How to use Pumpkin

A scoreboard for friend groups (2–4 players) who play Wordle and Connections. Track who's best each week and settle a friendly payout.

See it in action

The fastest way to understand the app is to look at one. Three demo groups are public — no sign-in needed:

Magical Mystery Word — tracks both games (Wordle + Connections), the full experience.
Across the Wordle — Wordle only, for groups that just want the one game.
Come Together — Connections only, the same idea on the other side.

Each one runs the same four fictional players for about two months of daily play. The scoreboard, the weekly payouts, the per-day grids, the Game Stats page — it's all real data, generated by playing the puzzles into the app exactly as your own group would. Tap any tile with a small chat-bubble badge to see the player's note for that day.

How it works

Pumpkin is a private leaderboard for 2–4 friends who already play the NYT daily puzzles. You create a Series (a group), invite up to three friends with a single link, and from then on the daily flow is identical to what you already do — except instead of texting screenshots into a group chat, everyone pastes their result into the app.

Each day, every player:

Plays Wordle and/or Connections in the official NYT Games app or website like they normally would.
Taps Share at the end of the puzzle and copies the result.
Pastes that share text into Pumpkin, optionally adding a quick comment for the group.

The app reads the share text, scores it automatically, and adds it to your group's running scoreboard. Everyone in the group can see everyone's daily grids and totals, plus a small chat-bubble badge on any tile where the player left a comment. Tap any tile to see the full grid and any note that came with it.

Scoring is lowest-is-best, the same as the daily puzzles themselves:

Wordle — your score for the day is the number of guesses you needed. Solve in 1 = 1 point; solve in 6 = 6 points; fail (X/6) = 7 points.
Connections — your score for the day is the number of mistakes you made. Zero mistakes = 0 points; failed = 4 points (capped).

If your group tracks both games, your daily total is Wordle + Connections combined, and your cycle total is the sum of your daily totals across every day in the cycle.

A cycle is your group's scoring period. The default is 7 days (a "week") running Sunday through Saturday, but the group owner can pick any length from 1 to 7 days and any anchor day when they set the group up. When the cycle ends, the lowest total wins.

How payouts are calculated

At the end of each cycle, every player who isn't the winner owes the winner:

base payout + (their score − winner's score) × per-point amount

The defaults are $20 base + $1 per point. So if the winner finished with 35 and you finished with 43, you'd owe $20 + (8 × $1) = $28 at default settings. The group owner can change either amount from Admin → Payout settings at any time — updates apply immediately to the current open cycle. Already-closed cycles stay locked at whatever amounts were in place when they finalized.

A few edge cases:

Ties. If two players tie for the lowest total, the cycle is a "push" and nobody pays for that cycle.
Incomplete cycles. If you miss a day and don't catch up within the 1-day grace window (more on that further down), you're excluded from that cycle's money — but your friends still pay each other normally.
No-money groups. Set the base and per-point amounts to $0 if your group just wants the leaderboard and the stats, no money math.

The app calculates the math; your group settles up however it normally does — see How money actually moves (it doesn't) for the longer answer.

Quick start

Open an invite link from a friend, or create your own group.
Check which games your group plays. The person who set up the group chose Wordle only, Connections only, or both. That's what shows up on the scoreboard and what you'll submit each day.
Each day, finish your puzzle(s) in the official NYT Games app or website.
Tap "Share" to copy the result.
Open Pumpkin, paste it into the box, and optionally add a quick note for the group — "lucky guess!", "brutal opener", whatever — then tap Save.
Repeat for the second game if your group plays both. Watch the scoreboard fill in for everyone.
At the end of each cycle, the system tallies the points and shows who owes who what.

That's it. The rest of this guide fills in the details.

About the games. Right now the app tracks Wordle and Connections — the two daily puzzles most groups play. The platform is built so other NYT games (Strands, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, the Mini Crossword) can be added later if there's interest. Want another game tracked? Mention it to the system owner.

How to play the games

Pumpkin is just a scoreboard — you play the actual puzzles wherever you normally play them. If you're new to either game (or just want a refresher), here's the gist.

Wordle

Play it: nytimes.com/games/wordle (free, no subscription required)

You have six guesses to figure out a hidden five-letter English word. After each guess, the tiles light up to tell you how close you are:

🟩 Green — that letter is in the word AND in that exact position.
🟨 Yellow — that letter is in the word, but in a different position.
⬛ Gray — that letter isn't in the word at all.

