Quickstart - Niobium ANKI

Verify the installation:

niobium -h

Create cards without AI (free, no API key)¶

From a directory of images¶

# Push to Anki (requires AnkiConnect)
niobium -dir /path/to/images -deck "My Study Deck"

# Or export .apkg (no Anki needed)
niobium -dir /path/to/images -apkg ./output

From a PDF¶

niobium -pin /path/to/lecture.pdf -apkg ./output

Extract images from a PDF first, then create cards¶

# Step 1: extract images for review
niobium -pin /path/to/lecture.pdf -pout /path/to/images

# Step 2: delete unwanted images, then process
niobium -dir /path/to/images -apkg ./output

Import the resulting .apkg into Anki via File -> Import.

Add AI features (requires Anthropic API key)¶

Smart Filtering — AI curates your OCR results¶

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
niobium -dir /path/to/images -apkg ./output --smart

Claude filters noise, corrects OCR errors, and adds study hints. Output: image occlusion cards.

Smart Generation — AI creates cards from scratch¶

# From images: Claude sees the full image
niobium -i /path/to/diagram.png --smart --generate -apkg ./output

# From PDF pages: Claude sees the full page
niobium -pin /path/to/lecture.pdf --page 1-5 --smart -apkg

Claude generates the best card types (cloze, basic, image occlusion) based on the content.

Next steps¶

Core Workflows: all non-AI workflows documented
AI Features: what AI adds, costs, and setup
CLI Reference: every flag documented
Configuration: tuning OCR and AI behavior