crosscue

ADR-0010 — Rebus entry: NYT-aligned surfaces + first-letter acceptance

Status: Accepted (shipped) · Date: 2026 (G6, #8) Full design doc: ../rebus-entry.md (historical plan of record)

Context

Multi-letter (rebus) cells needed an entry UX that stays discoverable without spoiling the puzzle or breaking the one-keystroke-per-cell mental model.

Decision

• One canonical dialog (showRebusDialogForFocus) reachable from three surfaces: an always-visible “Rebus” key (bottom-right of the soft keyboard), the cell long-press menu, and the Esc physical-keyboard shortcut — all NYT-aligned.
• Rebus cells are not visually marked (finding them is the theme).
• First-letter acceptance: a rebus cell accepts the full answer or its first letter, so solvers who never discover rebus mode can still finish. Centralized in SolutionCell.accepts(entered), used by completion, check, and clue-correctness paths alike.
• Lightweight bidirectional rebuses via "/"-delimited answers ("PB/AU") without a schema change; max input 6 characters.

Consequences

• Completion behavior matches NYT for cross-platform solvers.
• Any new correctness check must go through SolutionCell.accepts — never string equality.