There's one new puzzle each day, the same one for everyone in the world, and it expires at midnight your local time. Fewer guesses = lower (better) score for the day.

Hard mode is an optional setting (gear icon → Settings) that forces every later guess to use every green and yellow letter you've revealed so far. It doesn't change scoring, but it shows up in the share text so your friends can see you were playing on Hard.

Tips for new players:

Open with a word full of common letters. STARE, CRANE, AUDIO, ADIEU, and SLATE are popular openers — the goal of guess #1 is information, not solving.
Use guess #2 to test new letters, not to repeat known ones. If your first guess revealed two greens, resist the urge to lock those in immediately; pick a word that tests four or five letters you haven't tried yet.
Never repeat a gray letter (unless you're using Hard mode and you have no other option). Every guess should give you something new.
When you have green letters but can't see the word, try a "consonant rake" — a guess made of brand-new consonants — to narrow it down faster than guessing whole-word candidates.
Watch for double letters like the L's in HELLO or the E's in GEESE. The yellow/green hints don't always make those obvious.

Connections

Play it: nytimes.com/games/connections (free, no subscription required)

You see a grid of 16 words and have to sort them into four groups of four, where each group shares a hidden theme. Themes range from straightforward (kinds of fruit) to wordplay-heavy (anagrams of countries, homophones of body parts, "things that can precede STAR," etc.).

You have four lives — every wrong guess costs you one. Use them all up and the puzzle ends with the remaining groups revealed automatically. Lower mistakes = lower (better) score.

After you correctly identify a group, the row recolors to show its difficulty:

🟡 Yellow — easiest, usually the most literal category.
🟢 Green — easy.
🔵 Blue — medium-hard.
🟣 Purple — hardest, almost always a wordplay twist.

Tips for new players:

Don't lock in the obvious group first. It's tempting, but the puzzle's red herrings are designed to make multiple words look like fits. Sketch out all four groups mentally first, then commit to your most confident.
Hunt for the wordplay angle early. If three groups feel clean and you're left with a bag of unrelated-looking words, that's the purple group — and there's almost always a pun, anagram, hidden word, or "X precedes/follows Y" trick connecting them.
Use the Shuffle button. It re-randomizes the grid layout. Words you didn't see a connection between sometimes jump out once they're sitting next to each other.
A word can fit two themes — that's the trap. If a word seems to fit two of your candidate groups, set it aside until you've nailed the other three; the answer will reveal itself.
One mistake away from losing? Stop. Walk away. Come back ten minutes later. The puzzle resets your perception and you'll spot something you missed.

Getting started

Creating an account

The first time you open Pumpkin, you'll need a free account.

Tap Create an account (or open a friend's invite link, which leads you to signup).
Enter your email and a password (at least 8 characters).
Confirm the password.
You're in.

Your email is the only thing the app uses to identify you. You'll log in with it on each new device, but on the same device you stay logged in for 30 days.

Joining a group ("Series")

If a friend already created a group, they'll send you an invite link:

https://thewordleseries.com/join/AB12CD34EF

Open it on your phone or computer. You'll see "You're invited to join [group name]." Sign in if you already have an account, or create one. Then pick a display name for that group — this is what your friends see on the scoreboard, and you can use a different name in each group you join.

Creating your own Series

To start your own group:

Sign in and go to My Series (or /series).
Tap Create new.
Name your group. (You can rename it later — the web address changes, but everyone in the group is moved over automatically.)
Choose which games to track: Wordle, Connections, or both. (You can drop a game later from Admin — closed-week data stays visible, but no new submissions for that game can be added. You can't add a game back, so if you might want both, pick both now.)
Choose how long each scoring cycle runs (1–7 days). The default is 7 days (a "week").
If you picked 7 days, choose which day of the week the cycle starts on. (Sunday is the default.)
Set the payout amounts. The base payout is a flat amount each loser owes the winner each cycle ($20 by default). The per-point amount is what each loser pays per point of difference from the winner ($1 by default). Set either to $0 if you want only the other to matter. You can change these later in Admin → Payout settings; updates take effect immediately on the current open cycle, while already-closed cycles stay locked at whatever amounts were in place when they finalized.
Pick your own display name for the group.
Tap Create.

You're now the owner. The app gives you an invite link to share with up to 3 friends.

