Anki MCP server

This MCP server implementation connects to a locally running Anki application, enabling card review and creation functionality through the Model Context Protocol. It requires the Anki desktop application and the Anki-Connect add-on to function properly.

Prerequisites

• Anki desktop app installed
• Anki-Connect add-on installed in Anki

Installation

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

2. Build the server:

   npm run build
   

3. Configure Claude Desktop to use the server by adding the following to your config file:

   MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "anki-mcp-server": {
         "command": "/path/to/anki-mcp-server/build/index.js"
       }
     }
   }
   

Usage

Available Resources

The server provides several resources that correspond to Anki search queries:

• anki://search/deckcurrent

  • Returns all cards from the current deck
  • Equivalent to deck:current in Anki

• anki://search/isdue

  • Returns cards in review and learning that are waiting to be studied
  • Equivalent to is:due in Anki

• anki://search/isnew

  • Returns all unseen cards
  • Equivalent to is:new in Anki

Tools

The server offers several tools for interacting with Anki:

get_due_cards

Returns a specified number of cards that are due for review.

Inputs:

• num (number): Number of cards to return

get_new_cards

Returns a specified number of new cards.

Inputs:

• num (number): Number of cards to return

update_cards

Marks cards as answered with a specified ease score.

Inputs:

• answers (array): Array of objects with:
  • cardId (number): The ID of the card
  • ease (number): Ease score between 1 (Again) and 4 (Easy)

add_card

Creates a new card in the Default Anki deck.

Inputs:

• front (string): Front content of the card
• back (string): Back content of the card

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, you can use the MCP Inspector for debugging:

npm run inspector

This will provide a URL to access debugging tools in your browser, which is helpful since MCP servers communicate over stdio.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "anki-mcp-server" '{"command":"/path/to/anki-mcp-server/build/index.js"}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "anki-mcp-server": {
            "command": "/path/to/anki-mcp-server/build/index.js"
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "anki-mcp-server": {
            "command": "/path/to/anki-mcp-server/build/index.js"
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect