Anki

Guidelines

• MUST use the Anki Markdown note type for basic cards or Anki Markdown Cloze for cloze deletions
• Use markdown for both front and back fields
• Test exactly one fact or idea per card
• Make questions atomic and simple
• Keep questions and answers short, clear, and unambiguous
• Ensure each card has one unique, specific answer
• Avoid long lists or multiple items in one card
• Add context or hints so your future self understands
• Personalize with examples or mnemonics if helpful
• Allow multiple simple cards for important concepts
• Create multiple variants of important questions from different angles
• Connect cards to personal goals and projects to avoid "orphan" facts
• Always use syntax highlighting for code (see Code Snippets section)
• When creating multiple related cards, use bulk operations for efficiency

Choosing Card Type

Use Anki Markdown (Front/Back) for question-answer pairs where you write a specific question. Use Anki Markdown Cloze (Text/Extra) for fill-in-the-blank cards where hiding parts of a statement is more natural than writing a question.

Cloze Cards

Use Anki Markdown Cloze for fill-in-the-blank cards. Fields are Text and Extra.

Syntax

Three forms:

• {{c1::answer}} - shows [...] on front
• {{c1::answer::hint}} - shows [hint] on front
• {{c1::answer::blur}} - shows blurred content on front (reveals shape but not text)

Full markdown works inside cloze deletions: bold, italic, highlights, inline code with language tags, links, images, code blocks, and tables.

Multiple Cards

Each cloze number (c1, c2, c3...) generates a separate card. Use different numbers to test different facts from the same note:

{"Text": "{{c1::HTML}} provides structure, {{c2::CSS}} provides style."}

This produces 2 cards. Card 1 hides "HTML", card 2 hides "CSS".

Using the same number multiple times hides all instances on the same card:

{"Text": "{{c1::React}} and {{c1::Vue}} are frontend frameworks."}

This produces 1 card that hides both "React" and "Vue".

Nested Cloze

Cloze deletions can be nested. The outer cloze hides everything including the inner:

{"Text": "{{c1::Canberra was {{c2::founded}}}} in 1913."}

Card 1 hides "Canberra was founded". Card 2 only hides "founded".

Inline Code in Cloze

Inline code with language tags works inside cloze. Note the triple closing braces (}}}) when code uses {lang} syntax:

{"Text": "Use {{c1::`querySelector()`{js}}} to find DOM elements."}

Extra Field

The Extra field appears on the back of every card. Use it for context, examples, or references. It supports full markdown including code blocks and callouts.

Cloze Examples

# Basic cloze
$ANKI add "MyDeck" "Anki Markdown Cloze" '{"Text":"The {{c1::CPU}} executes {{c2::instructions}}.","Extra":"Basic computer architecture."}' --tags "cs"

# Cloze with hint
$ANKI add "MyDeck" "Anki Markdown Cloze" '{"Text":"{{c1::JavaScript::language}} was created in {{c2::1995::year}}.","Extra":"Created by Brendan Eich."}' --tags "history"

# Cloze with blur
$ANKI add "MyDeck" "Anki Markdown Cloze" '{"Text":"The speed of light is {{c1::299,792,458 m/s::blur}}.","Extra":"Often approximated as 3 x 10^8 m/s."}' --tags "physics"

Front Field Format

Use markdown on the front to highlight key terms the question is about:

• Use bold or ==highlight== for the main concept being tested
• Use inline code for technical terms, functions, or syntax

Example: What does **vertex_index** return in WGSL?

Back Field Format

Use this format for the Back field:

1. Bold one-liner with the direct answer
2. Blank line
3. Additional context in normal text (optional)

Formatting for Fast Skimming

• Use ==highlighted== to make key terms stand out at a glance
• Use bold for critical concepts within explanations
• Use syntax highlighting for all code blocks including inline
• Optimize for quick visual scanning—readers should grasp the core idea instantly

Keyboard Shortcuts

Use <kbd> tags for keyboard keys:

Press <kbd>Cmd</kbd>+<kbd>Shift</kbd>+<kbd>P</kbd> to open the command palette.

Code Snippets

Always use syntax highlighting:

• Fenced blocks: Use triple backticks with language (js, python, ```rust, etc.)
• Inline code: Use `code`{lang} syntax (e.g., `const x = 1`{js})

Advanced features:

• Line highlighting: ```js {2} to highlight line 2
• Word highlighting: ```js /pattern/ to highlight specific words
• Focus mode: Add // [!code focus] comment to focus specific lines

Callouts

Use GitHub-style alerts sparingly for important notes:

> [!TIP]
> Brief helpful insight here.

> [!NOTE]
> Useful context the learner should know.

> [!WARNING]
> Common mistake or gotcha to avoid.

Example

Front: What does `passEncoder.draw(3)`{js} do with **no vertex buffer**?
Back:

**Invokes the ==vertex shader== 3 times.**

The shader uses `@builtin(vertex_index)`{wgsl} to generate positions ==procedurally==.

> [!TIP]
> Useful for fullscreen quads without geometry data.

Common Operations

Run via $ANKI <action> [args...]:

Typical workflow

$ANKI sync                          # sync first
$ANKI decks                         # check available decks
$ANKI models                        # verify required model exists
$ANKI fields "Anki Markdown"        # verify field names for selected model
$ANKI find "deck:MyDeck front:test" # check for duplicates
$ANKI add "MyDeck" "Anki Markdown" '{"Front":"...","Back":"..."}'
$ANKI sync                          # sync after changes