sudo sudoku

sudo solve — logic is root access.

Download on the App Store · Website · v2.0.0

root@ios:~$ sudo sudoku breach --master
[sudo] password for logic: ********
> uniqueness_check ........ [OK]
> difficulty_index ........ 84
> ACCESS GRANTED

sudo sudoku is a pure-logic Sudoku for iPhone wrapped in a full terminal fantasy. Puzzles generate behind a live breach log, victories end in ACCESS GRANTED, and a real ELO ladder runs from SCRIPT_KIDDIE to THE_ARCHITECT.

Free. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking.

Designed with intent

sudo sudoku is built around four product principles:

1. The fantasy is complete. The app behaves like one continuous shell session, from the launch prompt to the final victory sequence.
2. Logic stays in focus. There are no lives, fail states, paywalls, or interruption mechanics. The timer is optional and undo is never punished.
3. Progress is earned. Game Center ranks solve time and ELO performance, never spending. Eleven achievements mark meaningful milestones.
4. Delight respects the player. Haptics, phosphor pulses, and matrix rain add character without getting in the way. Every animation respects Reduce Motion; sound is never forced.

That approach follows the same fundamentals Apple recommends in its Human Interface Guidelines: purpose, agency, responsibility, simplicity, craft, and delight.

The experience

A terminal you can play

• One accumulating command line: breach, archives, stats, and whoami are subcommands entered from a live prompt.
• A typewriter breach log reports the real uniqueness check and difficulty index for each generated puzzle.
• Victory unfolds in three acts: matrix rain, ACCESS GRANTED, then an ELO ticker and rank-up ceremony.
• A semantic haptic vocabulary distinguishes selection, placement, removal, conflicts, completed units, and victory.

Grids grown, not stored

• Infinite, unique-solution puzzles generated on device — never a canned database.
• Four difficulty flags: --easy, --medium, --hard, and --master.
• A logical solver grades every grid from 0–100; the v2.1 roadmap is refining technique-specific separation between difficulty levels.
• Pencil notes auto-clear from peers, and undo restores the entire move as one action.
• The play clock counts active time only, pauses in the background, and freezes on completion.

A fair ladder

• ELO starts at 1200 with an adaptive K-factor and anti-smurfing.
• Six ranks: SCRIPT_KIDDIE → USER → SUDOER → SYS_ADMIN → KERNEL_HACKER → THE_ARCHITECT.
• Five Game Center leaderboards: global ELO plus fastest solve per difficulty.
• Eleven achievements, including one secret.
• Honest statistics and immutable solved archives: viewing or replaying an old puzzle never rewrites history.

Privacy by construction

Game history, rating, statistics, and achievements stay in one local save file on your device. sudo sudoku has no developer account system, analytics, advertising, tracking, or third-party SDKs. Game Center is optional, operated by Apple, and used only for leaderboards and achievements.

Read the full Privacy Policy or visit sudosudoku.kaichen.dev/privacy.

Build from source

Requirements

• macOS 13 or later
• Xcode 15 or later with iOS 17 SDK support
• iPhone or iPhone Simulator running iOS 17 or later

Setup

git clone https://github.com/sudosudoku/sudo-sudoku.git
cd sudo-sudoku
open SudoSudoku.xcodeproj

Select the SudoSudoku target, choose your own development team under Signing & Capabilities, then run with Command-R.

Command-line helpers are also available:

./build.sh          # Debug build
./build.sh release  # Release build
./play.sh           # Build and launch in Simulator

xcodebuild test \
  -project SudoSudoku.xcodeproj \
  -scheme SudoSudoku \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 17 Pro'

Do not accept an Xcode recommendation that replaces the literal IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = 17.0; see CONTRIBUTING.md for the project-specific reason.

Architecture

sudo sudoku is an iPhone-only SwiftUI app using MVVM and Combine, with no external dependencies.

SudoSudoku/
├── Algorithms/       Puzzle generation, uniqueness, and difficulty grading
├── Managers/         Storage, rating, Game Center, achievements, statistics, haptics
├── Models/           Game, record, difficulty, rank, and achievement types
├── ViewModels/       Game state and gameplay orchestration
├── Views/            Screens and reusable SwiftUI components
└── Utils/            Shared constants and formatting

SudoSudokuTests/      Generator, gameplay, rating, storage, and regression tests
Config/               Launch-screen Info.plist values

For invariants, data flow, and release engineering, see DEVELOPER.md.

Community

Choose the path that best fits what you need:

• Need help using the app? Start with Support, then ask in GitHub Discussions.
• Found a reproducible bug? Open a bug report.
• Have an idea? Share it in Ideas before opening an implementation issue.
• Want to contribute? Read CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct.
• Found a security issue? Follow the private process in .github/SECURITY.md.

Documentation

• Support
• Development and roadmap
• Contributing
• Changelog
• v2.0.0 release notes
• Privacy Policy
• Security Policy

License

sudo sudoku is available under the MIT License.

Created by Kai T. Chen.