This editorial policy describes how every piece of content on HintSheet is produced, in enough detail that you can judge whether to trust it. It covers the daily answer pages, the hint pages, the long-form guides, the solvers, and the way errors are handled. It also states plainly where AI tools are used.
The short version: daily answers are fetched automatically from each game's own published data — or, for LinkedIn's games, from a public answers site that republishes LinkedIn's puzzle data — and published without manual review; daily commentary is generated automatically from that data; guides and hubs are written with AI assistance and checked against the sources they cite; and nothing is published before the puzzle it describes is live.
Daily answers
Daily answers are fetched by scripts that run on a schedule several times a day, and each answer page is generated from what they collect. For Connections, Strands and Wordle, that is the puzzle data nytimes.com serves for each date. For Spelling Bee it is the day's letters from the puzzle page. For the six Dle games it is the answer file each game publishes for its own pages, which gives each mode's answer and puzzle number for both of the games' time zones. For LinkedIn's eight games it is the structured puzzle data — clues, boards and solutions — published by a public LinkedIn answers site; we use that route because LinkedIn serves new accounts practice puzzles rather than the day's real ones. Only puzzle facts are taken from that site, never its text. The rendered boards and lists on our pages are produced from that data by HintSheet's own code, not copied from screenshots.
Answers are not compared against a second source before publishing, with one exception: Pinpoint clues are compared with a second public answers page when that page can be read, and a disagreement is logged for review. Spelling Bee's word list is computed rather than read, because the Times does not publish its accepted list; the page states this and that our list may differ from the official one.
New York Times puzzles are never published before their puzzle date, even where the data is available earlier.
Where AI assistance is used, and where it isn't
The brief commentary on daily answer pages — a sentence on why a Connections group works, the numbered walkthrough under a Queens board, the note on a Wordle answer's letters — is generated automatically from the day's puzzle data — the groups, clues, letters and answers the game itself publishes — using fixed per-game wording. It states only what that data shows; it is not individually reviewed before it goes live, so if you spot a mistake, tell us through the contact page and we will correct it. This is disclosed here.
The long-form content — game guides, pillar hubs, the homepage essay, strategy articles, and the trust pages including this one — is written with AI assistance under the editor's direction. Every number, rule and date it states should trace to a named source: the game's own help pages or code, an official help centre, or HintSheet's archive of daily puzzle data. A claim that cannot be traced to a source is removed rather than hedged.
The solvers are software, not content; their logic is described on each solver page.
Experience and sourcing
Strategy in the guides comes from the games' official rules and from HintSheet's archive of daily puzzle data, which lets claims about the puzzles be counted rather than remembered; for the Dle games, opening-guess figures are computed from the character data each game ships in its own code. Each guide links to the game's own site, rules or help page so its claims can be checked, and names the source and read date for the figures it uses.
Every page shows its author, the date it was first published and the date it was last materially changed. The 'updated' date changes only when content changes, never automatically.
Corrections
We aim to correct errors the same day they're reported, and the page's updated date reflects the correction. Reports go to the address on the contact page. If a game changes its puzzle after we have published it, the page is corrected to match.
What HintSheet refuses to do
Some choices are permanent.
- No playable copies of any game. The games are their makers'; the site links to them.
- No answers before the puzzle date.
- No affiliate links, sponsored posts, guest content or third-party subdirectories.
- No collection of what you enter into the solvers.
- No invented authors, testimonials or 'user' comments.
Advertising and independence
The site is to be funded by display advertising through Google AdSense, once approved. Advertisers have no say in content and no advance knowledge of it. Ad placements are kept away from answers and reveal controls. HintSheet is not affiliated with any game publisher or developer; game names are used to identify the puzzles discussed.