Submitting a result

The flow is the same on every device:

Play the puzzle in the NYT Games app or website.
Tap the Share button at the end (NYT calls this "Share Your Results").
Copy the result.
Open Pumpkin, paste it into the box, and tap Save.

Step 3 varies by device, so here are the specifics.

On iPhone (iOS)

Easiest setup: install the NYT Games app from the App Store. (Free; the puzzles are free; no paid NYT subscription needed for Wordle, Connections, and a few other dailies.)

Open NYT Games and play your puzzle.
When you finish, the share screen appears. Tap Share Your Results (Wordle) or Share Results (Connections).
The iOS share sheet pops up. Tap Copy at the top-right (or in the row of icons).
Open Pumpkin in Safari (or your browser of choice).
Sign in if needed and go to today's scoreboard.
Tap inside the Wordle or Connections paste box.
Touch-and-hold for a second, then tap Paste.
Tap Save. Done.

If "Paste" doesn't appear, tap once outside the box and then long-press inside again. iOS sometimes hides the menu the first time.

Add to Home Screen (recommended): once you're signed in, tap the Safari share button → Add to Home Screen. Pumpkin will open like a regular app.

On Android

Same idea — the easiest setup is the NYT Games app from the Play Store.

Open NYT Games and play your puzzle.
Tap Share Your Results at the end.
Android's share sheet appears. Tap Copy to clipboard (sometimes just Copy).
Open Pumpkin in Chrome (or your preferred browser).
Go to today's scoreboard.
Long-press inside the Wordle or Connections paste box.
Tap Paste from the popup.
Tap Save.

If "Copy to clipboard" isn't in the share sheet, share to Gmail or Keep to yourself, then copy the text from that message.

Install as an app (recommended): in Chrome, tap the ⋮ menu → Install app (or Add to Home screen). Pumpkin gets its own icon and runs full-screen.

On a desktop or laptop computer

You can also play directly in the browser at nytimes.com/games.

Play Wordle or Connections.
Click Share at the bottom of the result.
Click Copy to clipboard.
Open Pumpkin in another tab.
Click into the Wordle or Connections paste box.
Press Ctrl + V (Windows) or Cmd + V (Mac).
Click Save.

Mix and match freely — play on your phone but paste from a desktop, or vice versa. The app doesn't care where the share text came from.

Adding a comment to your submission

After you paste a valid share, a small "Add a note for the group (optional)" box appears under the paste field. Drop in a quick reaction — "lucky guess!", "brutal opener", "yellow city today" — and tap Save. Notes are limited to 280 characters, so keep them short.

Comments show up in three places:

Push notifications — when your friends get the "Tim submitted a Wordle in Family Cup" alert, your comment is quoted right after it.
The puzzle popup — anyone in the group can tap your tile on the scoreboard to see the full grid; your comment appears underneath as a quoted italic line. Tiles that have a comment also get a small chat-bubble badge in the corner so you can spot them at a glance.
The end-of-cycle recap — notes left during the cycle are quoted under the Best Moments and collected in a dedicated Week in chatter section.

You don't have to add a comment — it's optional every time. If you want to update or remove a note after submitting, just re-paste the same share and either leave the comment field blank or type a new one.

One paste, every Series

If you're in more than one group, you only have to paste each day's puzzle once. The app automatically copies your submission (and comment) into every active group you're in — as long as that group tracks that game and is in its current cycle. So a Wordle paste in Family Cup also lands in your Office Showdown without you having to switch groups and paste again.

Reading the scoreboard

The main scoreboard shows your group's current week:

Each row is a player.
Each column is a day.
Each cell shows that player's total points for the day, plus a tiny version of the Wordle and Connections grids you'd see in the share.

Points work like this:

Wordle: 1 point if you solved it in 1 guess, 2 if you needed 2, and so on up to 6. A failed puzzle (X/6) is 7 points. Lower is better.
Connections: 0 points if you solved with no mistakes, 1 for one mistake, 2 for two, 3 for three, 4 if you failed. Lower is better.

Tap or click any tile to see the full puzzle grid in a popup. If a tile has a small chat-bubble badge in the corner, the player left a note — it'll appear under the grid in the popup.

Above the scoreboard, two banners:

Closed banner ("Last week: …") — the most recently completed cycle and what was paid out.
Live banner ("If the cycle ended now: …") — a running prediction. It sums everyone's submissions but doesn't apply the missing-day exclusion yet, so it's a preview, not a guarantee. The real payout comes at end-of-cycle.

