Two hardening fixes from Codex's audit:
- _pick_answer falls back to the curated baseline if the live pool is empty,
so an admin tombstoning every answer in a variant can't divide-by-zero the
daily picker. Test added (test_picker_survives_empty_live_pool). Chosen over
a minimum-count block: robust without refusing legitimate removals.
- Removal copy is now honest — "Removed from future puzzles (today's answer is
already set)" — since a tombstone doesn't rewrite today's generated
daily_puzzles row. Panel intro updated to match.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Daily Word pool curation, full add/delete/import — no redeploys to fix tone:
- Remove ANY pool word, curated or admin-added, via a word_pool_removed
tombstone table. Runtime pool = (static ∪ added) − removed, so even a
baked-in word can be pulled on negative feedback. Reversible: a "Removed"
list with one-tap Restore lifts the tombstone. Lookup now surfaces a Remove
button when in-pool, Restore when removed.
- Import a vetted list (paste or .txt/.csv upload, read client-side): validates
each word (alpha · 5–6 · in guess dictionary), ignores duplicates, and reports
rejects with reasons. Re-adding/importing a removed word lifts its tombstone.
- Word Search theme delete already existed (Edit/Remove per theme) — verified.
Pool stays the clean 251/224; today's noisy LLM enrichment is discarded.
Tests: +tests/test_pool_admin.py, extended test_word_pool_admin. 222 pytest +
11 vitest green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* New "Word Search themes" panel in the Games tab: enter a theme name + words,
with live validation (4–8 letters, alpha, deduped) and a count vs the 28 needed
to fill all three sizes. An "✨ Suggest a word" button asks the LLM for one
fresh word that fits the theme. Save/edit/remove; authored themes join the daily
fallback rotation alongside the curated ones (wordsearch_themes table). The
system still handles word distribution across sizes + placement.
* Daily Word pool's added-word chips now scroll within a bounded area so the
console stays tidy as the list grows.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
First games admin tool. A "Games" tab in the operator console for the Daily Word
answer pool.
* Lookup: is a word real (in the guess dictionary), the right length (5/6), and
already in the pool — instant as you type.
* Add: appends to the pool, enforcing the invariant (alpha · 5/6 letters · in the
guess dict) so the daily answer is always guessable. Remove: drops admin-added
words (curated static ones stay).
* Additions persist in a new word_pool table (survives redeploys, unlike the
baked-in JSON); the daily picker reads static pool ∪ DB additions. Guess dicts
shipped with the package (goodnews/data/words-5/6.json) for server-side
validation. Admin-gated endpoints + tests.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per field feedback.
* Each day is now THREE distinct puzzles: the three sizes draw DISJOINT word
slices from a date-shuffled pool (small/med/large = 6/9/13, sum 28 unique).
Curated fallback themes expanded to 30 words each; LLM proposals accepted only
if they supply >= 28 unique words, else fall back. No more repeats across sizes.
* Word Search is now a focused game screen on mobile (same as Daily Word): body
scroll locked + footer hidden (generalized .playing-game), and the grid sizes
to the largest square that fits between the theme and the palette (container
query) — the whole puzzle is on screen, no page scroll.
* Theme placement: full "Today's theme · <name>" on the size-selection screen;
just the theme name on the puzzle itself, saving vertical space for Large.
* cosy → cozy. 🇺🇸
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two reported bugs, same root cause: the fixed-cell grid overflowed its wrapper
on Large, so (a) the last column spilled past the border and (b) the pointer→cell
math drifted across the row, recording finds "off by a letter".
* Grid now uses 1fr columns with max-width = n·32px: the board grows with the
grid and can never overflow (shrinks to fit a narrow phone instead).
* cellAt() accounts for the grid padding/border, so selection is exact edge-to-edge.
* restore() now validates each saved find against the CURRENT grid and drops any
whose cells no longer spell the word — clears stale highlights if the day's
puzzle changed.
Codex follow-ups:
* _ws_propose now requires >= large.count + 4 valid words before accepting an LLM
proposal (else falls back to a curated theme), so a thin LLM result can't
underfill Large. Added a thin-LLM fallback test.
* Cleaned Svelte warnings: removed the now-unused .gamecard.soon CSS, added an
ARIA role/label to the grid, declared gridEl with $state. Build is warning-clean.
