AnkiEngine

Lecture in.
Deck out.

Drop in the slides, the transcript and the objectives. An AI agent writes the cards, you check each step, and Anki gets the deck. Set up a semester, and every deck is sized to the next exam.

Download Free and open source · macOS, Windows, Linux Every build is on the release page.
Why it exists

Making the deck was always the slow part.

“I have used Anki religiously for science and non-science classes for more than five years. The bottleneck was always making the decks.”
— the person who built AnkiEngine

Three steps.
You sign off on each.

Extract

Every fact in the slides and transcript, each with the line it came from. You read the inventory first.

Organize

A plan of which facts become which cards, held to the lecture objectives. Nothing is written until you approve it.

Generate

Cloze cards written to the plan. Flag what reads wrong; an independent auditor and adjudicator rule on each flag.

Then straight into Anki, or out as an .apkg to import by hand.

See how it works

One lecture, start to finish, in the real app. Sped up: each step takes minutes, and it waits for you at every review.

Generate high yield cards

Every card is a cloze with a hint that jogs the memory. The app checks every card, then an agent that wrote none of them reads the deck.

[which cells?] lay down osteoid
FrontA hint in every blank, so the question has one answer.
Osteoblasts lay down osteoidslide 12Source: “Osteoblasts lay down the unmineralized matrix, osteoid.” Bone-lecture.pdf, slide 12
BackThe source line and the slide, so a doubt is settled in a second.
[which cell, ringed?]
RecognitionWhen the exam shows a picture, so does the card.

Works with cards already in Anki

AnkiEngine talks to Anki through the AnkiConnect add-on. It reads what the collection holds before it writes anything, and it never changes a card already there. No add-on? Export writes an .apkg to import by hand.

Knows the decks

The deck name offers the decks Anki already has. The planning step is told which cards that deck holds, so it does not write them twice.

Knows what is studied

Before anything is sent, the last step says how much of the deck is in Anki already, and how much of it has been studied.

No duplicates

Every card has a stable identity. A send skips what Anki already has; a re-imported .apkg updates the cards in place.

Add a file later

Drop a study guide on a finished deck. Only what it adds becomes new cards; the ones in Anki stay word for word, review history and all.

Manage classes, one semester at a time.

Switch to School and set up a semester and the classes in it. Provide a syllabus, notes or study guide, and the agent turns them into a short brief every deck in the class reads. You read it first.

  • The brief brings the exam dates and formats, what is off the exam, and the course terms. Where it and the lecture objectives differ, the lecture wins.
  • Deadlines too: lab reports, problem sets, papers. Coming up puts them beside the exams and marks what falls this week.
  • Each deck is sized to fit a daily new-card limit before the exam it is studied for: the core cards first, the rest after.
  • A study guide handed out in week six updates the brief, and moves a date when it says so. A date set by hand stays.
  • Only want cards? Stay in Decks, and none of this shows.

You stay in charge.

Talk to it

Tell the agent what to change, in plain words, at any step. A message sent while it works steers the run it is in.

Flag what reads wrong

Flags, and whatever the audit finds, go to an adjudicator that wrote none of the cards. It approves, fixes or cuts each one.

Stop, cancel, put back

Stop keeps what a step wrote; Cancel offers it for the trash. A deleted deck or file waits 30 days, with Undo.

Use the AI you already have.

Any subscription agent from the public ACP registry, installed with one click and signed in through the browser. Or any model through an OpenRouter key.

  • Claude
  • Codex
  • Cursor
  • Antigravity
  • OpenCode
  • and more
  • OpenRouter key

Keep everything local.

Only what goes to the agent leaves the computer. No accounts, no server, no telemetry. Course folders stay where they are, API keys go to the OS keychain, and updates install only with a click.

Questions

Does Anki have to be open?

Only to send cards straight in, with the AnkiConnect add-on (code 2055492159). Without it, Export writes an .apkg to double-click.

Will it make cards Anki already has?

No. It reads the deck first, plans around what is there, and a send skips any note Anki already holds.

What does it cost?

The app is free and open source. The generation is done by an AI agent on a subscription you already pay for, or by any model through an OpenRouter key.

Which files can it read?

Slides as PDF, transcripts, notes and objectives as text, and images. Keynote or PowerPoint files need exporting to PDF first.

Is it only for science classes?

No. Any course with slides, a transcript or notes to learn from works the same way.

Is School required?

No. Decks is the whole app for anyone who only wants cards; semesters, classes and exams never show there.

First launch

Free software, not notarized, so each system asks once.
macOSThe first open says it “cannot be opened”. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
WindowsSmartScreen says the publisher is unknown. More info → Run anyway.
LinuxMark the AppImage executable (chmod +x) or install the .deb.
Already have a deck.json? The browser tool runs the same engine in a tab: check a deck, read every card, export a real .apkg. Nothing to install, nothing uploaded.
Open the browser tool