AnkiTools VS apy

Not needing Anki itself is pretty much a requirement for me, because that's the way which makes sense in my worldview. Tools work independently and feed into each other—not get slapped onto each other, which kinda smells like a whiff of bad OOP.

I began a feeble attempt at a lib for my own purposes, but I had to take Anki db structs a little at a time just to keep my frustration in check.

There are in fact some libs for writing Anki data: https://github.com/kerrickstaley/genanki and maybe https://github.com/patarapolw/AnkiTools — but genanki, while looking quite good for one-time generation, doesn't seem to be able to update cards.

Afaik Anki itself does include Python libs for creating and manipulating db records—however dunno if they work without the full app running, and on top of that I personally keep trying to use Lua, since it runs circles around Python in terms of speed.

FYI, you may be interested to know there are other alternatives. I made apy, which is a cli tool in a similar spirit to yours, except it does not rely on AnkiConnect. I've also written a section in the README where I list other similar tools.

That's reasonable. I use Vim with apy, of course, but my workflow is CLI centerred: I run the apy commands in the terminal, but for editing and adding cards, I use Vim. I believe I've described my workflow... ah, yes, here: https://github.com/lervag/apy/wiki/Vim

Since you use Vim and Anki, you may also be interested in apy. I made it to simplify creating and editing Anki cards. It relies on Markdown and makes it easy to add code snippets in questions and answers.

I've made apy to make it easier for people who like to work in a terminal and with Vim/neovim to make and maintain flashcards in Anki. I combine it with some utility functions within neovim.

Cool! I'm an avid user of neovim and Anki, and I did something similar. I created apy. It skips the Connect-plugin and manipulates the Anki database directly through the Python APIs, and it allows to modify existing cards and to add new cards by use of a simple Markdown like syntax. I wrote a little bit of how I use Vim/neovim together with apy here.

There is also apy[1] which needs an Anki installation but at least doesn't actually run the Anki process.

[1]https://github.com/lervag/apy

It does not yet, it is missing way to many features, and also it requires anki to be open. I've never tried it, but someone in the comments mentioned apy which seems to do that :)

I've developed apy out of the similar desire to build and manage my Anki decks from a CLI (without keeping Anki open in the background). But it does not allow actually reviewing the cards. Personally, I'm fine with that, since I study all my cards from my phone (Ankidroid).

Thanks, this looks interesting. Good work! In case you were not aware of it, I'll be shameless and mention my similar tool apy. Similar, but also clearly different in functionality and goal, just to make that clear.