How to Use Anki with Obsidian

In a previous story, I was talking about how you can use Anki to learn and memorize things easily. Today, I’m gonna talk about how you can use Anki with Obsidian to make the process of using Anki even easier.

How to Combine Anki with Obsidian

There are many reasons to combine Anki with Obsidian.

First, it allows you to have flashcards just next to their source. Indeed, when building flashcards, you need a source of information. It can be a book, a course, or anything else… So imagine, you read a book, then you make flashcards about this book. What will you do if one day you need to add new flashcards about this book or modify some flashcards? You will read the book again? Using Obsidian, you can take notes from the book and have your flashcards just next to your notes.

It also allows you to use templates to make flashcards. I use this a lot because it allows me to save a lot of time. When I make flashcards about a book, for example, I create a template for making flashcards with the same tags related to the book. If I was using Anki directly to create flashcards, I would have to add manually all the tags for each flashcard.

Obsidian to Anki Plugin

There are several plugins to integrate Anki with Obsidian. The one I use is called “Obsidian_to_Anki”. To install it, you have to go to the Obsidian app and enable community plugins. Then you just go “Browse” and you download the plugin by typing his name.

Then, you can open Anki and download the “Anki Connect” add-on. Its code is 2055492159. If you don’t know how to install add-ons in Anki, I’ve talked about it in this story. You can then change the Anki Connect config to this:

{
    "apiKey": null,
    "apiLogPath": null,
    "ignoreOriginList": [],
    "webBindAddress": "127.0.0.1",
    "webBindPort": 8765,
    "webCorsOrigin": "http://localhost",
    "webCorsOriginList": [
        "http://localhost",
        "app://obsidian.md"
    ]
}

Once it’s done, restart Anki and you can let it run in the background. Go back to Obsidian, and enable the “Anki_to_Obsidian” plugin. If Anki is running in the background, it should generate the plugin settings.

You should have something like this in your settings:

Then, you can check in Anki if you have the corresponding cards. Open Anki, and go to “Tools”, then “Manage Note Types”.

If you don’t have them, you can create them using “Add” and add the existing Anki types, then rename them and rename their fields if necessary.

For example, if you don’t have the “BASIC” card type, you click on “Add”, then “Basic”, you name it “BASIC”, and you rename its fields to “FRONT” and “BACK”.

Creating Flashcards in Obsidian

Once everything is set up, you can start creating flashcards in Obsidian.

First, you can create a new note. At the top of the note you can write this:

TARGET DECK
Your Deck

Or:

TARGET DECK: Your Deck

Obviously, you replace “Your Deck” with the name of the deck to which you want your cards to be added.

Then, to create a new card, you do it this way:

START
{Note Type}
{Note Fields}
Tags:
END

“Note Type” is one of the types in the settings, and “Note Fields” is used to define the fields of the note. For example, you can create a BASIC card this way:

START
BASIC
FRONT: This is a test.
BACK: Test succesful!
Tags: Tag1 Tag2 Tag3
END

The formatting is a bit different for CLOZE cards:

START
CLOZE
TEXT: This {{c1::is}} a {{c2::test}}.
Tags: Tag1 Tag2 Tag3
END

Sync the Flashcards in Obsidian with Anki

When your flashcards are created in Obsidian, you can sync them with Anki.

First, open Anki, because it needs to run in the background to be able to sync with Obsidian. Then, you can execute the “Scan Vault” command from Obsidian_to_Anki. It will scan your vault and add all the cards found to Anki.

If it worked correctly, it should have added something like this above the “END” line.

Sometimes, it doesn’t work the first time, so you have to try several times to get your cards synced correctly.

If you want to delete a flashcard, don’t do it in Anki, instead, you can do it in Obsidian. Just add a “DELETE” line above the “ID” line.

Then, you can use the “Scan Vault” command and it should remove your card. If it did not work the first time, just retry.

How to Use Obsidian to Anki Efficiently

When using Obsidian to Anki, you have to keep your flashcards organized. One way to do this is by grouping the related flashcards in the same notes. For example, I have a note for the mathematics flashcards, another for the aeronautics flashcards, etc…

Also, it’s a good idea to tag your cards so that they’re organized in Anki too and you don’t get lost when you have thousands of cards.

Final Note

Anki is a powerful software to learn and memorize things. And using it with Obsidian makes the process easier and more efficient because it allows you to create flashcards more quickly and keep them near the information source.

But don’t forget to keep organized if you don’t want to be lost when you will have thousands of cards.

If you’re having trouble with integrating Anki and Obsidian, let me know, else you can also check the Anki_to_Obsidian wiki.

Find all my Obsidian-related stuff here: Use Obsidian like a Pro

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