At the bottom of the scoreboard, the paste boxes for today and yesterday. Use the day picker to switch between them. You can paste yesterday's puzzle until the cycle window closes (more on that below).

Cycles and payouts

By default, a cycle runs a week (Sunday through Saturday). When it ends, the app:

Adds up everyone's points for the cycle (Wordle + Connections combined).
Identifies the lowest total — that's the winner.
Computes how much each loser owes the winner.
Marks the cycle "closed" and shows it in Game Stats.

The payout for a single loser is:

base payout + (loser's score − winner's score) × per-point amount

The defaults are $20 base and $1 per point. Series owners can change these in Admin → Payout settings.

How money actually moves (it doesn't)

It doesn't. The app shows you what each loser would owe under your group's payout settings, but it never processes a payment, never connects to your bank, and never asks for a credit card. There's no Venmo integration, no Stripe, no fees. The whole money side is a voluntary, group-handshake arrangement — settle up however your friends already settle up (cash, Venmo, beer, a running tally, "next time I see you," whatever). If a group prefers to play purely for bragging rights, set the base payout and per-point amount to $0 in Admin and the math still works (winner is still tracked, payouts just read as $0).

Ties

If two players tie for the lowest score, the cycle is a push — nobody pays. Money math only happens when there's a clear single winner.

What if I miss a day?

You have a 1-day grace window. After midnight ET on a given day, you can still paste yesterday's puzzle the next morning. After that, the puzzle locks at max points (Wordle = 7, Connections = 4) and can't be changed.

If you miss any day in a cycle and don't catch up within the grace window, you're excluded from that cycle's money. Everyone else who completed every day still pays each other. Your missing day doesn't penalize your friends — it just means you're not in the running for that cycle.

Your skill stats, Wordle/Connections distributions, and head-to-head numbers still count every real puzzle you submitted, even from cycles you were excluded from. Only the money math sets you aside.

Forgot a day?

You missed yesterday's (or an earlier day's) puzzle and the 1-day grace window is closed. There are two ways to catch up — try the archive first if you have an NYT subscription.

Option 1: NYT Games archive (subscribers)

An active NYT Games or All Access subscription unlocks the puzzle archive — you can replay any past Wordle or Connections puzzle and the share text comes out exactly as if you'd played it that day.

On a desktop or laptop:

Go to nytimes.com/games and sign in to your subscriber account.
Open Wordle or Connections.
Look for the Archive link (it's usually a small calendar icon near the top of the puzzle page, sometimes labeled "Past puzzles").
Pick the date you missed.
Solve the puzzle.
Click Share → Copy to clipboard.
Open Pumpkin and paste it into the same game's box. The Series reads the puzzle date out of the share text, so it lands in the right day automatically — you don't have to switch tabs.

On iPhone or Android (NYT Games app):

Open the NYT Games app and sign in to your subscriber account.
Tap Wordle or Connections.
Tap Archive (Wordle shows a calendar; Connections shows a scrollable list of past dates). It's typically under the "More" or "⋯" menu, or accessible by scrolling past today's puzzle.
Tap the date you missed and play.
Tap Share → Copy and paste into Pumpkin.

Without a subscription, the archive pages prompt you to sign up. The current day's Wordle and Connections themselves remain free to play — only past puzzles are gated.

Option 2: The date trick (no subscription)

If you don't have a subscription, there's a free workaround: temporarily change your phone's date back to the day you missed, open NYT Games, play the puzzle, paste the result into Pumpkin, then change the date back.

This is confirmed to work on Android. On iPhone it's hit-or-miss — newer versions of the NYT Games app sometimes check the puzzle number against the server clock and serve today's puzzle anyway. Worth trying; if you see the wrong puzzle, the trick isn't working on your device.

Important: Set the date back to today (or re-enable "Set Automatically") immediately after you paste. Leaving the date wrong can affect alarms, calendar reminders, two-factor codes, and photo timestamps.

On Android:

Open Settings.
Tap System (on some phones it's under General management).
Tap Date & time.
Turn off Set time automatically (sometimes Automatic date & time).
Tap Date and pick the day you missed.
Open the NYT Games app and play the puzzle.
Copy the share text and paste it into Pumpkin.
Go back to Settings → System → Date & time and turn Set time automatically back on.

