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Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

submitted by thomas+(OP) on 2025-12-14 16:55:29 | 401 points 195 comments
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4. yanis_+6b[view] [source] 2025-12-14 17:59:56
>>thomas+(OP)
I've been working on knowledge base + spaced repetition project, and I know how convenient markdown files are.

1. You can view them anywhere (Github renders them nicely) 2. You can edit them in your favorite editor 3. Formatting doesn't decrease the readability 4. Extensible (syntax highlighting, mermaid, mathjax, etc.) 5. Cross-linking which is a core for any knowledge system is free 6. You can use Git for versioning and backup, etc, etc.

https://github.com/odosui/mt

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5. leobg+ub[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 18:02:37
>>mstipe+O9
Guilty as charged. First time I hear about it. Thanks. Looks like a natively LLM friendly database format.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recutils

12. ichver+aj[view] [source] 2025-12-14 18:55:10
>>thomas+(OP)
Allow me to plug Ankivalenz[1], my library that turns (structured) Markdown files into Anki decks, using a syntax like this:

  # Solar System
  
  ## Planets
  
  ### Color
  
  - Earth ?:: Blue
  - Mars ?:: Red
The best thing about it (for me) is that the header structure (and any parent list items) are added to the cards, e.g.:

  Path: Solar System > Planets > Color
  Front: Earth
  Back: Blue
This hierarchy makes it much easier to formulate succinct cards, in my experience.

The syntax also means that I can easily add cards from my regular Markdown notes, so regular notes and Anki cards live together.

[1] https://github.com/vangberg/ankivalenz/

13. adangi+vk[view] [source] 2025-12-14 19:03:58
>>thomas+(OP)
Working on a Rails FSRS app, similar focus on healthy defaults, trying to find the 80/20 of what Anki does today: https://cadence.cards, free side project.
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15. OJFord+Ol[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 19:13:01
>>mstipe+O9
I like recfiles, it's been a while but I started on Rust helpers (OP project is in rust) if it's any use: https://github.com/OJFord/recfiles-rs

Not abandoned exactly, I just haven't been working on the project that I wanted it for in gosh has it been that long.

19. erhuve+an[view] [source] 2025-12-14 19:23:15
>>thomas+(OP)
Know a big proponent of hashcards, has a setup[1] that's followed up by a prompt[2] that converts websites, pdfs, etc. into hashcards for SRS.

[1] https://www.zo.computer/prompts/hashcards-setup

[2] https://www.zo.computer/prompts/add-flashcards

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32. Flere-+Tu[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 20:15:08
>>brcmth+4p
The github page mentions that standard Markdown image linking works just fine:

https://github.com/eudoxia0/hashcards

https://github.com/eudoxia0/hashcards?tab=readme-ov-file#ima...

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37. Michae+AA[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 20:50:33
>>analog+On
Know personally in real life? No. But there are plenty of examples of people using Anki/SRS tools for interesting things outside of school or 2nd language. I’m firmly in the camp that SRS is widely underrated and underused for working adults.

Some examples would be Michael Nielsen, Gwern Branwen, Andy Matuschak and u/SigmaX (reddit - not sure his real name)

* http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html * https://gwern.net/spaced-repetition * https://andymatuschak.org/prompts/ * https://imgur.com/a/anki-examples-math-engineering-eACA7QM * https://imgur.com/a/anki-practice-cards-language-music-mathe...

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48. gala8y+zE[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 21:16:14
>>brianj+ID
You might want to read https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.
52. krychu+YG[view] [source] 2025-12-14 21:31:01
>>thomas+(OP)
Self-plug. For anyone working in the terminal: https://github.com/krychu/lrn.

A very simple cli tool, consuming basic txt format. You can use it in a second window while waiting for your compilation to finish.

Recently I’ve been also experimenting with defining QA pairs in my note files (in a special section). I then use a custom function in emacs to extract these pairs and push to a file as well as Anki.

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58. btilly+XI[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 21:43:28
>>0cf861+XB
You may enjoy, It's not about the nail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

What I was doing is very common. Trying to engage logically with what logic can engage with, while failing to recognize that the emotional challenge is what has to be dealt with first. And that once feelings are out of the way, the logical problem will be massively easier to solve.

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60. johany+7J[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 21:44:08
>>smarkm+qc
https://github.com/eudoxia0/hashcards?tab=readme-ov-file#ima...

https://github.com/eudoxia0/hashcards?tab=readme-ov-file#aud...

Both are supported already

65. linkag+QJ[view] [source] 2025-12-14 21:49:11
>>thomas+(OP)
Obligatory mention of Obsidian’s most popular spaced repetition plugin: https://github.com/st3v3nmw/obsidian-spaced-repetition

It has the least friction for creating flashcards I’ve ever seen. You actually don’t even have to create flashcards - you can add any note to the review queue with one keystroke and record the ease of recall with another command.

76. outofp+6R[view] [source] 2025-12-14 22:28:42
>>thomas+(OP)
Another plain text option is David Miserak's GoCard. https://github.com/DavidMiserak/GoCard
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77. lugu+qS[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-14 22:37:16
>>analog+On
For maths, but not only: https://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics
84. dustfi+5X[view] [source] 2025-12-14 23:14:07
>>thomas+(OP)
If you are an emacs user, you might be interested in org-drill, which of course is plain text and uses space repetition algorithm:

https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-drill.html

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92. Beetle+R81[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 00:41:29
>>dustfi+5X
org-drill has not been maintained in a long time. I would recommend org-srs[1], which admittedly may also one day not be maintained (single developer curse). However, I think it has some benefits over org-drill, the main one being it supports FSRS.

