Each of the clues resolves to a word or phrase that is one missing letter away from the name of a KTANE module.
| Index | Clue | Answer/module | Ltr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-4 | Chains of characters that specify a pattern usually used for string searching (7 11) | Regular Hexpressions | H |
| 27-28 | Scottish mountain peaks (4) | Beans | A |
| 11-12 | Writing liquid that doesn’t operate as intended (6 3) | Faulty Sink | S |
| 10-11 | Strong ropes’ improvements (4 12) | Chord Progressions | H |
| 14-15 | Lamps for illuminating pelt (3 6) | Four Lights | O |
| 9-10 | Sleet-covered bodies of water (9) | Snowflakes | F |
| 34-35 | Permit & privilege (3 3 5) | Left And Right | F |
| 16-17 | Breathing fiercely out of exhaustion (7) | Painting | I |
| 27-28 | “In ______ of the moment” (while angry) (3 4) | The Heart | R |
| 33-34 | Black-and-white sorceresses (9 7) | Uncolored Switches | S |
| 7-8 | Breaking apart that British porcelain throne (9 3 3) | Splitting The Loot | T |
| 14-15 | Ernö’s key device (5’1 4) | Rubik's Clock | C |
| 15-16 | Lose memory of, a millionfold? (10) | Omegaforget | O |
| 32-33 | Biblical interrogation boat (8 3) | Question Mark | M |
| 19-20 | Main cravat (5 3) | Prime Time | M |
| 11-12 | Ultimate equipment for a scam (3 3 3) | The Icon Kit | I |
| 27-28 | Airliners (6) | Planets | T |
| 8-9 | Police officer amicability arrangement (3 7 8) | Co-op Harmony Sequence | O |
| 5-6 | “Agent Zero Zero ______ movie tonight!” (James Bond, pick a film for us!) (5 6 3) | Seven Choose Four | F |
| 30-31 | Pause in a bodily affliction (8) | Jailbreak | J |
| 39-40 | Alien who phones home (2) | S.E.T. | S |
| 24-25 | Inspirational goddess trapped by convoluted corridors (4 2 3 4) | Mouse In The Maze | O |
| 10-11 | Hoarder cabin (9 3) | Scavenger Hunt | N |
| 15-16 | Less elevated area of land (5 5) | Flower Patch | F |
| 9-10 | Stuffed Nestor notabilis toys (3 8) | IKEA Plushies | I |
| 6-7 | That specific rooster (3 4) | The Clock | L |
| 20-21 | Departure from an informal conversation (4 8) | Cheat Checkout | E |
| 10-11 | Strip with speech bubbles (5) | Cosmic | S |
The missing letters spell out the clue phrase HASH OF FIRST COMMIT OF JSON FILES. Interpreting this correctly requires some technical knowledge. Each module has a JSON file containing information shown by the KTANE repository website (such as author, publication date, etc.). These JSON files are held in a git repository that is also hosted on GitHub called KtaneContent. Git keeps a record of all changes to the files, including when they were first added, and these changes have a 40-digit hexadecimal “hash” that identifies them. The clue phrase is telling us to look through the history of git changes in KtaneContent and find the hashes of those changes where the JSON file for each of these modules was added.
One way of obtaining these hashes is to navigate to the relevant JSON file on GitHub and clicking “history” in the top-right. For the first one, Regular Hexpressions, this takes us to the commit history for Regular Hexpressions.json. At the bottom of the list of changes we find the change where the file was added, and we can use the Copy button to obtain the full 40-digit hash.
Another way of obtaining the same hash is on the Linux command-line. Assuming a checkout of KtaneContent is available locally, you can navigate to the JSON folder and issue the following command-line:
git log --pretty=format:%H "Regular Hexpressions.json" | tail -n 1
Since we want to obtain this for all of the modules in this puzzle, the following more elaborate bash command can automate this:
for i in 'Regular Hexpressions' 'Beans' 'Faulty Sink' [etc.]; do echo $i `git log --pretty=format:%H "$i.json"|tail -n 1`; done
Once obtained, we can use the indexes provided in the puzzle to extract two-digit numbers, which in turn can be converted to letters using A1Z26.
| Module | Index | Hash of first commit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Hexpressions | 3-4 | 0e2008ac4f222b039f689109abec1ebed434d481 | T |
| Beans | 27-28 | 846a8f18043bf6aacd3db090b3089edfbcffae7d | H |
| Faulty Sink | 11-12 | ab3357895905b4bca583cdd32af70abad1777ebf | E |
| Chord Progressions | 10-11 | dfc7871b518016bca4f390e29494bd69fb37f8e8 | R |
| Four Lights | 14-15 | cae8f6cfd71a405fd64ae6a3bca253ef97df9e35 | E |
| Snowflakes | 9-10 | 748ba96201b261a1f66ffff023f96d7afc4de253 | A |
| Left And Right | 34-35 | 22a9978da37f39b756a444de165bcf083092e39c | I |
| Painting | 16-17 | 56de048d24f336014ca19d257478c85fbbece714 | N |
| The Heart | 27-28 | 58e0d96be35d7bf28a3cf6d7ac200f88c84e12a4 | T |
| Uncolored Switches | 33-34 | b46a8f42a84fbb24de9620a9d8ed61ed14573556 | N |
| Splitting The Loot | 7-8 | 1eef52151bd0d0aaacc4d73f9adee5166f4dc610 | O |
| Rubik's Clock | 14-15 | 72d4a20f784a619ef806854f5c29ccb685bc380f | S |
| Omegaforget | 15-16 | 01c523a06cd83621ddb8b86b241338b0da95ef43 | U |
| Question Mark | 32-33 | aafbb54a18a8158baa61f712e1f73aa03d6dde3d | C |
| Prime Time | 19-20 | de7711506a8f0a90e208da0c79f9730584ca3474 | H |
| The Icon Kit | 11-12 | ea6a316c0820c0b7a67f9be769dd4f81547ed7c3 | T |
| Planets | 27-28 | 19e812a6338ef45cf0181d37f1080d79ac7bdd94 | H |
| Co-op Harmony Sequence | 8-9 | 6d456290931d43b460ae89f9e9b711c15713c621 | I |
| Seven Choose Four | 5-6 | 4a9e14ec50dfa680e1c898b68998b495cc0a8048 | N |
| Jailbreak | 30-31 | d93eae6b71b72ea51c171a4aefc410771e9d503b | G |
| S.E.T. | 39-40 | 671f1b56bb540b3971b8a684f43059acbaeac601 | A |
| Mouse In The Maze | 24-25 | 936c2210228157354f007d019c307457e5e1c6f8 | S |
| Scavenger Hunt | 10-11 | 3755f632501a59d1214e0f929ede2182683bcfdf | A |
| Flower Patch | 15-16 | ee6caf66b394a102fc879a20ffad03f37f10f66d | B |
| IKEA Plushies | 9-10 | f3bba54c124ed13faa9c3a954bb44243fab68273 | L |
| The Clock | 6-7 | 25507015046f0cba6f5ad45b776b7203b5015aca | A |
| Cheat Checkout | 20-21 | b4e9200162b3a5ae0c014d7e6de1f1daf63395b7 | N |
| Cosmic | 10-11 | ba946c77611e37c66f9ed2ff95e24d38eabc15ba | K |
Our last clue phrase is THERE AIN’T NO SUCH THING AS A BLANK. Completing the well-known saying by filling in the blank gives us the solution to the puzzle.
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