---
id: ch4-code-camps
type: spine
title: "Building on JackDaw: webinars, Code Camp and extension points"
readingTime: 2
standalone: true
core: false
teaser: "JackDaw is meant to be extended by others. Here is where developers learn how, and which doors D4.2 leaves open."
voice: explorer
parent: null
diagram: null
recallQ: "Where can developers learn to build on JackDaw, and which extension points does D4.2 document?"
recallA: "Through the JackDaw webinar recordings (November–December 2025) and the JackDaw Code Camp 2026 announced on the project website. D4.2 documents MCP tool servers, YAML/Markdown skill playbooks and dataset publication through Raven as the ways to extend it."
highlights:
  - "JackDaw webinar series, November–December 2025: recordings on the Education videos page"
  - "JackDaw Code Camp 2026: announced on the website, registration closed 6 January 2026"
  - "Three extension points in D4.2: MCP servers, skills, Raven datasets"
status: accepted
concept: jackdaw
lang: en
lens: generic
depth: standard
formalism: none
visuality: text-first
lengthBand: standard
genre: explainer
state: edited
carriers: prose
---

JackDaw is designed so that people outside the core team can add data and tools without changing the core application. Two public formats teach how.

**The JackDaw webinar series** ran from November to December 2025. Its recordings are published on the project's *Education videos* page.

**The PoliRuralPlus JackDaw Code Camp 2026** was announced on the project website, with registration open until 6 January 2026. The announcement gives the details; this book does not repeat dates or venues that the public pages do not confirm.

## Three ways in, as D4.2 documents them

- **MCP tool servers.** Administrators register Model Context Protocol servers at startup; users can connect their own at runtime. Tools are namespaced by server and automatically receive the user's map area, so a regional service can join a geospatial workflow.
- **Skills.** Playbooks written in YAML and Markdown give the agent preferred tools, recommended steps and anti-patterns for a recognised task. Expert procedure is written down instead of hard-coded.
- **Raven datasets.** A data provider uploads a vector dataset, describes its title, tags, temporal coverage and every column, and publishes it. From then on JackDaw's catalogue tool and GeoRAG search can find it.

The **Enhance** open call funded seven projects to improve PoliRural+ tools or add complementary ones (listed in D6.3). For outside developers, this was the funded route into the same ecosystem.

**Sources:**
- PoliRuralPlus website, News: PoliRuralPlus JackDaw Code Camp 2026 — [poliruralplus.eu/news/…](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/news/poliruralplus-jackdaw-code-camp-2026/)
- PoliRuralPlus website, Knowledge transfer → Education videos (JackDaw webinar series) — [poliruralplus.eu/knowledge-transfer/…](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/knowledge-transfer/education-videos/)
- D4.2 PoliRuralPlus platform Beta, §3.3.1 Extensibility via Model Context Protocol; Routing and Skill System; §3.3.3 Raven — [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/421/D4.2_PoliRuralPlus_Platform_Beta.pdf)
- D6.3 Comprehensive Report on Funded Activities and Impact Assessment — [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/437/D6.3_Comprehensive_report.pdf)