Catching up on more than one missed day? Do them one at a time — set the date to two days ago, play and paste; then to yesterday, play and paste; then turn automatic time back on.

On iPhone:

Open Settings.
Tap General.
Tap Date & Time.
Turn off Set Automatically.
Tap the date field that appears below and pick the day you missed.
Open the NYT Games app. If you see the puzzle from the date you picked, you're good — play it, copy, and paste into Pumpkin. If you see today's puzzle instead, the trick doesn't work on your version and you're out of luck for that day.
Either way, go back to Settings → General → Date & Time and turn Set Automatically back on.

Either platform: if the NYT Games app was open before you changed the date, force-close it first (swipe it away from the app switcher) and reopen. Some versions cache the day's puzzle on launch.

End-of-cycle recap

When a cycle closes, the next time anyone in the group opens the app, a recap modal auto-pops up celebrating the cycle. It shows:

The cycle's winner with a crown, total points, and what each player owes them
A day-by-day grid of who won which day
Best Moments — standout puzzles of the cycle (a Wordle solved in 3 or fewer guesses, or a Connections with at most 1 mistake), when anyone hit one. Any note left with one of those moments is quoted underneath.
Days Won — a bar chart of who took the most individual days
Week in chatter — every note left during the cycle, in chronological order, so you can re-read the group's running commentary at the end of the week

Close the modal and a smaller dismissable banner sits above the scoreboard until you dismiss that too. This is per-device — dismissing on your phone doesn't dismiss on your laptop. The full closed-cycle results stay on the Game Stats page either way.

The Game Stats page

Tap Game Stats in the top-right of the scoreboard for a deep set of stats:

Lifetime standings — every player's all-time wins, losses, and net dollars.
Skill breakdown — averages for Wordle and Connections, side by side.
Wordle distribution — how often each player solves in 1/2/3/4/5/6 guesses (or fails).
Connections distribution — how often each player solves with 0/1/2/3 mistakes (or fails).
Recent form — last several cycles, side-by-side.
Best month — each player's strongest calendar month.
Head-to-head — wins, ties, and losses between pairs of players.
Records and extremes — best/worst cycle scores, longest streaks, biggest payouts.
Cumulative net chart — each player's running total over time.
Cycle history — every closed cycle, scrollable, with full payouts.

Managing your profile

Tap your avatar in the top-right of the scoreboard to open Me.

Display name — what your friends see on this group's scoreboard. Can be different in each group.
Avatar — uploaded once, shows up everywhere you're a member. Tap Upload a photo, pick an image straight from your phone or computer (up to 25 MB), then drag and pinch to crop. The app shrinks the result for you before saving — no need to resize first.

Push notifications

Get a buzz on your phone or computer when something happens in your group. This is opt-in per device — turn it on once on each phone or laptop you want alerts on.

Open Me and tap the Notifications toggle. Your browser will ask permission to send notifications; allow it. From then on, that device will alert you when:

Another player in any of your groups submits a puzzle. You'll see who submitted and which game (Wordle or Connections), but not their score — open the app to see the result. If they left a note with their submission, it's quoted in the alert.
You haven't submitted everything yet at 7:30 PM Eastern. A friendly nudge before midnight so you don't get locked out of the day.

To stop alerts, flip the toggle back off on that device. Each device is independent — turn each one off separately.

On iPhone: push notifications only work if you've Added to Home Screen first (see On iPhone). Open the app from the home-screen icon and turn the toggle on from there. Apple doesn't allow web push from Safari directly; the home-screen install is the workaround.

Switching between groups

In more than one group? Tap the group name at the top of the scoreboard. A dropdown lists every group you belong to — tap one to switch. View all Series opens the My Series page, where you can also find groups you've archived.

For Series owners

When you create a group, you become its owner and get extra controls. Tap Admin in the top-right of the scoreboard.

Renaming the Series

Changes the URL of your group. Anyone who bookmarked the old URL will need the new one — but the dropdown switcher follows the rename automatically, so no one gets lost.

Payout settings

Change the base payout and per-point amount. Updates apply immediately to the current open cycle — the "if the cycle ended now" banner will reflect the new amounts the moment you save, and the cycle will close with whatever rates are in place at that point. Already-closed cycles stay locked at the rates that were in place when they finalized.

Invite link

Each group has one persistent invite link. Share it with up to 3 friends to fill the 4-player cap. Tap the copy icon next to the link to copy it to your clipboard in one click. If the link gets spread too widely, tap Get a new link to invalidate the old one.

