mcp-ankiconnect MCP server

Connect Claude conversations with AnkiConnect via MCP to make spaced repetition as easy as "Let's go through today's flashcards" or "Make flashcards for this"

Components

Tools

The server implements the following tools:

• `num_cards_due_today`: Get the number of cards due today
  • Optional `deck` argument to filter by specific deck
  • Returns count of due cards across all decks or specified deck

• `get_due_cards`: Get cards that are due for review
  • Optional `limit` argument (default: 5) to control number of cards
  • Optional `deck` argument to filter by specific deck
  • Optional `today_only` argument (default: true) to show only today's cards
  • Returns cards in XML format with questions and answers

• `submit_reviews`: Submit answers for reviewed cards
  • Takes list of `reviews` with `card_id` and `rating`
  • Ratings: "wrong", "hard", "good", "easy"
  • Returns confirmation of submitted reviews

• `search_notes`: Find notes by AnkiConnect query. Returns IDs + a short Front preview by default (cheap); pass `return_card_content=true` to receive cleaned field content inline.
• `inspect_cards`: View per-card state for given card IDs or note IDs. Sparse-fieldset selection via the `properties` list: any of `identity`, `state`, `scheduling`, `timestamps`, `history`, `fields`, or `all` (default: `["identity", "state", "scheduling"]`). The legacy `include_history=true` flag is still accepted as an alias.
• `update_note_fields`: Modify the text content of one note's fields. Uses the same MathJax/code conversions as `add_note`.
• `update_note_tags`: Add and/or remove tags on one or more notes.
• `set_suspended`: Suspend or unsuspend one or more cards.
• `change_deck`: Move cards (by card ID) into a different deck.
• `reschedule_cards`: Set due date, forget, or relearn one or more cards.

Configuration

Prerequisites

• Anki must be running with AnkiConnect plugin installed (plugin id 2055492159)

AnkiConnect can be slow on Macs due to the AppSleep feature, so disable it for Anki. To do so run the following in your terminal.

defaults write net.ankiweb.dtop NSAppSleepDisabled -bool true
  defaults write net.ichi2.anki NSAppSleepDisabled -bool true
  defaults write org.qt-project.Qt.QtWebEngineCore NSAppSleepDisabled -bool true

Installation

Quickstart

1. Install the AnkiConnect plugin in Anki:

2. Configure Claude Desktop:

On MacOS: `~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`

On Windows: `%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`

Add this configuration:

{
     "mcpServers": {
       "mcp-ankiconnect": {
         "command": "uv",
         "args": ["run", "--with", "mcp-ankiconnect", "mcp-ankiconnect"]
       }
     }
   }

3. Restart Anki and Claude desktop

Debugging

Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging

experience, we strongly recommend using the MCP Inspector.

First, clone the repository and install the dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/samefarrar/mcp-ankiconnect.git
cd mcp-ankiconnect
uv sync

You can launch the MCP Inspector via the mcp CLI:

uv run mcp dev mcp_ankiconnect/server.py

Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL you can access in your browser to begin debugging.