WendAnswerToday

WendAnswerToday is a Next.js App Router site for publishing daily LinkedIn Wend answer pages, solver pages, a verified/filterable archive, archive statistics, and SEO-friendly supporting pages.

Quick Start

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://127.0.0.1:3000.

Deployment

• Production: https://wendanswertoday.org
• Source repository: https://github.com/leontinasilva493-glitch/wendanswer
• Release branch: main
• Current hosting during migration: the custom domain is fronted by Cloudflare, while the Next.js application remains served by Vercel until the Workers cutover is verified.
• Target hosting: GitHub main -> Cloudflare Workers Builds -> OpenNext Worker wendanswer, with ISR stored in R2 bucket wendanswer-next-cache and time-based revalidation coordinated by a Durable Object queue.
• The expected Worker entrypoint is .open-next/worker.js; static assets are emitted to .open-next/assets.
• A push, local build, or uploaded Worker version is not production proof. Verify the exact commit on workers.dev before attaching the custom domain, then verify the production domain, sitemap, status endpoint, redirects, canonical URLs, and response headers.
• See Cloudflare Workers Deployment Runbook for the account-side setup and cutover gates.

Useful Commands

npm run generate:wend
npm run latest:wend
npm run publish:wend
npm run backfill:wend-history -- --numbers=1,2,3 --dry-run
npm run test:wend-dataset
npm run test:latest-date
npm run test:wend-archive-url
npm run test:wend-archive-filter
npm run test:wend-statistics
npm run test:wend-statistics-page
npm run test:wend-mvp
npm run test:wend-publish
npm run test:seo-metadata
npm run test:seo-routes
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npm run test:cloudflare-opennext
npm run preview
npm run deploy
npm run upload
npm run cf-typegen
npm run smoke:local

Documentation

• Daily Update Runbook: how to add daily puzzle data, update imports, and verify the local site.
• SEO Runbook: TDK rules, index strategy, OG image behavior, and sitemap priorities.
• Cloudflare Workers Deployment Runbook: Git build settings, R2/runtime bindings, workers.dev checks, custom-domain cutover, and rollback.
• Changelog: feature and operational changes that affect launch, SEO, data freshness, or troubleshooting.

Homepage Structure

The MVP homepage is intentionally Wend-first and answer-first:

• The desktop header includes Today, Solver, Archive, Statistics, and a compact Play Game dropdown.
• The Play Game dropdown links to Official Wend and the internal /wend-unlimited practice page; /wend-unlimited stays noindex,follow until it becomes a true unlimited generator.
• Mobile bottom navigation stays limited to Today, Solver, and Archive.
• The footer stays limited to Contact, Press, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, and Terms.
• /press lists trusted external links, including Ko-fi updates, Linktree, and the public GitHub repository.
• FAQ remains available through page FAQ blocks and contextual links instead of the primary navigation.
• /wend-unlimited uses verified Wend puzzles as a practice set with Previous / Next navigation, current puzzle position, difficulty, and letter-count metadata.
• Centered hero with Get Today's Answer and Start with a Hint anchor CTAs.
• Full-width Today's LinkedIn Wend Answer card immediately after the hero.
• Left side of the answer card renders the Wend grid; right side handles Reveal all, Clear all, and row-level Get Word.
• Supporting sections follow the answer card: spoiler-safe hints, step-by-step explanation, FAQ, solving notes, and recent Wend answers.
• Do not add a separate right-side plan, snapshot, or fake preview card to the hero. If extra daily metadata is needed, keep it inside the real answer card.

Daily Publishing

Wend resets at midnight in America/Los_Angeles; the UTC hour changes with daylight saving time. The production goal is to publish verified daily data inside five minutes:

• npm run publish:wend reads WEND_DAILY_INPUT_FILE, WEND_DAILY_SOURCE_URL, or the public WEND_DAILY_FALLBACK_SOURCE_URL, validates the normalized Wend JSON or HTML cell-coordinate extraction, writes data/puzzles/wend/YYYY-MM-DD.json, regenerates the puzzle index, and optionally runs WEND_DEPLOY_COMMAND.
• .github/workflows/publish-wend-daily.yml runs four off-peak retries in both the 07:00 and 08:00 UTC windows (7,22,37,52) to cover PDT and PST, and also supports manual workflow_dispatch.
• The script refuses to publish isVerified: false data unless ALLOW_UNVERIFIED_WEND_PUBLISH=true is explicitly set for private dry runs.
• The script validates Wend geometry before publishing: coordinates must be in-grid, adjacent, and spell each answer word.
• In CI, WEND_PERSIST_TO_GIT=true commits generated daily JSON and the generated puzzle index back to the repository before deployment.
• OPS_ALERT_WEBHOOK_URL is the preferred Discord-compatible alert channel; WEND_ALERT_WEBHOOK_URL remains a legacy fallback.
• / is the only indexable daily entry. /linkedin-wend-answer-today is a permanent 301 compatibility redirect to /.
• Archive pages use /wend-answer-puzzle-{number}-{month-day-year}, for example /wend-answer-puzzle-17-june-25-2026.

