AnkiConnect

The AnkiConnect plugin enables external applications such as Yomichan for Chrome to communicate with Anki over a remote API. This makes it possible to execute queries against the user's card deck, automatically create new vocabulary and Kanji flash cards, and more. AnkiConnect is compatible with latest stable and alpha versions of Anki.

Requirements

• Anki

Installation

AnkiConnect can be downloaded from its Anki shared addon page or enabled through the Yomichan plugin if you have it installed. Once AnkiConnect is installed it is ready for use; no further configuration is required. Windows users may have to take additional steps to make Windows Firewall allows AnkiConnect to listen for incoming connections on TCP port 8765.

Limitations on Mac OS X

While it is possible to use this plugin on this operating system, there is a known issue in which it is required that the Anki application window to be on screen for card creation to work properly. The cause is apparently that Mac OS X suspends graphical applications running in the background, thus preventing Anki from responding to Yomichan queries.

Until this problem is resolved, users of this Mac OS X will have to keep both the browser window and Anki on-screen. Sorry for the lameness; I am researching a fix for this issue.

Application Interface

AnkiConnect exposes Anki features to external applications via an easy to use RESTful API. After it is installed, this plugin will initialize a minimal HTTP sever running on port 8765 every time Anki executes. Other applications (including browser extensions) can then communicate with it via HTTP POST requests.

Sample Invocation

Every request consists of an action, and a set of contextual parameters. A simple example of a JavaScript application communicating with the extension is illustrated below:

function ankiInvoke(action, params={}) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
        xhr.addEventListener('loadend', () => {
            if (xhr.responseText) {
                resolve(JSON.parse(xhr.responseText));
            } else {
                reject('unable to connect to plugin');
            }
        });

        xhr.open('POST', 'http://127.0.0.1:8765');
        xhr.send(JSON.stringify({action, params}));
    });
}

ankiInvoke('version').then(response => {
    window.alert(`detected API version: ${response}`);
}).catch(error => {
    window.alert(`could not get API version: ${error}`);
});

Supported Actions

The following actions are currently supported:

• version

  Gets the version of the API exposed by this plugin. Currently only version 1 is defined.

  This should be the first call you make to make sure that your application and AnkiConnect are able to communicate properly with each other. New versions of AnkiConnect will backwards compatible; as long as you are using actions which are available in the reported AnkiConnect version or earlier, everything should work fine.

  Sample request:

  {
      action: 'version',
      params: {}
  }
  

  Sample response:

  1
  

• deckNames

  Gets the complete list of deck names for the current user.

  Sample request:

  {
      action: 'deckNames',
      params: {}
  }
  

  Sample response:

  [
      'Default',
      /* ... */
  ]
  

• modelNames

  Gets the complete list of model names for the current user.

  Sample request:

  {
      action: 'modelNames',
      params: {}
  }
  

  Sample response:

  [
      'Basic',
      'Basic (and reversed card)',
      /* ... */
  ]
  

• modelFieldNames

  Gets the complete list of field names for the provided model name.

  Sample request:

  {
      action: 'modelFieldNames',
      params: {
          modelName: 'Basic'
      }
  }
  

  Sample response:

  [
      'Front',
      'Back',
      /* ... */
  ]
  

• addNote

  Creates a note for the given deck and model, with the provided field values and tags. Returns the identifier of the created note created on success, and null on failure.

  AnkiConnect can download audio files and embed them in newly created notes. The corresponding audio note member is optional and can be omitted. If you choose to include it, the url and filename fields must be also defined. The skipHash field can be optionally provided to skip the inclusion of downloaded files with an MD5 hash that matches the provided value. This is useful for avoiding the saving of error pages and stub files.

  Sample request:

  {
      action: 'addNote',
      params: {
          deckName: 'Default',
          modelName: 'Basic',
          note: {
              fields: {
                  Front: 'front content',
                  Back: 'back content',
                  /* ... */
              },
              tags: [
                  'yomichan',
                  /* ... */
              ],
              audio: /* optional */ {
                  url: 'https://assets.languagepod101.com/dictionary/japanese/audiomp3.php?kanji=猫&kana=ねこ',
                  filename: 'yomichan_ねこ_猫.mp3',
                  skipHash: '7e2c2f954ef6051373ba916f000168dc'
              }
          }
      }
  }
  

  Sample response:

  null
  

• canAddNotes

  Accepts an array of objects which define parameters for candidate notes (see addNote) and returns an array of booleans indicating whether or not the parameters at the corresponding index could be used to create a new note.

  Sample request:

  {
      action: 'canAddNotes',
      params: {
          notes: [
              deckName: 'Default',
              modelName: 'Basic',
              note: {
                  fields: {
                      Front: 'front content',
                      Back: 'back content',
                      /* ... */
                  },
                  tags: [
                      'yomichan',
                      /* ... */
                  ]
              }
              /* ... */
          ]
      }
  }
  

  Sample response:

  [
      true,
      /* ... */
  ]
  

License

GPL