Build on your Anki collection

How it fits together#

Every account has one Collection: your decks, notes, cards and scheduling, plus the Media Files (images and audio) that go with them. There are two ways to reach it, and both work on the same data.

A note you add through the API appears in Anki on its next sync, and a note you add in Anki is there when you read it through the API. While Anki is syncing, the API waits its turn: a write during a sync is answered 423 Locked with a Retry-After header, and retrying is always safe.

Quickstart#

1. Create an account and verify your email

   Sign up, then follow the link in the verification email. Syncing and API keys stay switched off until the address is verified.

2. Connect Anki

   In Anki, open Preferences → Syncing and set the self-hosted sync server to:

   https://ankinize.com/

   Then press Sync and log in with your email and password. The sync guide has the steps for AnkiDroid and AnkiMobile too.

3. Create an API key (optional)

   Under API Keys & Devices in the dashboard, create a key with the read scope. Copy it when it is shown: it is never shown again.

4. Make your first request

   cURLTypeScriptPython

   # Keep the key in an environment variable, not in your code.
   export ANKINIZE_API_KEY="paste-your-key-here"
   
   curl https://ankinize.com/api/v1/decks \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $ANKINIZE_API_KEY"

   You should get back the decks in your collection:

   {
     "decks": [
       { "id": 1, "name": "Default" },
       { "id": 1736899200123, "name": "Languages::German" }
     ]
   }

For AI agents#

Ankinize publishes what an agent needs to use it without a person explaining the API. There is one skill for the TypeScript SDK and one for the REST API, so an agent can pick the one that fits the code it is writing.

Any page of these docs is also available as Markdown: add .md to its address (https://ankinize.com/docs/sdk.md), or ask for it with Accept: text/markdown.

Words used in these docs#