This is my modification of Simon's Advent of Code template, spiced up with solution timings, copy-paste answers, tests, an improved template, and many utility functions. Shoutouts to the r/python Discord for giving me template/utility function ideas and helping me through tough puzzles.

Note that Python 3.10 is required.

You can use init.py, runner.py, and aocutil.py if you want to copy this repo template and answer the problems by yourself. Its functionnalities include making directories, downloading statements, downloading inputs, making code templates and making url links.

To run init.py, follow these steps:

• Create a new folder.
• Download init.py and put it into the folder.
• Create a file called session.txt and put it into the same folder.
• Put your session into session.txt (see below).
• Open init.py in a text editor and change other user parameters as desired (see below).
• Change the date of the last advent of code year and day if needed.
• Run init.py from within the folder with

python init.py

The init.py parameters are as follows:

# USER SPECIFIC PARAMETERS
base_pos = "./"            # Folders will be created here. If you want to make a parent folder, change this to ex "./adventofcode/"
DOWNLOAD_STATEMENTS = True # Set to false to not download statements. Note that only part one is downloaded (since you need to complete it to access part two)
DOWNLOAD_INPUTS = True     # Set to false to not download inputs. Note that if the USER_SESSION_ID is wrong or left empty, inputs will not be downloaded.
MAKE_CODE_TEMPLATE = True  # Set to false to not make code templates. Note that even if OVERWRITE is set to True, it will never overwrite codes.
MAKE_URL = True            # Set to false to not create a direct url link in the folder.
author = "?"               # Name automatically put in the code templates.
OVERWRITE = False          # If you really need to download the whole thing again, set this to true. As the creator said, AoC is fragile; please be gentle. Statements and Inputs do not change. This will not overwrite codes.

# DATE SPECIFIC PARAMETERS
date = "December 2021"               # Date automatically put in the code templates.
starting_advent_of_code_year = 2021  # You can go as early as 2015.
last_advent_of_code_year = 2021      # The setup will download all advent of code data up until that date included
starting_advent_of_code_day = 1      # You can go as early as 1 and as late as 25
last_advent_of_code_day = 25         # If the year isn't finished, the setup will download days up until that day included for the last year

To recover your session:

• Go to AdventOfCode.
• Log in by any means (GitHub, Google, ...).
• Check for a cookie named session. This step depends on the browser used. It can be done through network inspection or, in advanced browser like Chrome, by simply clicking on the View site information button directly left of the url (shown as a padlock), then clicking Cookies.
• Copy this cookie content and paste it in init.py in between the ". It might be automatically formated upon being copied and look different, do not worry. Other parameters are self explanatory.

Before coding a solution, look over aocutil.py to see all the utility functions (and add your own). The template imports aocutil and many other useful functions.

Simply download the wanted solution folders. Script can be run from the same directory:

cd 2021/1
python code.py

Note that the solution looks for files named code.py and input.txt and renaming them will not work.

The runner will run both parts (return None at the start of the solve function to disable that part) and time how long it takes. Then the return value of the last not-None part will be copied to clipboard for easy pasting. The runner also has pretty_errors enabled, simply comment out its import statement to disable.

Tests can be run by running test.py instead of code.py. They will only run if you specifically request it.

Any constructive pull request directly correcting errors or improving the code is welcomed.