# Crossword Generator (crossword.texs.org)

> A free web app that builds NYT-style crossword puzzles — draw or generate a grid, auto-fill it with real words in any of 29 languages, clue it from a large corpus (or with AI, for members), then publish to a public puzzle page that anyone can solve or embed. The same engine is open as a REST API (`https://crossword.texs.org/api/v1`), a TypeScript client, an `xword` CLI and an MCP server.

Puzzles are square grids, 3–23 cells a side, in the public format `["..#..", ".....", …]` (`.` empty, `#` black, a letter is fixed). Filling is a CSP solver with a 0–100 word-quality score; 40 is the "no junk" floor. Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Czech, Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Croatian, Catalan, Greek, Bulgarian, Finnish, Hungarian, Galician. Chinese, Japanese and Korean grids are built whole by `POST /fill/build` instead; Arabic and Hebrew render right-to-left. Accounts are free (13×13 grids); members get 23×23 and a monthly AI-clue allowance. Everything the API can do, the web app can do, and vice versa.

## API and tooling

- [Developer guide and endpoint reference](https://crossword.texs.org/crossword-api.md): rules (credit, no impersonation, showcase, content), quickstart, a skeleton-to-published-puzzle walkthrough with real responses, grid encoding, limits, SSE streaming, every endpoint with parameters and examples, languages, and data licenses. Also served for `Accept: text/markdown` at https://crossword.texs.org/crossword-api.
- [Error codes](https://crossword.texs.org/crossword-api/errors.md): every `code` a problem document can carry, and whether retrying helps.
- [Everything above in one file](https://crossword.texs.org/llms-full.txt): the guide, reference and error codes concatenated.
- [OpenAPI 3.1 document](https://crossword.texs.org/api/v1/openapi.json): the contract the server enforces; generate a client from it. No key needed.
- [Service status](https://crossword.texs.org/api/v1/status): JSON; which language indexes are loaded right now. No key needed.
- [Language registry](https://crossword.texs.org/api/v1/languages): JSON; availability, direction, build-only (`crissCrossOnly`) and `.puz` exportability per language. No key needed.
- [xword on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/xword): TypeScript client (no runtime dependencies), the `xword` CLI, and an MCP server — `npx -y xword mcp`, or `claude mcp add crossword -- npx -y xword mcp`.
- [Get an API key](https://crossword.texs.org/dashboard?tab=api): free with any account, shown once, three scopes (read / solve / puzzles:write).

