solve-puzzle

JohnStrunk's avatarfrom JohnStrunk

Use this to solve the Advent of Code daily puzzles.

⭐0stars🔀1forks📁View on GitHub🕐Updated Dec 30, 2025
[Coding Practice and Feedback]

When & Why to Use This Skill

This Claude skill automates the entire workflow for solving Advent of Code puzzles, from environment setup to final verification. It streamlines the competitive programming process by managing Git branches, creating structured directories, generating efficient Python solutions, and implementing test-driven development (TDD) to ensure algorithmic correctness and performance.

Use Cases

  • Automating the daily setup for Advent of Code challenges, including directory creation and Git branch management.
  • Generating optimized Python code for complex algorithmic problems with a focus on time and space complexity.
  • Implementing automated testing using puzzle examples to validate solution logic before final submission.
  • Maintaining a professional-grade repository of coding solutions with automated README documentation and version control.
namesolve-puzzle
descriptionUse this to solve the Advent of Code daily puzzles.

Solving the Daily Puzzle

The following steps will guide you through solving the daily Advent of Code puzzles. You must follow each and every step exactly to ensure a successful completion. If you miss any step, you will fail the task. It is crucial to succeed, so pay close attention to the instructions and follow them exactly.

Create to-do items for each step below. Failure to follow these steps exactly means you fail the task:

  • Ensure you are on a git branch for that specific day (e.g., day05 for day 5). Create it if necessary.
  • Create the directory for that day's puzzle if it doesn't already exist, following the naming convention dayXX where XX is the zero-padded day number (e.g., day05 for day 5).
  • Inside that directory, create an empty file named puzzle-partY.txt where Y is the part number (1 or 2). Ask the user to provide the puzzle description by either providing it to you or pasting it directly into the file.
  • Create another file named input.txt in the same directory and populate it with the provided input data in the same manner as above. Note that this file remains the same for both parts of the puzzle, so if it already exists, do not overwrite it.
  • Commit these new files to a new branch named dayXX in preparation for solving the puzzle.
  • Implement the solution code for the specified part of the puzzle in a file named partY.py within the same directory. There are sometimes choices of different algorithms to use. Choose one with algorithmic efficiency that is suitable for the problem constraints. Choosing a poor algorithm may lead to long runtimes or excessive memory usage. Make sure you consider the time and space complexity of your solution and monitor for performance issues.
  • Use the examples from the puzzle description to create test cases in a file named test_partY.py to validate the solution.
  • Write a README.md file documenting the approach, challenges, and explanations for the solution. This should include the algoriths used and any optimizations made.
  • Commit the solution code and tests to the same branch.
  • Run all tests to ensure correctness.
  • Run the solution code with the main input data to obtain the final answer.

Once you think you have completed all the steps, use superpowers:verification-before-completion to verify that you have finished the task.