Notifications

The Admin page has a Notifications section with a single toggle: "Email me when a new member joins." When it's on, you'll get an email at your account address every time someone uses your invite link to join your group. The email shows their display name and lets you jump back to the scoreboard.

The toggle defaults to on for new groups. Turn it off if you'd rather not be notified — the joins still happen, you just don't hear about them.

Heads up: email delivery is in a setup phase right now. Notifications reliably reach the system owner, but until a sending domain is verified, emails to other Series owners may not arrive. The toggle still saves your preference, so things will start flowing the moment delivery is fully configured.

Removing a player

If someone needs to leave, tap Remove next to their name. They lose access going forward. Their past submissions stay so the history still makes sense, but they're not counted in future cycles. Owners can't remove themselves.

Force-close current cycle

End the current cycle right now, before its scheduled end date. Useful if everyone agrees to wrap up early. The payout is computed immediately and a new cycle opens.

Archiving a Series

Puts a group into read-only mode. Closes the current cycle and freezes everything. Members can still view the scoreboard and history — they just can't add new submissions. Find archived groups under My Series → Archived.

Deleting a Series

This is permanent. Wipes the group and every submission, cycle, and member entry in it. Available from the Admin page for both active and archived groups. You'll be asked to type the group's exact name to confirm.

Common situations

"That puzzle is outside the 1-day grace window"

You're trying to paste a puzzle from more than one day ago. It's now locked at max points and can't be edited. There's no override — this is how the cycle keeps everyone honest.

You picked the Yesterday tab but pasted today's puzzle, or vice versa. Switch the tab to match the puzzle's actual date, then paste again.

The paste box only accepts the official NYT share text. Common reasons it fails:

You copied a screenshot of the result instead of the text.
The share text was edited (extra commentary added between the grid rows).
You copied something other than the share output (like a URL).

Fix: in the NYT Games app, tap Share Your Results again and pick Copy (or Copy to clipboard) cleanly. Don't edit the text before pasting.

"This puzzle was max-locked and can't be edited"

A puzzle already in the database at max points can't be overwritten with a real result. This is rare and usually means you missed the grace window earlier.

My avatar isn't showing

Your avatar uploads once and shows up in every group you're in. If it's not appearing, refresh the page. If it's still missing, go to Me and re-upload it.

I forgot my password

On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot password? below the password field. Enter the email you signed up with and tap Send reset link.

Behind the scenes, the system owner gets a notification with a reset link addressed to you. They'll forward it to you by text or email, usually within a few minutes. The link is good for 30 minutes — open it, choose a new password, and you're signed back in automatically.

(The "owner forwards the link" middle step is temporary. Once a sending domain is verified, reset emails will arrive directly in your inbox.)

I'm on a new phone — do I lose my history?

No. Your account lives on the server, not the device. Sign in with the same email and password on the new phone and everything will be there.

FAQ

Does the app actually charge me or move money? No. Payouts are completely voluntary and happen outside the app. Pumpkin tracks scores and tells you what each loser would owe the winner under your group's payout settings — that's it. It doesn't connect to your bank, doesn't process payments, and doesn't store any payment info. Your group settles up however it already settles up (cash, Venmo, beer, a running tab). If you want the leaderboard without any money math, set the base payout and per-point amount to $0 in Admin.

How is the winner decided each cycle? Lowest total points wins. Wordle (1–6, or 7 for a fail) and Connections (0–4 mistakes) are added for each day, then summed across the cycle.

What happens if I tie with someone? A tie for the lowest score is a "push" — nobody pays anyone for that cycle.

What if I miss a day? You have until midnight ET the next day to paste yesterday's puzzle. After that, it locks at the max score (Wordle 7, Connections 4) and you're excluded from that cycle's money. Your friends still play and pay each other normally. There's also a date-change workaround on Android (and sometimes iPhone) — see Forgot a day? Try the date trick.

Can I edit a submission after I paste it? Yes, as long as the puzzle is still within the 1-day grace window. Paste a new result over the old one and tap Save. You can also update or remove the optional note the same way — just leave the comment field blank or type a new one before saving.

Can I add a comment to my submission? Yes. After you paste a valid share, an optional 280-character note box appears under the paste field. Comments are quoted in push notifications, shown in the puzzle popup (with a chat-bubble badge on the scoreboard tile), and collected in the end-of-cycle recap.

