Deck Maker

Deck Maker

Turn YouTube videos, webpages, or any text into Anki flashcards — by just asking Claude.

Release License: MIT Python 3.13+ MCP Server Claude Code Plugin

English | 한국어

You:    Pull the useful English expressions from this video into Anki
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNP03fDSj1U

Claude: Here are 10 candidates from the transcript:

        | Expression      | Meaning         | Example from video              |
        |-----------------|-----------------|---------------------------------|
        | stuck in a rut  | 틀에 박혀 있다   | I felt like I was stuck in a rut|
        | give it a shot  | 한번 해보다      | Just give it a shot.            |
        | ...             | ...             | ...                             |

        Remove or edit anything before I sync them.

You:    Drop #7, rest looks good

Claude: Done — 9 cards added to your "English" deck. ✅

No copy-pasting subtitles. No manual card typing. You review in chat; Anki gets the cards.

Features

• 🎬 Any source — YouTube subtitles (auto-downloaded), webpages, pasted text, local files
• 🌍 Any language pair — learning Chinese with Korean meanings? English with Japanese? Just say so
• 🧠 Beyond languages — memorize C++ syntax, Linux commands, or any facts as Q&A / cloze cards
• 💬 Human in the loop — every card is shown to you in chat before it touches Anki
• 🔁 Idempotent syncs — re-running updates existing cards instead of duplicating them
• 📦 Works offline from Anki — builds a standalone .apkg when Anki isn't running
• 🔌 One install, two interfaces — a Claude Code plugin (skill + MCP server) that also works in Claude Desktop or any MCP client

Quickstart

Prereqs: Anki with the AnkiConnect add-on (code 2055492159), and uv.

In Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add initcatcher/Deck-Maker

Install the deck-maker plugin from the marketplace, keep Anki open, and share a link:

"Make Anki cards from this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."

That's it. Claude asks for your deck once, remembers it, and syncs reviewed cards from then on.

How it works

flowchart LR
    A["🎬 YouTube / 🌐 Web / 📄 Text"] --> B["🤖 Claude extracts candidates"]
    B --> C["💬 You review & edit in chat"]
    C --> D["🗂️ Anki deck (via AnkiConnect)"]
    C -.->|Anki not running| E["📦 .apkg file"]

The MCP server stays thin on purpose: it handles the two things Claude can't do alone — downloading YouTube subtitles (prepare_video) and writing to Anki (add_cards). Everything else (fetching webpages, reading files, choosing good expressions, the review conversation) is Claude.

Card types

Claude picks the right type from context: a language video becomes vocab cards, a C++ tutorial becomes cloze cards like std::vector removes its last element with {{c1::pop_back()}}.

Other ways to install

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "deck-maker": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/initcatcher/Deck-Maker", "deck-maker-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

uv sync
uv run deck-maker "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..." --deck-name "English YouTube"

Troubleshooting

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome — the codebase is small and deliberately boring: uv run pytest runs the whole suite in under a second.

If Deck Maker saved you some typing, a ⭐ helps other learners find it.

License

MIT