The source URL can be a normalized, verified Wend JSON source, a page with a wend-puzzle-data JSON script tag, or an HTML page whose puzzle cells expose data-row, data-col, data-word-index, and data-letter-index attributes. Do not assume LinkedIn's official game page is crawlable without a logged-in session; test that separately before treating official scraping as the primary path.

Historical Archive Backfill

The verified archive is checked for continuous coverage from Wend #1 through the latest stored puzzle; production reached Wend #50 on July 28, 2026 without missing puzzle numbers. Historical records are reproducible rather than manually transcribed:

• scripts/backfill-wend-history.mjs extracts complete grids and ordered paths from the archived primary source.
• A secondary source must match the date, puzzle number, and normalized answer words before preparePublicPuzzle() marks the record verified.
• validateWendPuzzle() then proves that paths are orthogonal, spell the answers, never reuse cells, and cover every open cell exactly once.
• npm run test:wend-dataset validates every stored record, checks unique dates/numbers and filename/date agreement, and verifies provenance hashes.
• The command requires an explicit --numbers= allowlist. Always run --dry-run before writing files, then regenerate the puzzle index.

The public /linkedin-wend-archive page keeps every verified answer link in the initial server-rendered HTML, then adds local browser filters for puzzle number/date/answer word, month, difficulty, and grid size. Filters do not create query-string index pages. The page also derives its verified-count, first/latest puzzle coverage, missing-number notice, and monthly totals directly from wendPuzzles.

The public /linkedin-wend-statistics page is generated from the same verified dataset. It reports archive coverage, answer totals, average board/path metrics, grid-size and monthly distributions, the longest stored answer, and the most winding puzzle. Calculated metrics stay separate from the editorial difficulty label, and the methodology is visible on the page.

Recent Changes

• 2026-08-06: prepared the repository for direct Cloudflare Workers deployment with OpenNext, a unified wendanswer Worker/service name, R2 incremental cache, Durable Object revalidation queue, deployment scripts, and a configuration contract test. Production remains on the existing origin until the manual workers.dev and custom-domain gates pass.
• 2026-07-28: added the indexable LinkedIn Wend Statistics page with verified aggregate metrics, transparent methodology, sitemap coverage, and Header/Archive/related-resource links.
• 2026-07-28: upgraded the complete LinkedIn Wend archive with local search and month/difficulty/grid-size filters, generated coverage summaries, reset/empty states, and server-visible answer links.
• 2026-07-28: completed and repaired the verified Wend #1-#49 archive, added a reproducible historical backfill command, and added full-dataset validation.
• 2026-07-28: added puzzle-derived facts and distinct Meta Descriptions to every permanent answer page; the automated Wend #50 publish inherited them without manual page work.
• 2026-07-28: deployed the canonical daily-page consolidation; /linkedin-wend-answer-today now redirects permanently to / and is absent from the sitemap.
• 2026-07-28: completed the P0-P1 rollout through PRs #43, #45, #46, #47, and #48; Vercel checks and production route/sitemap verification passed after each release.
• Detailed operational history remains in docs/CHANGELOG.md.

Wend Board Model

Wend pages should mirror LinkedIn's real board, not placeholder examples:

• Use the actual LinkedIn grid dimensions for that day. Recent captured boards include June 25's 6x6 board and June 26's 7x7 board.
• Represent blocked gray wall cells as null in grid.
• Keep open letter cells as one-letter strings.
• Do not publish answer words or paths unless they are verified against the official puzzle.
• A verified solution must use every open cell exactly once, never pass through null cells, and connect letters orthogonally.

Documentation Rule

Any functional change should update Markdown documentation in the same pass when it affects one of these areas:

• Daily puzzle data, import paths, archive routes, or sitemap entries.
• Dependency version pins or package-lock changes.
• SEO metadata, canonical URLs, redirects, robots, sitemap, or social sharing previews.
• Analytics, event tracking, launch checks, smoke tests, or build scripts.
• User-facing game pages, solver behavior, archive behavior, or error pages.

For small code-only fixes, add one short entry to docs/CHANGELOG.md. For changes that alter the daily workflow, also update docs/DAILY_UPDATE_RUNBOOK.md.