Can I be in more than one group? Yes, as many as you like. Use the group switcher (the dropdown on the group name) or My Series to navigate. You only need to paste each day's puzzle once — submissions (and their comments) automatically flow to every active group you're a member of that tracks that game.

Do I need to be in the same group as my friend? Each group is independent. If you and a friend are in two different groups, those groups never see each other.

Can two players in the same group have the same name? No, display names must be unique within a group. Pick a nickname or initial if there's a clash.

Can I leave a group? Ask the owner to remove you. The owner can't leave themselves — they have to delete or archive the group.

Can someone outside the group see our scoreboard? No. Only signed-in members can view a group. Sharing the URL won't let outsiders in unless they have an invite link.

Why is "X/6" treated as 7 points? It's the worst Wordle score — failing the puzzle. Counting it as 7 puts it one worse than a 6-guess win, which is intuitive on the scoreboard.

Why doesn't the live banner match the closed banner when the cycle ends? The live banner is a running preview that sums every submission, but it doesn't apply the missing-day exclusion. The closed banner runs the official math, which excludes any player who didn't complete the cycle. If everyone completed, the two match. If anyone missed days, they'll differ.

Are my Wordle/Connections stats kept if I miss a day? Yes. Skill stats, distributions, and head-to-head numbers count every real puzzle you submit. Only the cycle-level payout math sets you aside for missing days.

Can the owner edit a player's submission? No. Submissions are locked to the player who pasted them. The owner can remove a player from the group but can't reach into someone else's puzzle history.

Do I get an email when someone joins my group? Yes, by default. The Admin page has a Notifications section where you can toggle this off if you don't want the emails. Notifications are sent to your account email and show the new member's display name.

Will I get reminded if I forget to play? Only if you turn on push notifications. Go to Me → Notifications and tap the toggle on each device you want to be alerted on. After that, you'll get a friendly nudge at 7:30 PM Eastern any day you haven't finished submitting. On iPhone you need to Add to Home Screen first — Apple doesn't allow web push from Safari directly.

How do I get notified when my friends submit? Same toggle. With Me → Notifications turned on, that device will alert you whenever someone in any of your groups posts a Wordle or Connections result. The alert shows the player's name and which game, but not their score — open the app to see how they did. If they left a comment with their submission, it'll appear in the alert.

What's the difference between archiving and deleting a Series?

Archiving puts the group in read-only mode. Everyone can still view the scoreboard and history forever.
Deleting wipes it out completely. There's no undo. Type the group name to confirm.

What devices does this work on? Anything with a modern browser. iPhone (Safari), Android (Chrome), iPad, Mac, Windows, Linux. The site is mobile-first but works just as well on a big screen.

Does it work offline? Not really. You need an internet connection to paste a result. (Your account stays signed in for 30 days, so you don't have to type your password every time.)

What if the NYT Games app changes its share format? The app's parsers are designed to tolerate small format changes (extra commentary, different punctuation). If a future NYT update breaks the parser, the system owner can update it — drop a note describing the issue.

Is my password stored safely? Yes. Passwords are hashed with bcryptjs at 11 rounds. The database never stores the actual password text, and there's no way to recover it (only to reset).

Who sees my email address? Other members of your group don't see your email — they see your display name. Only you and the system owner can see your email.

How is the data stored? On a managed Neon Postgres database (hosted by Vercel's official integration). Backups are handled by Neon. The system owner has direct DB access for support purposes.

Glossary

Series — A friend group's leaderboard. Each Series is independent — different members, different settings, different history.
Player — Your role inside a single Series. You can use different display names in different Series.
Member — Anyone currently in a Series (not removed).
Owner — The person who created the Series. Has access to the Admin page.
Cycle — A scoring period. Default is 7 days (Sunday to Saturday). The owner sets the length when creating the Series.
Push — A cycle where two players tied for the lowest score. No payout.
Grace window — The time after a puzzle date during which you can still paste that day's puzzle. Currently 1 day.
Max-lock — A submission slot filled in automatically at the maximum score because the player missed the grace window. Counts in the cycle but excludes them from money.
Invite link — A persistent URL that anyone can use to join your Series. The owner can regenerate it to invalidate the old one.
Archived Series — A Series the owner put into read-only mode. Still viewable forever; no new submissions accepted.

Found something missing or unclear? Tell the system owner. The guide gets updated as the app does.