The four groups
Git porcelain verbs
PULL · PUSH · FETCH · CLONE
JavaScript package managers
NPM · YARN · PNPM · BUN
CI/CD platforms
TRAVIS · JENKINS · CIRCLECI · GITLAB
Words paired with REQUEST
MERGE · OPTIONS · FEATURE · BAD
Why this puzzle works
The booby trap is MERGE and PULL: both are git verbs *and* both pair with REQUEST. Resolution: yellow already has four clean git verbs (PULL/PUSH/FETCH/CLONE), so MERGE has to be purple. The other purples confirm — OPTIONS request (HTTP), feature request (PM-speak), bad request (HTTP 400). Bonus: GITLAB has its own merge-requests UX, which is the in-joke for putting it in CI alongside CircleCI rather than as a 'git host'.
How to read a Connectle without solving it
A code-themed grouping puzzle rewards counting as much as recognition. Start by listing every plausible group, then notice which tiles appear in two lists. Whichever group has exactly four unambiguous members is your anchor — solve it first and the rest of the board collapses by elimination. The hardest tier (purple) is almost always wordplay: tiles that share a prefix or suffix, not a concept. If a tile feels orphaned, ask whether the same word could follow or precede a common engineering word like root, stack, cache, or queue.