From a7fb8e57398cc70f2473f49a4eceffe93c0d143b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jay <thejayman77@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:34:44 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Daily Word: grow the hopeful answer pool + lock it with a
 validation test
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Per Codex. Pool grown 51/44 → 115/104 hopeful answers (5/6 letter) via the
agreed workflow: LLM proposes themed candidates → code filters to the bundled
guess dictionary (length/alpha/dedup) → human spot-check prunes tone-drift
("growl", "plain", "color"…). ~3.5-month runway before repeats per variant.

test_wordpool.py locks the invariant in CI: every answer must be lowercase
alpha, correct length, unique, and present in words-5/6.json — so no future
addition can become an unguessable puzzle.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 goodnews/data/wordpool.json | 134 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 tests/test_wordpool.py      |  20 ++++++
 2 files changed, 149 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 tests/test_wordpool.py

diff --git a/goodnews/data/wordpool.json b/goodnews/data/wordpool.json
index 69f7f74..5f6d5ca 100644
--- a/goodnews/data/wordpool.json
+++ b/goodnews/data/wordpool.json
@@ -1,101 +1,225 @@
 {
 "5": [
+"adore",
+"agile",
+"alive",
+"amaze",
 "ample",
-"amply",
+"angel",
+"arise",
+"aroma",
 "award",
+"aware",
+"beams",
+"bless",
 "bliss",
 "bloom",
+"blush",
 "bonus",
 "brave",
+"brisk",
 "charm",
 "cheer",
+"chime",
+"clean",
 "clear",
+"climb",
+"craft",
+"daisy",
+"dance",
+"dawns",
 "dream",
+"drift",
+"eager",
+"earth",
+"elate",
+"enjoy",
+"faith",
+"fancy",
 "favor",
+"feast",
 "fresh",
 "gifts",
+"glade",
+"gleam",
+"glide",
+"glory",
 "glows",
 "grace",
+"grand",
 "green",
+"grins",
 "happy",
 "heals",
 "heart",
 "honor",
 "hopes",
+"humor",
 "ideal",
+"jewel",
+"jolly",
+"laugh",
 "learn",
 "light",
 "lucky",
+"magic",
+"maple",
 "mends",
 "mercy",
+"merit",
 "merry",
+"mirth",
+"music",
 "noble",
+"oasis",
 "peace",
+"plant",
+"pluck",
+"poise",
+"pride",
 "prize",
+"proud",
 "quiet",
-"reach",
+"quilt",
 "ready",
 "relax",
 "renew",
+"river",
 "savor",
 "share",
 "shine",
 "smile",
+"space",
+"spark",
+"stars",
 "still",
 "sunny",
+"sweet",
+"swift",
 "teach",
 "thank",
 "treat",
 "trust",
 "truth",
+"tulip",
 "unity",
 "value",
-"vital"
+"vigor",
+"vital",
+"vivid",
+"water",
+"winds",
+"wings",
+"witty",
+"worth",
+"youth",
+"yummy",
+"zesty"
 ],
 "6": [
+"adored",
+"ascend",
+"aspire",
 "beauty",
 "bestow",
+"better",
+"bouncy",
+"breeze",
 "bright",
-"credit",
+"bubbly",
+"calmly",
+"caring",
+"cheery",
+"cherub",
+"chirpy",
+"clever",
+"dainty",
+"dazzle",
 "devote",
+"divine",
+"dreamy",
+"earthy",
 "esteem",
+"family",
+"flower",
+"fondly",
+"forest",
+"friend",
+"garden",
 "gather",
+"genial",
 "gentle",
 "giving",
+"glossy",
+"golden",
 "growth",
 "health",
+"heaven",
+"honest",
 "joyful",
+"joyous",
 "kindly",
+"laurel",
 "lively",
 "lovely",
+"loving",
 "mellow",
 "mended",
+"morale",
 "nature",
+"nestle",
+"nicely",
+"nuzzle",
+"please",
+"plenty",
 "praise",
+"pretty",
+"prized",
+"purify",
+"purity",
+"quaint",
 "reborn",
+"refine",
+"relish",
+"renews",
 "repair",
 "rescue",
 "revive",
 "reward",
+"savior",
+"savory",
 "secure",
 "serene",
+"settle",
 "simple",
 "smiled",
+"smooth",
 "soothe",
 "spirit",
+"spring",
+"sprout",
 "steady",
 "strong",
 "summit",
 "superb",
+"supple",
 "tender",
 "thanks",
 "thrive",
+"unfold",
 "united",
 "uplift",
 "valued",
+"velvet",
+"verity",
 "vision",
+"voyage",
+"warmly",
 "warmth",
+"willow",
 "wisdom",
-"wonder"
+"wonder",
+"zenith",
+"zephyr"
 ]
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/test_wordpool.py b/tests/test_wordpool.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be86c91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_wordpool.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+import json
+from pathlib import Path
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
+
+
+def test_wordpool_answers_are_valid_and_guessable():
+    """Every daily-word answer must be lowercase alpha, the right length, unique,
+    and present in the bundled guess dictionary — so no answer is ever unguessable.
+    Locks the 'code disposes' invariant against future pool additions."""
+    pool = json.loads((ROOT / "goodnews" / "data" / "wordpool.json").read_text())
+    for variant, n in (("5", 5), ("6", 6)):
+        dictwords = set(json.loads((ROOT / "frontend" / "static" / f"words-{n}.json").read_text()))
+        answers = pool[variant]
+        assert answers, f"{variant}-letter pool is empty"
+        assert len(answers) == len(set(answers)), f"{variant}-letter pool has duplicates"
+        for w in answers:
+            assert isinstance(w, str) and w.isalpha() and w.islower(), f"bad token: {w!r}"
+            assert len(w) == n, f"{w!r} is not {n} letters"
+            assert w in dictwords, f"{w!r} not in the guess dictionary → would be unguessable"