PuzzleTide Word Search
Generate word search puzzles with the local PuzzleTide CLI.
Never hand-write a word search grid. Language models reliably produce
grids where words are misaligned, broken, or missing entirely. The CLI places
every word deterministically and is property-tested: every word in the list
is guaranteed to be findable in the grid.
Prefer the local CLI. Check availability in this order:
ptide --version
puzzletide --version
npx puzzletide --version
If none of those work, ask the user before installing (npm install -g puzzletide).
Generate from a custom word list
ptide wordsearch generate --words "coral,shark,kelp,wave,tide"
Generate from a bundled themed word bank
ptide words themes --search dinosaur # find a theme id
ptide wordsearch generate --theme animals/dinosaurs --count 12
Printable worksheet (PDF with solution page) or SVG
ptide wordsearch generate --theme animals/ocean-animals --pdf ocean.pdf
ptide wordsearch generate --words "..." --svg puzzle.svg --title "Ocean Fun"
Useful options
--difficulty easy|medium|hard — easy is forward-only (great for kids), hard uses all 8 directions including backwards.--size <n> — square grid size (6-30); auto-computed if omitted.--seed <seed> — reproducible output; the seed is printed with every puzzle.--json — structured data (grid, word placements with coordinates) for apps and automation.
Canonical form for automation
ptide run puzzle.wordsearch.generate --theme space --json
Links
Safety
- Puzzles are generated locally; no account, API key, or network access.
- Do not install packages without asking the user first.