[1] https://github.com/bohonghuang/org-srs

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145. hiAndr+vT1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 08:28:56
>>pvdebb+dP1
Loistavaa, what a perfectly tailored comment for me, I have like 80% the thing for you at https://finnish.andrew-quinn.me/ . Unfortunately I'm all in on Anki but maybe these will sway you nonetheless.

Every 6 months I create around 5000 Anki cards out of the last 6 months for reading practice of the YLE Selkouutiset news, on a sentence by sentence basis: https://github.com/Selkouutiset-Archive/selkokortti

For raw isolated vocabulary my finfreq10k Anki deck can't be beat! https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1149950470

But in your case, and for writing practice, you may also like https://github.com/hiAndrewQuinn/finyap , which is self-hosted in the sense that a new deck is just a CSV file in "scenarios".

Tsemppiä vaimollesi!

146. raseng+g12[view] [source] 2025-12-15 09:40:42
>>thomas+(OP)
Thank you, finally a SRS implementation I can use for my plain text files. Very nice! I had Gemini make a deck from https://github.com/eudoxia0/hashcards , hashcard_tutorial.md and after correcting my deck to account for escaping the < and > with \< and \>; on the second run ($ hashcards drill --card-limit=10 ./)dealt me all the correct cards, like a self QA I really like the keyboard shortcut of space and 1,2,3,4 for making deck reviewing quick work.
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147. fresht+022[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 09:45:48
>>pvdebb+dP1
I have something close to this, even a helpful bulk import. But it works on your own account not someone else’s.

The feature

https://learnalist.net/faq/add-a-list-overtime-for-spaced-le...

Bulk import ui https://learnalist.net/toolbox/srs-add-overtime-v1.html

You’re welcome to try it, it is not self-hosted.

I also have a mobile app, and have been thinking of how to simplify the server etc.

Equally been thinking about how to modify the mobile app to work better with a different backend but still maintain notifications (local instead of server).

It used to be in the public domain but I moved it to a private repo. I am open to moving it back, there is just a small part of the code I want to keep private.

180. knubie+6Z4[view] [source] 2025-12-16 01:38:54
>>thomas+(OP)
I'm a little late to the party here but since Mochi was mentioned I want to take some time to address some of the criticism of it in the article.

With regards to cloze deletions the author writes:

> cloze deletions in Mochi are very verbose. [...] This is a lot of typing.

First, the numbering (1::) is optional. Secondly there are keyboard shortcuts, cmd+L to wrap in {{}} and cmd+1,2,3 to add numbering.

The point about note types is fair, and I may a similar function eventually, but I recommend most people to create no more than 10 cards a day. Any more and you risk getting overwhelmed with reviews. In the article the author shows an example of creating 4 (or more) cards for a single atomic element. This excessive card creation probably contributed more to the 1700 overdue cards than the algorithm (more on that later). If you really do want to create multiple cards like this you can use cloze groups. E.g. {{1::Helium}} (symbol: {{2::He}}) has atomic number {{3::2}}

Finally, the "biggest problem with Mochi". This is kind of a moot point now that Mochi has an FSRS option, but there are a lot of misconceptions in the article about the algorithm. First being that Mochi's algorithm is inferior to SM-2 because it is simpler, and that the rational for it being simpler is because "the user can reason about the algorithm more easily." I'm not sure where the author got that idea, maybe I mentioned it before as an advantage, but it's not the main reason. The main reason is that the additional complexity in SM-2 is actually detrimental in some subtle ways. [0] The author just assumed the algorithm was worse and gave up.

With regards to the forgetting multiplier the author states:

> If I forgot something after sixty days, I surely won’t have better recall in thirty.

But what is the evidence for this? The assumption here is that the knowledge was "completely lost". For the card to have gotten to 60 days in the first place, you must have remembered it previously after 30 days. Evidence show that reviews strengthen memory, not degrade it. Even FSRS does not completely reset the interval after a forget. I get that the author doesn't want to configure things, but lowering the multiplier to 0.2 for example seems a lot easier than building a brand new SRS flashcards app.

Criticisms aside I really do like the idea of hashcards. Plain text, offline, open source. It checks a lot of boxes that I personally look for in software and I'm happy to see more options in this space.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20200926103540/https://massimmer...

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181. shakna+q25[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-16 02:07:05
>>allarm+Em4
Eight years ago: >>15302279

I mean... Its even in the FAQ. It's a question people care to ask.

194. mxgrn+SGh[view] [source] 2025-12-20 00:13:06
>>thomas+(OP)
I also wanted a frictionless card creation experience, and I didn't want another (mobile) app for that. I'm only using SR for new vocabulary in a foreign language, so I created a multilingual AI-powered Telegram bot [1] that does just that.

Creating a flash card is as simple as sending a word (or expression) you want to learn. The bot takes care of the rest: generates the translation, pronunciation, and examples.

The bot also uses FSRS for SR.

[1] https://lexicorn.ai

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