AnkiNote

AI-powered Anki card generator — vocabulary, phrases, sentences, and STEM concepts

📖 About

AnkiNote is an automated Anki flashcard generator that uses litellm to support a wide range of AI providers — Gemini, GPT, Claude, DeepSeek, and more — for generating definitions, examples, mnemonics, and images, then syncs directly with Anki through AnkiConnect.

✨ Features

• 🖥️ Web UI - Configure AI providers, models, and API keys visually in the browser — no .env file or restart needed
• 🔌 Two Anki Backends - connect mode plugs into a local Anki Desktop for quick trials; the in-process collection (headless) backend runs standalone as a long-lived service, syncing directly with AnkiWeb — no Anki app required
• 🤖 Multi-Provider AI - Powered by litellm, supporting Gemini, GPT, Claude, DeepSeek, and more for text and image generation
• 🔊 Audio Generation - Text-to-Speech using Google Cloud TTS API
• 🖼️ AI Image Generation - Automatic image generation via Google AI (Gemini)
• 🔄 Direct Anki Sync - Seamless integration with Anki through AnkiConnect plugin
• 📝 Dual-Direction Cards - Supports both word→definition and definition→word learning modes
• 🎨 Beautiful Templates - Built-in Light/Dark mode responsive card templates
• ⚡ Batch Processing - Generate multiple cards from word lists efficiently
• 🌐 Multi-Language - Japanese, English (US), and extensible for more languages
• 🧮 STEM Concepts - Math, science, and programming concept cards with MathJax rendering

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.14+
• uv package manager
• Anki with AnkiConnect plugin installed, or the in-process (headless) backend — see below

Installation

# Install from PyPI
uv pip install ankinote-ai

# Or install the CLI/GUI as an isolated uv tool
uv tool install ankinote-ai

AnkiNote has two front ends that share the same card-generation engine:

• Web UI (ankinote-gui) — AI provider keys and app settings are configured from the browser, no .env file needed for those. A handful of process-level settings (Anki backend, ports, secrets — see below) are still env vars. Start here if you're new.
• CLI (ankinote) — scriptable, batch-friendly. Bare ankinote opens an interactive terminal menu for provider profiles, Anki backend, and the TTS key, sharing the same settings the Web UI uses; .env / environment variables still work as a fallback. See the CLI usage guide.

🖥️ Web UI

Launching

# From a uv-managed checkout
uv run ankinote-gui

# Or, if installed as a tool / into a venv
ankinote-gui

This opens http://localhost:8080 in a browser (set ANKINOTE_SHOW=false to skip auto-open, e.g. on a headless server). The UI has six pages, reachable from the left drawer: Word, Phrases, Sentences, STEM, Card Types (note type + deck setup), and Settings.

Which Anki backend should I use?

• connect (default) — talks to an Anki Desktop app you already have open, via the AnkiConnect plugin. Best for quick, local experimentation: generate a card and see it land in your existing collection immediately.
• collection (headless) — AnkiNote opens the collection file itself, no Anki app involved, and keeps it synced with AnkiWeb on its own. This is the one to reach for when you want AnkiNote running as a long-lived service — on a server, NAS, or in Docker — generating cards around the clock without a desktop Anki instance anywhere nearby.

Switch with ANKI_BACKEND=connect / collection (see the env var table below); both work identically from the Web UI and CLI.

Example

Generating a card for chameleon from the Word page:

The resulting card, reviewed in Anki:

Configuration — all in the Settings page

Nothing needs to be in a .env file for web UI use; every credential lives in the browser-saved settings file and is applied to the process at save time.

• Generation route (text) and Image route — each is a rack of named provider profiles. Pick a vendor template (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Fal, etc.) or "Custom / Other" for any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, then fill in base URL, model (with a refresh button to fetch live model IDs), and API key. Multiple profiles per vendor are supported (e.g. two OpenAI accounts), and you switch which one is active by clicking its pill.
  • For Fal image generation, use a Fal profile with base URL https://fal.run and your Fal API key, with a full endpoint id such as fal-ai/z-image/turbo.
• TTS (Google Cloud) — paste the Google Cloud TTS API key.
• Defaults — native/target language and whether image generation is on by default for new cards.
• AnkiWeb sync — shown when the in-process backend is active (see below): login/logout, sync status, manual sync, sync interval, and the upload/download choice on a required full sync.
• Backup & transfer — export all provider profiles + the TTS key as a passphrase-encrypted JSON bundle (scrypt + AES-256-GCM), and import one back in, merged by profile name. Useful for moving settings between machines or backing them up.

What still needs to be set outside the browser

A few things are process-level, not per-user settings, so they're still env vars:

The in-process (collection) backend additionally requires the ankinote-ai[headless] extra. It synchronizes with AnkiWeb at startup, after each note save or note-type setup batch, and every five minutes. A fresh collection blocks writes until its initial sync completes; an initialized collection remains writable offline. A required full sync blocks writes until you resolve the upload/download choice, in the Settings page or via ankinote anki sync.

Data is stored in the directory containing the collection file (e.g., ~/.local/share/ankinote/). Beside the collection file, .sync.json stores credential-free status, .credentials.json stores saved login credentials with mode 0600, .account retains an account binding after logout, and .backups/ holds recoverable collection backups made before full sync. Logout removes the saved credential and pauses synchronization without deleting the collection or media. Use a different data directory to switch accounts. Open a collection from only one process at a time.

Run the web UI with Docker

Published images (multi-arch amd64 + arm64): ghcr.io/ignity21/ankinote-ai and ignity21/ankinote-ai (Docker Hub), tags latest, <major>.<minor>, and the exact version.

Two ready-made compose stacks under deploy/:

cd deploy/standard        # GUI + an AnkiConnect you already run
# or: cd deploy/headless  # standalone service — no Anki app, syncs itself to AnkiWeb
cp .env.example .env      # set ANKINOTE_STORAGE_SECRET (+ AnkiWeb login for headless)
docker compose up -d      # http://localhost:8080

AI provider keys are added in the web UI (Settings page), not .env. See deploy/README.md for the difference between the stacks, the AnkiConnect host setup, and building locally. The published image bundles the anki library, so both backends work without a custom build.

⌨️ CLI

For scripting and batch runs, ankinote provides word / phrase / sentence / stem subcommands. It reads provider profiles and the Anki backend from the same settings.json the Web UI writes — run bare ankinote for an interactive menu to manage them, or pass --profile/--image-profile to pick one by name (ankinote profiles list --json shows what's configured); .env / environment variables still work as a fallback. See the CLI usage guide for setup and the full command reference — most users should start with the Web UI above instead.

📦 Tech Stack

• Language: Python 3.14+
• Package Manager: uv
• AI/ML: litellm (OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, fal.ai, etc.)
• TTS: Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API
• Image Generation: OpenAI (gpt-image), Gemini, fal.ai
• Anki Integration: AnkiConnect
• Card Templates: HTML + CSS

🔧 API Services

AI Provider (via litellm)

• Text generation for definitions, examples, and mnemonics
• Image generation (Gemini) for card visuals
• Supports Gemini, GPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Qwen, and more

Google Cloud TTS

• High-quality audio generation
• Multiple voice options

AnkiConnect

• Direct communication with Anki
• Real-time card creation
• Deck management

🛠️ Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ignity21/ankinote-ai.git
cd ankinote-ai

# Install the project and development dependencies
uv sync

# Run tests
make test

# Format code
make format

# Type checking
make check

Documentation

• CLI Usage Guide
• Note Types
• Skill — for using AnkiNote with AI coding assistants

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details