Anki Census

Anki Census is an Anki Desktop add-on that provides a local user analytics dashboard and, during semester census windows, sends privacy-conscious aggregated data to a public API.

The project has two layers:

1. My Anki: a local dashboard with collection metrics, recent activity, FSRS usage, media stats, add-on insights, and (when available) community comparisons.
2. Anki Census: a semester census that tracks aggregate Anki usage and add-on adoption patterns across the global community.

Author: Danyel Barboza - Anki Community

Overview

The My Anki screen summarizes local usage, including:

• approximate card, note, deck, tag, and note-type counts
• recent review activity
• retention over recent windows
• study-day consistency
• FSRS adoption
• answer-button distribution (Again, Hard, Good, Easy)
• media footprint and composition
• installed add-ons
• wrapped-style profile generated from aggregate signals
• community comparisons when enough public responses exist

Project Structure

addon/      Anki Desktop add-on
worker/     Cloudflare Worker API + Cloudflare D1 database
scripts/    Add-on packaging scripts
privacy.md  Privacy policy

Data dictionary file:

dicionario-dados-anki-census.ods

Version Requirement

• Anki Desktop 24.06+
• Windows, macOS, Linux

Collection Windows

The census runs twice a year:

06/01 to 06/10
12/10 to 12/20

Survey ID examples:

anki-census-2026-1
anki-census-2026-2

During active windows, one submission is sent per local user/profile if participation is not paused.

Data Sent

The add-on sends aggregate technical signals, such as:

• Anki version and OS
• add-on list (technical metadata)
• collection size buckets
• FSRS and scheduling buckets
• review activity buckets
• optional profile fields
• aggregate fingerprint for deduplication support

Most numeric values are bucketed.

Data Not Sent

Anki Census does not send:

• card content
• note content
• deck/tag/field/note-type names
• media files or media file names
• email
• real name
• AnkiWeb login
• local collection file paths

See privacy.md.

Backend

The backend uses:

• Cloudflare Worker
• Cloudflare D1
• HTTP endpoints
• payload validation
• separate tables for production and debug submissions

Public endpoints:

GET  /config
POST /submit
POST /debug-submit
GET  /results
GET  /results.html

Deploy Backend

cd worker
npm install
npx wrangler login
npm run db:create
npm run db:init
npm run deploy

Keep the current D1 database name unchanged for compatibility:

database_name = "censo-anki-brasil-db"

Configure API URL

In add-on UI:

Tools -> Anki Census -> Settings -> API URL

Or at build time:

python scripts/build_addon.py --api-url "https://anki-census-api.YOURSUBDOMAIN.workers.dev"

Embedding Client

Anki Census includes a reusable embedded client module for other add-ons:

• folder: addon/anki_census/censo_client
• docs: docs/EMBEDDING_CENSO_CLIENT.md

Add-ons Embedding Anki Census Client

The following add-ons currently ship with the embedded censo_client module:

1. Dynamic Deadline New Cards (anki-dynamic-deadline)

These add-ons reuse shared global runtime/config state so end users do not need manual setup.

New Repository

Official repository:

• https://github.com/danyelbarboza/anki-census

This project started as Censo Anki Brasil and is now evolving as Anki Census with backward-compatible migration behavior.