From 1219b734922560c70fa22157be8ded939f0f1569 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jared Vititoe <jjvititoe1@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:21:30 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Use NYT Wordle API for daily word instead of local list

Fetches today's word from https://www.nytimes.com/svc/wordle/v2/YYYY-MM-DD.json
so puzzle numbers and solutions match the official NYT Wordle. Results are
cached per day; falls back to the local answer list if the API is unreachable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 wordle.py | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/wordle.py b/wordle.py
index cccf4fa..b95a0b2 100644
--- a/wordle.py
+++ b/wordle.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ from dataclasses import dataclass, field
 from datetime import date
 from pathlib import Path
 
+import aiohttp
 from nio import AsyncClient
 
 from utils import send_text, send_html, get_or_create_dm
@@ -27,6 +28,9 @@ logger = logging.getLogger("matrixbot")
 
 _WORDLE_EPOCH = date(2021, 6, 19)
 
+# Cache: date string -> (word, puzzle_number)
+_nyt_cache: dict[str, tuple[str, int]] = {}
+
 # Build lookup sets at import time
 _ANSWER_LIST = [w.upper() for w in ANSWERS]
 _VALID_SET = frozenset(w.upper() for w in VALID_GUESSES) | frozenset(_ANSWER_LIST)
@@ -152,9 +156,36 @@ def _record_game_result(player_id: str, game: WordleGame):
 # Core algorithms
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-def get_daily_word() -> tuple[str, int]:
-    """Return (word, puzzle_number) for today's daily puzzle."""
+async def get_daily_word() -> tuple[str, int]:
+    """Return (word, puzzle_number) for today's daily puzzle.
+
+    Fetches from the NYT Wordle API. Falls back to the local word list
+    if the request fails.
+    """
     today = date.today()
+    date_str = today.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
+
+    if date_str in _nyt_cache:
+        return _nyt_cache[date_str]
+
+    try:
+        url = f"https://www.nytimes.com/svc/wordle/v2/{date_str}.json"
+        timeout = aiohttp.ClientTimeout(total=5)
+        async with aiohttp.ClientSession(timeout=timeout) as session:
+            async with session.get(url) as resp:
+                if resp.status == 200:
+                    data = await resp.json(content_type=None)
+                    word = data["solution"].upper()
+                    puzzle_number = int(data["id"])
+                    _nyt_cache[date_str] = (word, puzzle_number)
+                    logger.info("NYT Wordle #%d: %s", puzzle_number, word)
+                    return word, puzzle_number
+                else:
+                    logger.warning("NYT Wordle API returned %d, falling back to local list", resp.status)
+    except Exception as e:
+        logger.warning("Failed to fetch NYT Wordle word: %s — falling back to local list", e)
+
+    # Fallback: use local answer list
     puzzle_number = (today - _WORDLE_EPOCH).days
     word = _ANSWER_LIST[puzzle_number % len(_ANSWER_LIST)]
     return word, puzzle_number
@@ -455,7 +486,7 @@ async def wordle_start_or_status(client: AsyncClient, room_id: str, sender: str,
             return
 
     # Check if already completed today's puzzle
-    word, puzzle_number = get_daily_word()
+    word, puzzle_number = await get_daily_word()
     stats = _get_player_stats(sender)
 
     if stats["last_daily"] == puzzle_number: