MDAnki

Converts Markdown file(s) to the Anki cards.

• MDAnki
  • Requirements
  • Install
  • Usage
  • Custom template
  • Supported files
  • Cards
  • Tags
  • Code and syntax highlighting
  • Supported languages
  • Images
  • LaTeX
  • Memory limit

Requirements

• Node.js v20+ (ESM-only)
• pnpm (preferred package manager)

Install

pnpm install -g @shbernal/mdanki

Usage

Convert a single markdown file:

mdanki library.md anki.apkg

Convert a single markdown file and let MDAnki pick the output path (current directory with .apkg extension):

mdanki library.md

Convert files from directory recursively:

mdanki ./documents/library ./documents/anki.apkg

Using all available options:

mdanki library.md anki.apkg --deck Library --template ~/.config/mdanki/template

Run without downloading remote assets (offline-friendly) or adjust the remote fetch timeout:

mdanki library.md --no-remote-media
mdanki library.md --remote-timeout 15000

Import just generated .apkg file to Anki ("File" - "Import").

Programmatic API

Install as a dependency and use the transformer directly:

pnpm add @shbernal/mdanki

One-call helper

import { convertMarkdownToAnkiDeck } from '@shbernal/mdanki';

const target = await convertMarkdownToAnkiDeck('./notes.md', {
  // target: './notes.apkg', // optional; inferred when source is a file
  deckName: 'My Deck',
  allowRemoteMedia: true,
});

Quickstart

// ESM only (Node 20+)
import { Transformer, resolveTargetPath } from '@shbernal/mdanki';

const source = './notes.md';
const target = await resolveTargetPath(source);

const transformer = new Transformer(source, target, {
  deckName: 'My Deck',
  templatePath: undefined, // set this to override the default cards
  allowRemoteMedia: true,
  remoteFetchTimeoutMs: 15_000,
});

await transformer.transform();

What to pass

• source: a file (.md or .markdown) or a directory to recurse through
• target: absolute path to the .apkg to write; use resolveTargetPath to pick ./<source>.apkg automatically for single files (directories must supply one)
• deckName: overrides the top-level # heading and default name from settings
• templatePath: directory containing front.html, back.html, style.css if you want a custom template
• allowRemoteMedia: fetch and embed remote images/assets found in markdown
• remoteFetchTimeoutMs: timeout (ms) for remote fetches

Common patterns

Convert an entire folder of markdown files into one deck:

const transformer = new Transformer('./notes', '/abs/path/to/notes.apkg');
await transformer.transform();

Use a custom template:

const transformer = new Transformer('notes.md', 'notes.apkg', {
  templatePath: '/home/user/.config/mdanki/template',
});
await transformer.transform();

Helpers such as resolveTargetPath and configuration utilities are exported from the package root. The CLI remains available via the mdanki binary for global installs.

Custom template

To override the default card template (defaults live here) use the --template option and point to a directory containing these files (names are fixed):

your-template/
  front.html
  back.html
  style.css

For example:

mdanki library.md anki.apkg --template ~/.config/mdanki/template

The contents of front.html, back.html, and style.css are used as the question, answer, and CSS respectively. If the directory or any file is missing, MDAnki falls back to the built-in defaults.

Supported files

MDAnki supports .md and .markdown files.

Cards

By default, MDAnki splits cards by ## headline. For example, below markdown will generate 2 cards where headlines will be on the front side and its description - on the back.

## What's the Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain-text-formatting syntax.
Its design allows it to be converted to many output formats,
but the original tool by the same name only supports HTML.

## Who created Markdown?

John Gruber created the Markdown language in 2004 in collaboration with
Aaron Swartz on the syntax.

If you want to have multiple lines on the card's front side - use % symbol for splitting front and back sides:

## YAGNI

Describe this acronym and why it's so important.

%

"You aren't gonna need it" (YAGNI) is a principle of extreme programming
(XP) that states a programmer should not add functionality until deemed
necessary.

When parsing only one markdown file, the title of the deck could be generated based on the top-level headline (# ).

Tags

Cards can have tags in their markdown sources. For adding tags to cart it should follow some rules:

• tags start from a new line
• only one line with tags per card
• a tag should be written in the link format
• tag (link text) should start from # symbol

MDAnki uses '^\\[#(.*)\\]' pattern for searching tags. This pattern could be overwritten by specifying custom settings. The source file in the tag link is optional.

The below example will generate a card with 3 tags: algorithms, OOP, and binary_tree.

## Binary tree

In computer science, a binary tree is a tree data structure in which each node has at most two children, which are referred to as the left child and the right child.

[#algorithms](./algorityms.md) [#OOP]() [#binary tree]()

Code and syntax highlighting

Code blocks can be written with and without specifying a language name:

The last code block will be treated by MDAnki as Bash code. The default language is bash (see src/configs/settings.ts).

Note! Creating a block without language name is not fully supported and should be eliminated in usage. Take a look at this:

echo "Code block with language name"

echo "Code block without language name"

Supported languages

MDAnki supports code highlighting for these languages:

actionscript, applescript, aspnet, bash, basic, batch, c, coffeescript, cpp, csharp, d, dart, erlang, fsharp, go, graphql, groovy, handlebars, java, json, latex, less, livescript, lua, makefile, markdown, markup-templating, nginx, objectivec, pascal, perl, php, powershell, python, r, ruby, rust, sass, scheme, smalltalk, smarty, sql, stylus, swift, typescript, vim, yaml.

Images

You can use links to image files inside markdown, MDAnki will parse them and add those images to the import collection. It's allowed to use two styles for writing images:

1. Inline:

2. Reference:

LaTeX

MDAnki and Anki can support LaTeX. Install LaTeX for your OS and use the [latex] attribute within Markdown files.

[latex]\\[e^x -1 = 3\\][/latex]

Memory limit

Converting a big Markdown file you can get a memory limit error like this:

Cannot enlarge memory arrays. Either (1) compile with -s TOTAL_MEMORY=X with X higher than the current value 16777216...

For overcoming this error, replace sql.js:

cp node_modules/sql.js/js/sql-memory-growth.js node_modules/sql.js/js/sql.js

More info here.