hjklue (pronounced "h-j-klue," an homage to the vim hjkl motions) is a terminal-based crossword puzzle player that supports vim-style navigation and .puz format. It uses the usual tab/enter/arrows scheme to navigate the grid, but also supports a vim-like normal mode where you can jump to any cell (e.g. 35c jumps to clue 35), hjkl or w/b to move. Solve .puz format puzzles without leaving your terminal or your keyboard.

This project was inspired by cursewords, cliptic, and crosstui.

Install via one of the methods below, then run:

hjklue puzzle.puz

Accepts .puz format crossword puzzle files. (You can find puzzles at Daily Crossword Links.)

If you have Rust installed (or install via rustup):

cargo install hjklue

Download the latest release binary for your platform from Releases. No installation required - just run the executable directly.

git clone https://github.com/stmorse/hjklue
cd hjklue
cargo build --release
./target/release/hjklue puzzle.puz

I got this off the ground as a vibecode project with Claude Code (Opus 4.5), but if you are a human interested in contributing, send me a message/PR. :) Happy puzzling!