ConnectionsFrame

What is ConnectionsFrame?

ConnectionsFrame is a browser-based thinking tool to help you reason through the daily NYT Connections puzzle before committing to an answer. The puzzle gives you 16 words and asks you to sort them into four groups of four, each sharing a hidden connection.

How it works

1. Enter the 16 words — type them into the grid one by one, paste a delimited list (comma, semicolon, pipe, or any other separator) into any box, or paste one word per line into the text area.
2. Move to the Workbench once all 16 are filled. The left panel shows all 16 words as draggable tiles; the right panel has four empty group slots.
3. Drag tiles from the left into a group on the right to test a potential connection. Drag them back, or between groups, as your thinking evolves.
4. Name each group using the text field — write your hypothesis for what the connection is.
5. Predict the difficulty colour. NYT rates groups from easiest to hardest: Yellow Green Blue Purple. Groups animate into colour order (Purple at top) as you assign them.
6. Double-click any tile in a group to instantly return it to the word pool.
7. You can return to Today's Words at any time to fix a typo — changes sync live to the workbench tiles.

Privacy

ConnectionsFrame stores everything in your browser's localStorage — nothing is sent to any server. Multiple people can use the same deployed site simultaneously without seeing or interfering with each other's thinking. Your session persists across page refreshes until you click Start Over.

Tips

• Start with the groups you're most confident about and move those tiles first.
• Use the group name field to capture your reasoning, not just the label.
• Colour-coding your confidence can help reveal where you're uncertain.
• You can drag tiles directly between right-hand groups without going back to the pool.