## Puzzles people can solve

- [Showcase](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase): published puzzles, filterable by `?lang=`, `?size=`, `?q=`; each has a public page at /puzzle/{id} and an embeddable frame at /embed/{id}.
- [Arabic crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/arabic): Free Arabic crossword puzzles (الكلمات المتقاطعة) to solve online or print with an answer key: right-to-left grids in Modern Standard Arabic, with notes on hamza, taa marbuta and why Arabic answers are short.
- [Bulgarian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/bulgarian): Free Bulgarian crossword puzzles (кръстословици) in the dense American style to solve online or print with an answer key, with notes on the vowel Ъ and the Bulgarian definite article.
- [Catalan crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/catalan): Free Catalan crossword puzzles (mots encreuats) in the dense American style to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid from a Catalan word list.
- [Chinese crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/chinese): Free Chinese crossword puzzles in Simplified characters, one hanzi per square, from 7×7 to 13×13 and full of four-character idioms. Solve online or print with an answer key.
- [Croatian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/croatian): Free Croatian crossword puzzles in standard Croatian, with Č, Ć, Đ, Š and Ž kept. Solve online or print with an answer key, and make your own with the generator.
- [Czech crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/czech): Free Czech crossword puzzles with every háček and čárka kept. Solve online or print with an answer key, and make your own with the generator.
- [Danish crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/danish): Free Danish crossword puzzles in the dense American style to solve online or print with an answer key, with Æ, Ø and Å in their own squares, plus a generator for making your own.
- [Dutch crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/dutch): Free Dutch crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid from a 520,000-word Dutch dictionary.
- [Finnish crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/finnish): Free Finnish crossword puzzles (ristikot) in the dense American style to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator for making your own Finnish grid.
- [French crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/french): Free French crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid from a French dictionary.
- [Galician crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/galician): Free Galician crossword puzzles (encrucillados) in the dense American style to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator for building your own Galician grid.
- [German crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/german): Free German crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid from a 450,000-word German dictionary.
- [Greek crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/greek): Free Greek crossword puzzles (σταυρόλεξα) in the dense American style to solve online or print with an answer key, with notes on typing Greek without accents.
- [Hebrew crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/hebrew): Free Hebrew crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own right-to-left grid from a 750,000-word Hebrew dictionary.
- [Hungarian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/hungarian): Free Hungarian crossword puzzles (keresztrejtvények) in the dense American style to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid in Hungarian.
- [Indonesian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/indonesian): Free Indonesian crossword puzzles (teka-teki silang) to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid from a 159,000-word Indonesian dictionary.
- [Italian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/italian): Free Italian crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator for building your own Italian grid.
- [Japanese crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/japanese): Free Japanese crossword puzzles in katakana, one kana per square, from 7×7 to 13×13. Solve online or print with an answer key, and read how Japanese grids follow the black-square rules.
- [Korean crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/korean): Free Korean crossword puzzles, one Hangul syllable per square, from 7×7 to 13×13. Solve online or print with an answer key, and read how Korean grids differ from Japanese and Chinese ones.
- [Norwegian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/norwegian): Free Norwegian (Bokmål) crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, with Æ, Ø and Å in their own squares, plus a generator for making your own.
- [Polish crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/polish): Free Polish crossword puzzles with Ą, Ę, Ł, Ż and the other marked letters in their own squares. Solve online or print with an answer key, and make your own with the generator.
- [Portuguese crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/portuguese): Free Portuguese crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator for building your own Portuguese grid.
- [Romanian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/romanian): Free Romanian crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator for building your own Romanian grid.
- [Russian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/russian): Free Russian crossword puzzles (кроссворды) to solve online or print with an answer key, with notes on Ё, the hard and soft signs, and how a кроссворд differs from a сканворд.
- [Spanish crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/spanish): Free Spanish crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid from a Spanish dictionary.
- [Swedish crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/swedish): Free Swedish crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, with Å, Ä and Ö in their own squares, plus a generator for making your own.
- [Turkish crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/turkish): Free Turkish crossword puzzles to solve online or print with an answer key, plus a generator that fills your own grid from a 1.2-million-word Turkish dictionary.
- [Ukrainian crosswords](https://crossword.texs.org/showcase/ukrainian): Free Ukrainian crossword puzzles (кросворди) to solve online or print with an answer key, with notes on the letters Ґ, Є, І and Ї, the apostrophe, and how Ukrainian differs from Russian in the grid.
- [Embedding a puzzle](https://crossword.texs.org/crossword-api.md#8-embed-it-anywhere): one iframe plus an optional script that sizes the frame, matches its light/dark appearance to the host page and reports progress/solved events.

## The constructor

- [Crossword Generator](https://crossword.texs.org/): the web app — grid editor with symmetry, pattern generator, autofill, clue suggestions, export to .puz / JSON / a self-contained HTML page, publish. Localized at /{locale}/ for 29 languages.
- [Dashboard](https://crossword.texs.org/dashboard): a signed-in user's drafts, published puzzles, author profile and API keys.

## Optional

- [Terms](https://crossword.texs.org/terms): ownership stays with the constructor; publishing grants display; dictionary licences.
- [Privacy](https://crossword.texs.org/privacy): what is stored and which providers see what.
- [Dictionary and clue attribution record](https://crossword.texs.org/api/clues/sources): JSON; per-edition source URL, licence and attribution for the licensed clue data.
- [texs.org](https://texs.org): the maker's other projects.