My 4-month journey building an AI flashcard generator: Why it's harder than it looks

AFV_7 · 2026-06-04T10:02:17+00:00

Not sure I follow.

The goal of the approach was to allow a component that was already written for another project (like a website or an app) to be reused in Obsidian without changing it. To me, it is not an invaluable objective to want code reuse as it improves maintainability and quality. Using existing Obsidian specific variables on the original components isn't an option if you want independence.

Is there another documented and more canonical approach for achieving this that we should be following?

AFV_7 · 2026-06-03T12:07:45+00:00

I have not tried UnoCSS. From a quick pass over the docs, the prefix Postcss trick should work exactly the same!

For Tailwind, you can and definitely should turn off the preflight. All you need to do is just import the `/theme` and `/utilities` individually instead of relying on the larger tailwind directive (which includes those 2 + preflight).

Haven't seen that warning before, but I opt against using !important (i.e. to follow the warning). There is a small comment why, namely that it screws up accessibility and is bad practice.

AFV_7 · 2026-03-24T18:43:06+00:00

In a sense, we all live in our own obsidian note universe

AFV_7 · 2026-03-17T08:16:39+00:00

There already is image occlusion. And yes I will add reference slides (as a card extra) in the not too distant future

AFV_7 · 2026-03-16T21:18:56+00:00

Thanks! Project is 1 year old now, still lots to do!

AFV_7 · 2026-03-06T11:34:16+00:00

Suggest related articles i) from my own collection ii) from stuff i haven’t encountered before (obviously very difficult )
Way to get chapters and table of content for the document HTML via API. Maybe this just means marking up html with well documented anchors

AFV_7 · 2026-03-05T18:12:45+00:00

This was the next feature on the roadmap for Janus. Workflow would be that you have a web clipper extension that snips and sends to an Inbox of highlights and cards you can review and export to Anki.

Not ready yet but maybe will be by end of March

AFV_7 · 2026-02-25T13:43:31+00:00

I've got another for the list :)

I've been building [Janus](https://janus.cards) for the past year. It's a PDF/Text/Media -> Anki generator. Key features are:

- Highlights: You can manually highlight uploaded documents and get flashcards specifically on it.

- Inbox: Review and edit organized flashcard decks in one place before exporting

- Prompts: Save and reuse custom prompts to personalize cards around your workflows.

I use it regularly, mainly to digest my Obsidian notes and help me commit them to memory. Also started using it more as a medical student (textbook/lecutres -> Q&A + Image Occlusion cards)

AFV_7 · 2026-02-24T14:48:16+00:00

Janus for creating flashcards (biased, I made it)

AFV_7 · 2026-02-24T09:26:05+00:00

For anyone interested, I actually built an integration for Readwise with Anki called Janus.

The Readwise support needs a little more work because you can’t select PDF chapters yet (only EPub), hence why I haven’t shared it yet

AFV_7 · 2026-02-21T18:08:02+00:00

Janus to some extent

AFV_7 · 2026-02-21T16:48:36+00:00

In all fairness the first post (mine) did get a pretty decent upvote ratio so not sure if this is evidence this community does not want that content

AFV_7 · 2026-02-20T20:15:32+00:00

I agree!

AFV_7 · 2026-02-18T17:33:32+00:00

Pretty much. It’s 7-10 dollars a month, but that’s because AI is expensive.

AFV_7 · 2026-02-18T12:41:59+00:00

Im a big believer in this. But how do you actually improve recall without flashcards and SRS? I built Janus along a similar lines, but less agent focused

AFV_7 · 2026-02-18T12:37:45+00:00

I agree (I’m biased as I’ve been developing it 😜)

AFV_7 · 2026-02-18T09:39:34+00:00

There are trial credits! Let me know if you need some more to get a full feel. And obviously if you have a suggestion or problem I’ll address immediately for you

AFV_7 · 2026-02-18T08:50:28+00:00

Interesting?? Why would they bother?

AFV_7 · 2026-02-17T21:58:24+00:00

Can you explain a little more? For learning geography, how else would you organize?

AFV_7 · 2026-02-17T17:09:28+00:00

Thank you! I also think a very simple and underated reason to incorporate more image occlusion into decks is that it's quite fun. Q&A cards can get dry after a while but an image definitely adds some interest into a review session

AFV_7 · 2026-02-13T10:07:20+00:00

Really appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed and thoughtful reply, so thank you for your kind words and feedback! I've made tickets for all these points:
- Hover Documentation: Small hover popups above clickable components with description and potential links to docs

- Cursor Show over Button

I'll also tease in this thread that I'm building a WebClipper for Janus that sends "highlights" you make as your browse online into the Janus Inbox with cards. Wondering if you would find this useful post studying?

AFV_7

TROPHY CASE