Mankey - Anki MCP Server

Supercharge your Anki workflow with MCP! A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects to Anki, enabling AI-powered card creation, learning analytics, and intelligent review management through 45 comprehensive tools.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

1. Anki - Desktop application
2. Anki-Connect - Install via Anki → Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons → Code: 2055492159
3. Bun - JavaScript runtime

Installation

This will automatically add the MCP server to your Claude Desktop configuration.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anki": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mankey"]
    }
  }
}

Manual Configuration

npx mankey

🚀 What You Can Do

📚 Create Learning Content from Any Source

• "Create flashcards from this PDF about quantum physics"
• "Turn this article into language learning cards with audio"
• "Generate cloze deletions for these medical terms"
• "Make image occlusion cards from this anatomy diagram"

🎯 Smart Review Management

• "Show me my hardest cards and explain why I'm struggling"
• "Reschedule cards I've failed multiple times"
• "Optimize intervals for cards I know well"
• "Find and fix duplicate or similar cards"

📖 Generate Stories & Mnemonics

• "Create a story using my due Japanese vocabulary"
• "Make mnemonics for these chemical formulas"
• "Generate example sentences for difficult words"
• "Create memory palace descriptions for historical dates"

📊 Learning Analytics

• "Analyze my review patterns and suggest improvements"
• "Show cards I'm most likely to forget soon"
• "Find knowledge gaps in my study topics"
• "Track my progress on specific subjects"

🎨 Custom Card Templates

• "Create a template for medical case studies"
• "Design cards optimized for code snippets"
• "Make interactive cards with hints and explanations"
• "Build progressive disclosure templates"

🔧 Bulk Operations

• "Tag all cards about specific topics"
• "Move cards between decks based on performance"
• "Update formatting across all cards"
• "Clean up and standardize card content"

Example Conversations

Creating Cards from Content

You: "I'm reading about the French Revolution. Create cards for key events."
Claude: I'll create flashcards for major French Revolution events...
[Creates cards with dates, causes, key figures, and outcomes]

Learning Optimization

You: "Find my most difficult Spanish vocabulary and create practice sentences"
Claude: I found 15 cards with <50% success rate. Here are contextual sentences...
[Generates sentences and updates cards with example usage]

Study Analytics

You: "How am I doing with my medical terminology deck?"
Claude: You're reviewing 45 cards/day with 78% retention. Cards about prefixes 
need more work. I suggest focusing on these 10 challenging concepts...

Core Features

✅ 45 comprehensive tools covering all Anki operations
✅ AI-powered content generation - Create cards from any text, PDF, or webpage
✅ Intelligent review scheduling - Optimize intervals based on performance
✅ Smart normalization - Handles tags/IDs in any format
✅ Pagination - Efficiently handle large collections
✅ Queue priority - Respects Anki's learning system
✅ Auto-batching - Splits large operations automatically
✅ TypeScript + Zod - Full type safety and validation

Tool Categories

📇 Cards (15 tools)

• Query: findCards - Find with pagination, supports deck:current
• Info: cardsInfo, cardsModTime, getIntervals, getEaseFactors
• State: suspend, unsuspend, areSuspended, areDue
• Actions: answerCards, forgetCards, relearnCards, setEaseFactors
• Queue: getNextCards ⭐, getDueCardsDetailed ⭐

📝 Notes (10 tools)

• CRUD: addNote, addNotes, updateNote, deleteNotes
• Query: findNotes, notesInfo (auto-batched)
• Tags: addTags, removeTags, getTags, replaceTags

📚 Decks (7 tools)

• Manage: createDeck, deleteDecks, deckNames, deckNamesAndIds
• Config: getDeckConfig, saveDeckConfig, getDeckStats

🎨 Models (5 tools)

• Query: modelNames, modelNamesAndIds, modelFieldNames
• Create: createModel, updateModelTemplates

🖼️ Media (3 tools)

• storeMediaFile, retrieveMediaFile, getMediaFilesNames

📊 Stats & GUI (5 tools)

• Stats: getNumCardsReviewedToday, getCollectionStatsHTML, sync
• GUI: guiBrowse, guiAddCards

Key Capabilities

Pagination

{
  "query": "deck:current is:due",
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 100
}
// Returns: cards + {total, hasMore, nextOffset}

Queue Priority

Learning → Review → New cards (via getNextCards)

Auto-batching

Operations >100 items split automatically

Flexible IDs

Both [1234] and ["1234"] work

Testing

# Run all E2E tests
bun test:e2e

# Run specific test suites
bun test:e2e:basic      # Basic connectivity
bun test:e2e:tags       # Tag handling
bun test:e2e:fixes      # Return value consistency
bun test:e2e:real       # Real operations
bun test:e2e:pagination # Pagination support
bun test:e2e:queue      # Queue priority

# Run with test runner (includes connection check)
bun test:e2e:all

# Development
bun test:e2e:watch      # Watch mode

Project Structure

anky/
├── src/index.ts           # MCP server (45 tools)
├── tests/                 # E2E integration tests
│   ├── *.test.ts         # Bun Jest test suites
│   ├── test-utils.ts     # Shared test utilities
│   └── run-tests.ts      # Test runner
├── scripts/               # Standalone test scripts
│   ├── test-*.ts         # Manual test scripts
│   └── test-*.sh         # Shell test scripts
├── docs/                  # Documentation
├── package.json          # Dependencies
└── bunfig.toml          # Bun configuration

Troubleshooting

Cannot connect: Ensure Anki is running with Anki-Connect installed
Permission dialog: Click "Yes" on first connection
macOS background: Disable App Nap if needed:

defaults write net.ankiweb.dtop NSAppSleepDisabled -bool true

Environment Variables

• ANKI_CONNECT_URL - Default: http://127.0.0.1:8765
• ANKI_API_KEY - Optional, if configured in Anki-Connect

API Patterns

| Operation | Returns | |-----------|---------| | CREATE | ID (number/string) | | UPDATE/DELETE/ACTION | true on success | | GET | Data or null |

Common Use Cases

🌐 Language Learning

• Create vocabulary cards with example sentences
• Generate grammar pattern cards
• Build cards from reading materials

🔬 STEM Studies

• Convert formulas into practice problems
• Create diagram-based cards
• Build concept relationship cards

💼 Professional Learning

• Create cards from documentation
• Build terminology databases
• Track skill progression

Power User Tips

• Web Content: "Create cards from this article about machine learning"
• Code Learning: "Generate cards explaining this Python function"
• Document Analysis: "Extract key points from this PDF chapter"
• Bulk Management: "Tag all biology cards and optimize their intervals"

Links

• Anki-Connect Docs
• MCP Specification
• Anki Forums
• Claude Desktop

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please check out our Contributing Guide for details.

License

MIT