Anki MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for managing Anki flashcards. Connects to AnkiConnect to enable AI assistants to create, read, and update flashcards.

Prerequisites

• Anki with AnkiConnect add-on installed
• Node.js 24+ (Download)
• Anki running, with AnkiConnect on http://127.0.0.1:8765 (default)

Installation in Claude Desktop

• Open Claude Desktop
• Go to: "Claude" / "Settings..."
• Tab "Developer"
• Click "Edit Config"

Edit your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json), and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anki": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "stefanwille-anki-mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop to activate.

Example Prompts

• "What decks do I have in Anki?"
• "Show the cards in my Spanish vocabulary deck"
• "Check all cards in deck 'Italiano::Capitulo 3' for grammatical errors and correct them"
• "Create a card in my Italian deck with 'ciao' on the front and 'hello' on the back"
• "Extract the vocabulary from the photo and add it to my Italian deck with Italian on the front and German on the back: ..."
• "Create a new deck called 'Physics::Quantum Mechanics'"
• "Rename my 'Math' deck to 'Mathematics'"
• "Give me an exercise that requires me to use the Italian words in the deck 'Italienisch::Capitulo 6::Italienisch 38 - 2025-08-01'"

Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | get_decks | Get all deck names from Anki | | create_deck | Create a new deck | | list_cards | List cards in a deck with front/back content | | create_card | Create a new basic card | | update_card | Update an existing card's content | | rename_deck | Rename a deck |

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24+
• pnpm (Installation)

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/stefanwille/anki-mcp-server.git
cd anki-mcp-server
pnpm install
pnpm build

Watch Mode

pnpm watch

Rebuilds automatically on file changes.

Install Locally

Update Claude Desktop config to point directly to the built file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anki": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/anki-mcp-server/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Replace /absolute/path/to/anki-mcp-server with your actual clone location.

Publish to npm

Create a GitHub release to trigger the npm publish workflow:

pnpm login
pnpm version patch  # or minor, major
git push && git push --tags
gh release create v$(node -p "require('./package.json').version") --generate-notes

This triggers the GitHub Actions workflow that publishes to npm automatically using trusted publishing (OIDC), not access tokens.

License

MIT