Git-based version control for Anki collections. Track flashcard changes with human-readable diffs.
- 📦 Snapshot your Anki database to git
- 📝 Human-readable diffs showing field-by-field changes
- 🏷️ Field names and note types displayed (Text, Extra, Cloze-AI, etc.)
- 🖼️ Clickable media links in terminal (images, audio)
- 🔍 Search notes and git history
- 📊 History with change statistics
- 🔄 Restore previous versions
git clone https://github.com/chrislongros/anki-snapshot.git
cd anki-snapshot/bash
chmod +x anki-*
# Option 1: Add to PATH
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/anki-snapshot/bash:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
# Option 2: Symlink to /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -s "$PWD"/anki-* /usr/local/bin/Arch Linux (AUR):
yay -S anki-snapshotpip install git+https://github.com/chrislongros/anki-snapshot.git#subdirectory=pythonanki-snapshot📦 Copying database to temp...
📄 Exporting notes for diff...
📝 Committing...
✅ Done!
anki-diff # Changes since last snapshot
anki-diff HEAD~3..HEAD # Changes across multiple commits━━━ Anki Changes ━━━
2026-01-18 09:59:55 → 2026-01-18 10:01:24
━━━ Modified [Cloze-AI] ━━━
ID: 1768724713223
Text:
- this is a {{c1::new}} card.
+ this is a {{c1::new}} card. {{c2::with more clozes}}
Extra:
- [img:paste-1f6e89...png]
+ [img:paste-1f6e89...png] [img:paste-0b1f99...png]
━━━ Image Changes ━━━
Added:
+ paste-0b1f99...png
anki-log # Last 10 snapshots
anki-log 20 # Last 20 snapshots━━━ Anki Snapshot History ━━━
📝 947c5f4 2026-01-18 10:19 Snapshot 2026-01-18 10:19 (+5/-3)
✅ 34f9efa 2026-01-18 10:12 Snapshot 2026-01-18 10:12 (+12/-0)
🗑️ 1b7d522 2026-01-18 10:07 Snapshot 2026-01-18 10:07 (+0/-8)
anki-search "mitochondria" # Search current notes
anki-search "mitochondria" --history # Search git history━━━ Notes Matching: mitochondria ━━━
[1486522758122] [Cloze-AI]
Text: The {{c1::mitochondria}} is the powerhouse of the cell
Extra: [img:mito-diagram...png] ATP production
[1489890842539] [Cloze-AI]
Text: {{c1::Mitochondria}} have their own {{c2::DNA}}
anki-restoreUse the wrapper to auto-snapshot when Anki closes:
# Add alias to your shell config
alias anki='anki-wrapper'Or for development builds:
alias ankibuild='cd ~/ankidev/anki && ./tools/runopt; anki-snapshot && anki-diff'| Variable | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
ANKI_PROFILE |
Anki profile name | Auto-detected |
ANKI_SNAPSHOT_DIR |
Snapshot location | ~/anki-snapshot |
Clickable media links use OSC 8 hyperlinks. Supported terminals:
- ✅ Alacritty
- ✅ Kitty
- ✅ iTerm2
- ✅ WezTerm
- ✅ GNOME Terminal (3.26+)
- ✅ Windows Terminal
Bash version:
- git
- sqlite3
- bash 4.0+ (for associative arrays)
Python version:
- git
- Python 3.8+
- Copies Anki database to a temp file (never modifies original)
- Exports notes as
notes.txtwith format:id|model_id|field1|field2|...|tags - Commits to git repository
- Diffs show field-by-field changes with note type and field names
No personal data is stored in the git repo - only notes.txt is tracked.
MIT
