API & MCP

Everything a person can do on Crossword Maker from Your Words and Clues, a program or AI agent can do with the same inputs and get the identical result.

HTTP API

POST https://printshopcrosswordfill.usefulweb.app/api/v1/calculate – run Crossword Maker from Your Words and Clues
GET https://printshopcrosswordfill.usefulweb.app/api/v1/tool – inputs, output schema, examples
OpenAPI 3.1: /openapi.json · /openapi.yaml
Errors: application/problem+json; 422 includes per-field errors.

Crossword Maker from Your Words and Clues

Write one “word: clue” per line and get a printable criss-cross crossword: the words are interlocked into a compact grid, numbered in reading order, with Across and Down clue lists and the word lengths. Works in any script, including right-to-left Arabic.

Inputs of Crossword Maker from Your Words and Clues
Field	Type	Default	Description
`words`	textarea	"Lighthouse: Tower with a lamp that guides ships\nHarbour: Sheltered water where	Words and clues. One per line: word, then a colon and the clue (“Anchor: Heavy hook that keeps a ship in place”). Up to 60 words.
`uppercase`	boolean	true	Capital letters
`lang`	select (en, de, fr, es, it, pt, nl, pl, tr, ru, uk, ar, hi, zh, ja, ko, id)	"en"	Language (for capital letters)
`seed`	text	"cross-1"	Seed. The same seed and settings always give the same puzzles. Change it for new ones.
`title`	text	—	Title on the page (optional)
`answers`	boolean	true	Answer-key pages
`header`	boolean	true	Name and date line
`paper`	select (a3, a4, a5, a6, b5, letter, legal, tabloid, halfletter)	"a4"	Paper size
`orientation`	select (portrait, landscape)	"portrait"	Orientation

Example request

Seaside vocabulary with clues

curl -X POST https://printshopcrosswordfill.usefulweb.app/api/v1/calculate -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"seed":"sea-1"}'

Every result contains

inputs (normalised, defaults applied), summary, result (validated against the published schema), units, assumptions, sources, warnings, computedAt and links.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

Streamable HTTP endpoint: https://printshopcrosswordfill.usefulweb.app/mcp – protocol revisions 2026-07-28 (stateless) and 2025-11-25 / 2025-06-18 / 2025-03-26 (initialize handshake).
Tools: printshop_crossword_fill
Local stdio connector: node src/mcp-stdio.ts --tool=printshop-crossword-fill

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "printshop-crossword-fill": { "type": "http", "url": "https://printshopcrosswordfill.usefulweb.app/mcp" }
  }
}