anki-mcp-addon

Talk to your Anki collection. Point Claude (or any MCP client) at your flashcards and study, edit, and analyze your deck in plain conversation. No AnkiConnect, no Node.js, no external dependencies. It's a small Python add-on that runs an MCP server inside Anki itself.

Why

Anki is powerful but manual: browsing, tagging, and reviewing all happen through the desktop UI. This add-on turns your collection into something an LLM can actually work with, so you can ask for things instead of clicking through them:

• "Quiz me on today's due cards, one at a time."
• "Turn these notes into 15 flashcards and put them in my Spanish deck."
• "How's my retention been this month? Which decks am I falling behind on?"
• "Find every card tagged hard, move them into a Review deck."
• "I got that one wrong, mark it Again."

Everything runs locally. Your collection never leaves your machine except through whatever MCP client you're already using.

Prerequisites

• Anki 23.10 or later (Python 3.9+ bundled)
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, etc.)

Installation

Via AnkiWeb (recommended)

1. Anki → Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons
2. Paste this code: 593632040
3. Restart Anki

Add-on page on AnkiWeb

Manual (for development or the latest unreleased code)

1. Find your Anki add-ons directory: Anki → Tools → Add-ons → View Files (opens %APPDATA%\Anki2\addons21\ on Windows)
2. Copy (or symlink) this repo's root folder (the one containing __init__.py and manifest.json) into that add-ons directory
3. Restart Anki

Either way, the MCP server starts automatically when you open a profile. It listens on http://127.0.0.1:8766.

Optional: change port

Tools → Add-ons → anki-mcp → Config opens a settings dialog. Change the port and click "Save and restart MCP server" (restarts the add-on's server, not Anki); no need to restart Anki. "Restore default" resets the field back to 8766.

Client setup

Tools → Add-ons → anki-mcp → Config → Client Setup tab has one-click copy for the Claude Code command and the manual Claude Desktop config, plus an Export Extension... button for the Claude Desktop .mcpb, all using whatever port you've actually got configured. The steps below are the same actions done by hand, for reference or scripting.

Claude Code

claude mcp add anki --transport sse http://127.0.0.1:8766/sse

Restart Claude Code. Anki must be open whenever you use it.

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop installs local MCP servers as Desktop Extensions (.mcpb files) rather than through manual JSON config. Easiest path: Tools → Add-ons → anki-mcp → Config → Client Setup tab → Export Extension..., save anki-mcp.mcpb anywhere.

Then in Claude Desktop: Settings → Extensions → Install Extension..., pick that file. It prompts for the Anki MCP server URL (defaults to http://127.0.0.1:8766/sse, only change it if you changed the add-on's port). Anki must be open.

<details> <summary>Rebuilding the .mcpb from source (maintainers only)</summary>

The exported file is a pre-built copy of desktop-extension.mcpb, checked into this repo. mcp-remote is bundled as a real dependency (not resolved via npx at runtime, which isn't reliably on PATH inside Claude Desktop's Node environment), so a rebuild needs npm install first. If you change desktop-extension/manifest.json, desktop-extension/server/index.js, or desktop-extension/server/package.json, rebuild and commit it:

cd desktop-extension/server
npm install
cd ..
npx -y @anthropic-ai/mcpb pack . ../desktop-extension.mcpb

</details>

<details> <summary>Manual config (older Claude Desktop versions without Extensions support)</summary>

Add to claude_desktop_config.json (Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json). A bare url isn't supported in older versions, so bridge through mcp-remote:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anki": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "http://127.0.0.1:8766/sse"]
    }
  }
}

If Claude Desktop can't find npx on its own, use the absolute path (e.g. C:\\nvm4w\\nodejs\\npx.cmd on Windows) instead of "npx".

Note for Microsoft Store installs of Claude Desktop: the app reads its config from the MSIX-virtualized copy at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_<id>\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json — edits to %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json are silently ignored. The Extension install path above avoids this entirely. </details>

Other MCP-compatible clients

Use SSE transport URL: http://127.0.0.1:8766/sse

Refer to each client's MCP documentation for where to configure SSE servers.

Available tools

Notes

Decks

Study

Insights & sync

Development

pip install pytest
pytest

Tests run without Anki. The aqt and anki modules are mocked via tests/conftest.py.

Building the AnkiWeb package

python scripts/build_ankiaddon.py

Produces anki-mcp.ankiaddon (flat zip, no wrapping folder) for upload to the AnkiWeb listing. Must be re-run and re-uploaded whenever a runtime file changes, including desktop-extension.mcpb.

License

MIT