Place) who want to build on the SIIM Hackathon server's FHIR and DICOMweb data with an AI coding agent such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot or Amazon's agent tools.

It takes about five minutes: get a key, store it safely, drop one instruction file into your project, and your agent knows how to use the server.

1. Get an event API key

Read the SIIM Hackathon API Platform Participant Agreement, then request a key with the SIIM API key request form. You sign the agreement in the form by typing your full name. You will receive a personal key by email. Event keys:

start with siimrsna_
belong to one person; each teammate who runs an agent should request their own
stop working on Dec 2, 2026 at 6:00 PM US Central

2. Store the key in a `.env` file, never in code

In the root of your project, create a file named .env:

SIIM_API_KEY=siimrsna_your_key_here

Then make sure git ignores it:

echo ".env" >> .gitignore

Load it in Python with python-dotenv (from dotenv import load_dotenv; load_dotenv()), or in Node with dotenv. Most agents also read .env files directly.

Assume any key that reaches GitHub is public within minutes. If yours leaks, ask in #ask-the-mentors and we will revoke it and issue a new one.

3. Give your agent the SIIM instructions

Download one of these files into your project. Both hold the same content: endpoints, the apikey header, limits, status codes, the daily reset, and a Python client that retries correctly.

Agent	File	Where it goes in your project
Claude Code	SKILL.md	`.claude/skills/siim-hackathon-api/SKILL.md`
GitHub Copilot (VS Code, JetBrains, github.com)	AGENTS.md	`.github/copilot-instructions.md` (append to it if you already have one)
OpenAI Codex and other agents that read `AGENTS.md`	AGENTS.md	`AGENTS.md` in the project root (append to it if you already have one)
Kiro	AGENTS.md	`.kiro/steering/siim-api.md`
Any other agent	Either file	Paste it into the agent's project instructions or first prompt

From a terminal in your project root:

# Claude Code
mkdir -p .claude/skills/siim-hackathon-api
curl -o .claude/skills/siim-hackathon-api/SKILL.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ImagingInformatics/hackathon-docs/main/agents/SKILL.md

# GitHub Copilot
mkdir -p .github
curl -o .github/copilot-instructions.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ImagingInformatics/hackathon-docs/main/agents/AGENTS.md

# Codex and others
curl -o AGENTS.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ImagingInformatics/hackathon-docs/main/agents/AGENTS.md

# Kiro
mkdir -p .kiro/steering
curl -o .kiro/steering/siim-api.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ImagingInformatics/hackathon-docs/main/agents/AGENTS.md

If a file with that name already exists in your project, download to a temporary name and paste its contents at the end of your existing file instead of overwriting it.

4. Limits

The server is shared by every team at the event, so each key is rate limited. These limits take effect before the event starts (Nov 29, 2026).

Limit	Value
Requests per key	15 per second, short bursts up to 40
FHIR upload size	10 MB per request
DICOMweb (STOW) upload size	100 MB per request

If your agent gets 429 Too Many Requests, it is going too fast: it should wait the number of seconds in the Retry-After header and try again. The instruction files tell it to do this.

5. Things to know

The server resets every day at 3:00 AM US Eastern and is down for up to 10 minutes. Anything you uploaded is deleted, so keep your source data in your project and re-upload it after a reset.
All data on the server is synthetic or de-identified. Never upload real patient data.
Please don't run security scans or load tests against the server, including with the event's scanning tools. They slow it down for every team. Scan your own code instead.
Endpoint details and example queries: Hackathon Server, FHIR guide, DICOMweb guide.

Help

Ask in the event Slack channel #ask-the-mentors, or see the support contact at the bottom of every page.