Skip to content
Conduit

mcp server

Deck-Maker

Turn YouTube videos, webpages, or any text into Anki flashcards with Claude — MCP server + Claude Code plugin for vocab, Q&A, and cloze cards

initcatcher/Deck-Makercommunitylistedunreviewed
Use tool

Set up

Runs on your computer. Pick your agent and operating system.

Before you start

  • uv (`curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh`)
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "deck-maker": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "deck-maker"
      ]
    }
  }
}

same format Cursor, GitHub Copilot CLI, Junie, JetBrains AI Assistant, Augment (Auggie CLI), Factory Droid, Kiro, Devin CLI +12

Values in angle brackets are placeholders. Restart Claude Desktop after editing its config.Claude Desktop docs

README

synced Oct 23, 2026

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

note_typeCardBest for
vocabexpression → meaning + examplewords, idioms, phrasal verbs in any language pair
basicquestion → answerconcepts, definitions, general facts
clozefill-in-the-blanksyntax, commands, anything better recalled than recognized

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

Add to your MCP configuration (Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer → Edit Config):

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

Runs straight from GitHub — no clone needed. The six tools: prepare_video, add_cards, build_apkg, list_anki_decks, get_config, set_config.

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

The CLI writes runs/<video-id>/transcript.txt + an extraction prompt, pauses for you to fill candidates.json (with any LLM), then review / sync / build continue the pipeline. See README.ko.md for the full CLI walkthrough.

Troubleshooting

SymptomFix
Cannot connect to AnkiConnectOpen Anki; install the AnkiConnect add-on (code 2055492159)
Can't keep Anki openAsk for an .apkg file instead — double-click it to import
"No usable subtitles"The video has no subtitles at all (auto-captions are already tried by default)

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

↑↓ navigate openesc close