How it works
Every answer is checked before it goes up.
Here is exactly what happens to a puzzle between the game publishing it and you reading the first hint.
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01The evening before
At 23:30 UTC we fetch tomorrow's puzzle for every game that publishes its data ahead, such as the NYT games. The answer is checked and stored, but nothing goes on the site yet.
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02The answer
26 of the 30 games are checked against the game's own data (for example the New York Times' puzzle files for Wordle, Connections and Strands). When a game has that, it is the answer.
For games without it, two independent puzzle sites on different domains must give the same answer. If they disagree, or only one answers, nothing is published and the page says "checking".
Every answer then passes a publish gate: the source must be for the right date, the answer must have the right shape for that game (five letters for Wordle, four groups of four for Connections), and it cannot repeat yesterday's answer.
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03The hints
An AI model writes three hints for each verified answer, from a gentle nudge to a strong one, with prompts written for each kind of game. A hint that contains the answer is thrown away and written again. If the models are unavailable, simple rule-based hints (length, first letter) are used instead.
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04Going live
The new day goes up at 05:02 UTC, just after midnight in New York. Games that reset later get extra runs at 08:05 and 10:00 UTC. Each page shows the time its answer was checked.
Mistakes
If something slips through, we fix it the same day and log it on the corrections list. To report one, email hello@hintpulse.com with the game and the date.
What we don't do
No answer is shown until you ask for it. We don't guess when sources disagree. We don't copy other sites' hints: every hint is written for that day's puzzle. HintPulse is not affiliated with any game publisher.