CrosswordChat

Solve the New York Times crossword conversationally: a Chrome extension that reads clues aloud ("17 Across. Little house. The word 'house' is in italics. 6 letters."), listens to your answer, checks it against the grid — homophones, lengths, crossing letters and all — types it in, and moves on. Click the speech-bubble button next to the pencil in the puzzle toolbar (or the extension icon) to start; click again to stop; solve the puzzle to hear "Hooray."

The three feasibility questions, answered

Full analysis in dev/docs/FEASIBILITY.md:

1. Fully client-side? Yes — no server, no API keys, nothing to deploy. One asterisk: Chrome's default speech recognition runs on Google's servers (part of the browser, not ours); recent Chrome can do it on-device. Enforced by an architecture test (no network primitives in source).
2. Speech APIs available to extensions? Yes, both directions: webkitSpeechRecognition (with an n-best list we exploit for homophones) and chrome.tts/speechSynthesis. Recognition needs a document context, which is why the conversation lives in the puzzle page itself (content script) — the extension is speech-only, its one visual control being the start/stop button it places in the puzzle toolbar. Speaking goes through the service worker's chrome.tts.
3. Can we type into the NYT grid? Yes via simulated click+keydown per cell, verified by re-reading the DOM. One real risk (isTrusted filtering) with three documented fallbacks — validated early by manual test MT-02.

Repository map

Path	What it is
dev/docs/REQUIREMENTS.md	Source of truth. ~80 testable requirements with case analyses; every Active one is enforced to have a test (see below).
dev/docs/FEASIBILITY.md	Client-side validation, speech API availability, grid-writing strategies + fallbacks.
dev/docs/ARCHITECTURE.md	Module map, runtime topology, data contracts, decision log.
dev/docs/MANUAL-TESTS.md	MT-01…MT-31: minutes-long scripts for everything a browser can't fake (live page, mic, audio).
extension/src/page-adapter/	The only code that knows the NYT DOM (read grid/clues, type answers, watch changes, self-diagnosing probe).
extension/src/puzzle-model/	Pure crossword semantics: numbering, crossings, patterns, full-vs-solved.
extension/src/matching/	Pure speech-to-answer matching: normalization, digits→words, homophone dictionary, length/collision verdicts, command lexicon.
extension/src/conversation/	Pure dialog policy: state machine, next-clue strategies, all English strings + clue verbalizer.
extension/src/speech/	TTS/STT wrappers over browser APIs, injectable for tests.
extension/src/{app,background,content}/	Wiring: orchestrator, icon toggle, in-page session host, TTS relay.
extension-test/fixtures/fake-nyt/	A faithful miniature of the NYT crossword page (same classes, same keyboard model) — integration-test target and offline demo stage.
tools/trace.mjs	Requirements-coverage enforcer (npm run trace).
dev/build/release/store_artifacts/	Chrome Web Store assets: PRIVACY.md (the public privacy policy, published at missingbulb.github.io/CrosswordChat/privacy/), screenshots and promo tiles (regenerate: node dev/build/make-store-assets.mjs).
.github/workflows/	Test (every push) + the single Release stub — its three jobs (create-package, publish, daily) call the Claudinite canon reusable workflows, which own the logic, versioning, store upload, privacy-page deploy, and failure reporting.

Executable requirements — how verification works

Every requirement has an ID (REQ-ANS-008). Tests carry the IDs of the requirements they prove; manual tests declare Covers: lines. The trace tool fails the build if an Active requirement has no coverage or if anything references a phantom ID.

npm install
npm test          # 100+ automated assertions, REQ IDs in every title
npm run trace     # requirement ↔ test coverage matrix (fails on gaps)
npm run verify    # both

Install

Install from the Chrome Web Store →

Or load the latest development build:

1. Download the latest release zip and extract it — it unpacks to a folder with manifest.json at its top. (Or build it yourself: npm run build → dist/, loadable directly.)
2. Open chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode (top right), click Load unpacked, and select that folder (Chrome ≥ 116).

Open a NYT crossword (the free Mini works), click the CrosswordChat icon, allow the microphone, and talk: an answer, pass, repeat, hint, spell, help, goodbye.

No NYT subscription handy? Rehearse offline against the fake page:

npm run build:dev   # dev build that also matches localhost
npm run fixture     # serves the fake crossword at http://localhost:8787

Releasing

The version users see is extension/manifest.json's version. Merging a version bump to main cuts GitHub Release vX.Y.Z with crossword-chat.zip attached, and the daily auto-release ships shipped-file changes to the Chrome Web Store on its own (patch-bumping as needed).

Status & next steps

Scaffolding with all pure logic implemented and tested offline. Before building further, run MT-01 (selector probe) and MT-02 (injection spike) from dev/docs/MANUAL-TESTS.md on the live site — they validate the only real unknowns (NYT's current markup and untrusted-event handling) in under five minutes.