kenken.gg

The laziest KenKen solver online!

About this repository

Contains two applications:

1. web: A React SPA built with Vite. The KenKen solver runs entirely in the browser in a Web Worker, so puzzles are solved without a network call. Deployed to Netlify as a static site.
2. api: The original Scala KenKen solver, deployed as an API using the Serverless framework. It is kept for reference and parity testing while the client-side solver ships; it is no longer called by the web app.

Development

Everything the web app needs is in web/; there is no backend to run.

cd web
npm install        # or: npm ci, for an exact lockfile install
npm run dev        # http://localhost:5173, with hot reload

Tests and the type checker:

cd web
npm test           # vitest: solver unit tests + parity against the Scala solver
npm run typecheck  # tsc --noEmit

The parity fixtures in web/src/solver/__fixtures__/ are recorded output from the Scala solver, and web/src/solver/README.md documents where they came from. They are what keeps the TypeScript port honest, so a parity failure is a real regression rather than a fixture that needs refreshing.

Build

cd web
npm run build      # static files land in web/dist/
npm run preview    # serve web/dist/ locally at http://localhost:4173

The build is fully static: web/dist/ can be served by any file server.

Deploy

Hosting is Netlify, configured by netlify.toml at the repo root. The repo is the source of truth for the build — change netlify.toml, not the Netlify UI.

• Production: every push to master builds and publishes to https://kenken-gg.netlify.app.
• Deploy previews: every pull request gets its own preview URL, posted as a check on the PR. Use them to look at a change without merging it.
• Build: npm ci && npm run build inside web/, publishing web/dist, on Node 20.

To reproduce a Netlify build by hand, run exactly that: cd web && npm ci && npm run build. Better still, run netlify build, which reads netlify.toml and executes the same command in the same directory Netlify would. A build that passes locally but fails on Netlify is almost always a Node version difference — netlify.toml pins NODE_VERSION to the same major as .github/workflows/test.yaml, so keep those two in step and check them first.

netlify build resolves the git root, so run it from a normal checkout rather than from a git worktree whose sibling checkout may be on a different commit.

Rolling back

Netlify keeps every deploy. To roll back, open the site's Deploys page in the Netlify UI and publish the last good one; it takes effect immediately and needs no commit. To move forward again, push to master (or press Trigger deploy on the latest deploy).

The git-level alternative is a git revert of the offending commit on master, which triggers a fresh production deploy of the reverted tree. Prefer the Deploys page when the site is broken right now: it is faster and it does not put a revert commit in the history of a revert.

Domain

kenken.gg is the site's custom domain. It is registered with Gandi, and DNS has to delegate it to Netlify for the domain to serve this site.

The Netlify site is always reachable at https://kenken-gg.netlify.app, which needs no DNS work at all, so that URL is the fallback whenever the domain is misbehaving. Custom domains and their certificates are listed under the site's Domain management in the Netlify UI; HTTPS certificates are issued by Netlify and renew automatically once DNS points at the site.

Reporting issues

If you find something that isn't working as you might expect, please open a GitHub issue.

Legal notice

• KenKen is a trademark of Nextoy LLC. Neither boxysean nor kenken.gg claims no ownership over the KenKen trademark.
• kenken.gg is unaffiliated with Nextoy LLC and is not endorsed by Nextoy LLC.
• kenken.gg is a free service and does not generate revenue.