* Added a stale-load guard in WordSearchGame.load() so rapid size switches can't
let an older request overwrite the newer selection.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Playtesting fixes:
* Constant cell size (~32px) — the board GROWS with the grid instead of shrinking
letters into a fixed box. Fixes Small's oversized spacing; on a narrow phone the
largest grid gently scales to fit (the standard word-search compromise).
* Themes now gather ~28 words (LLM asked for 28; curated fallbacks ~22 each), and
each size samples its OWN subset — so every tier is a distinct puzzle. Large is
now reliably full (14 words on 14×14), fixing the "13 words / 11 listed" mismatch.
* Tiers: small 8×8/6, med 11×11/10, large 14×14/14.
* Word list is now a framed "Find these · n/total" palette panel (pill chips that
take on each found word's colour) instead of loose text under the grid.
* Size chips use qualitative labels (cosy / balanced / a longer sit) so no count
can ever contradict the actual puzzle.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
From playtesting findings:
* Pools nearly doubled (115/104 → 228/201) with calm/neutral everyday words
(claps, dance, drench, beach…), not just strictly-upbeat ones — more variety,
~7-month runway. The post-solve "why" prompt reworded to fit neutral words.
* Word Search now stores one theme + word list per day; the grid is built per
request for three SIZE tiers — Small (8×8, 6 words), Medium (11×11, 9),
Large (14×14, 13). Large packs more words = a longer sit ("too fast" fix).
All sizes share the day's theme; every size still code-placed + solvable.
* Word Search themes can now be neutral everyday scenes ("Around the house",
"At the beach", "In the kitchen", "A walk outdoors", "Making music"…), not
only hopeful — same shape as the articles.
* Each found word gets its own colour from a calm palette, in the grid and its
word-list chip. Per-size local progress + best time.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A calm second daily game, same philosophy as Daily Word — LLM proposes, code
disposes.
* LLM proposes a hopeful theme + ~8 words; code validates (alpha/length/dedup)
and PLACES every word in a date-seeded grid, so the puzzle is always solvable.
Curated fallback themes if the LLM is thin. Only placed words are returned;
the solution cells (placements) are never sent to the client.
* GET /api/puzzle/wordsearch → {theme, words, grid, size}. No answer to hide:
the grid and word list are meant to be seen — the play is finding them, which
the client validates by reading the selected line off the grid.
* WordSearchGame.svelte: pointer-drag selection snapped to the 8 straight
directions (mouse + touch), found-word highlighting, no-fail, no pressure
timer — time is recorded quietly and shown at the end with a personal best.
Spoiler-free share. localStorage progress (restores found cells + timer).
* Hub's Word Search card is now live with today's status; cycle pre-generates
both games with the LLM.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per Codex's v2 hardening. The GET /api/puzzle/word response no longer carries
the answer at all — guesses POST to /api/puzzle/word/guess and the server
returns the colour pattern, computed against the day's answer. The answer (and
the "why") are revealed only once solved or the guesses are spent. This removes
the "open DevTools, read the answer" issue without pretending to be a fortress
(a deliberate crafted request can still peek; there's no leaderboard or prize,
so that's fine). Client keeps local progress/stats; dict validation stays
client-side. Trade-off accepted: each guess needs the API (the site already
depends on it for today's content).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A calm /play space — "after the brief, a small thing to enjoy." Framework-ready
for more games (Word Search next; zen/coloring later).
* Daily Word (5 letters / 6 guesses) + Long Word (6 / 7) — same Wordle mechanic,
Upbeat Bytes flavor (no "Wordle" in the UI). Hopeful answers; after solving, a
one-line "why this word matters."
* LLM proposes, code disposes: answers are picked deterministically by date-seed
from a hand-curated hopeful pool that's pre-validated ⊆ the guess dictionary
(always typeable), avoiding recent repeats; the LLM only adds the optional
"why" (with fallback). daily_puzzles(date, game, variant, payload) stores them
so everyone gets the same daily; the cycle pre-generates with the "why".
* Bundled guess dictionaries (words-5/6.json, ~12.6k/22.4k) for client-side guess
validation — never the LLM. Answer lightly obfuscated (base64) in the payload.
* Private, gentle stats (played/solved/streak, guess distribution); spoiler-free
emoji-grid share. No leaderboard, no timer, no streak-loss drama.
* Play in the bottom nav (replacing Browse, still on the lane rail) + the header.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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