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.

Requirements

• Anki (versions 2.0.x and 2.1.x supported)

Installation (for most users)

AnkiConnect can be downloaded from the shared addon page on AnkiWeb. Once installed, the extension is ready for immediate use.

Windows

Windows users may see a firewall nag dialog on Anki startup because this plugins acts as sever. Anki must be unblocked for this plugin to function.

Mac OS X

Starting with Mac OS X Mavericks, a feature named App Nap has been introduced to the operating system. This feature causes certain applications which are open (but not visible) to be placed in a suspended state. As this behavior causes AnkiConnect to stop working while you have another window in the foreground, App Nap should be disabled for Anki:

1. Start the Terminal application.

2. Execute the following command in the terminal window:

   defaults write net.ichi2.anki NSAppSleepDisabled -bool true
   

3. Restart Anki.

Application Interface (for developers)

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 using 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',
          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
  

• addNotes

  Creates multiple notes using the given deck and model, with the provided field values and tags. Returns an array of identifiers of the created notes (notes that could not be created will have a null identifier). Please see the documentation for addNote for an explanation of objects in the notes array.

  Sample request:

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

  Sample response:

  [
      true,
      /* ... */
  ]
  

License

GPL