anki.design

Overview

anki.design replaces the Anki interface with one that's calm and focused. It restyles the deck list, overview, and reviewer; adds a built-in review-activity heatmap and a reviewer progress bar; and gives you a sidebar with your daily standing.

Cards, scheduling, and sync are all native Anki. Nothing on disk changes. There are no network calls — the add-on runs entirely locally.

Install

anki.design is distributed through AnkiWeb like any other add-on.

1. Open Anki, then go to Tools › Add-ons.
2. Click Get Add-ons….
3. Paste the install code below and confirm.
4. Restart Anki. You'll land on the redesigned deck list.

Supported platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux. Anki 25.x or newer is recommended.

First launch

The deck list is the first thing you'll notice. Anki's native bottom strip is hidden there — its actions have been moved into the page itself. Below your decks, a review-activity heatmap shows your streak, today's count, and your all-time total.

If you have a single top-level deck, the deck list collapses into a hero card with your due / new / learning counts. Click it to start studying.

Inside the reviewer, a slim progress bar appears at the top of the window with a done / remaining label so you always know where you are.

Settings

Open settings from Tools › anki.design Settings…, or with the keyboard shortcut (see below). You can also reach it from the floating cog when the sidebar is disabled.

Options

• Accent — hex color used for buttons, the progress bar, and accents. Default #6c8cff.
• Theme — system, light, or dark. system follows your OS preference.
• Sidebar nav — replace Anki's top toolbar with a left-hand sidebar (Decks, Add, Browse, Stats, Sync, Settings) plus your daily standing.
• Show heatmap — toggle the review-activity heatmap on the deck list.
• Show progress — toggle the reviewer progress bar.
• Hide bottom on decks / overview — keep Anki's native bottom strip out of the way on the home and overview screens. The reviewer's answer buttons are never hidden.
• Heatmap weeks — how many weeks of history to render. Default 53 (roughly a year).
• Serif / Sans fonts — supply any font name to prepend it to the display stacks. Empty falls back to the system serif and sans.

Changes apply the next time the relevant screen redraws (returning to the deck list, or starting a review). A few may need an Anki restart.

Shortcuts

anki.design respects all of Anki's existing shortcuts. It adds one of its own:

What changes

• The deck list, overview, and reviewer get a new look.
• Anki's native bottom strip is hidden on the deck list and overview (actions move into the page).
• The top toolbar can be replaced with a sidebar showing your standing.
• A contribution-style review-activity heatmap is added under the deck list.
• A progress bar is added at the top of the reviewer.
• The window title is normalized to a clean "Anki".

What doesn't change

• Your cards, notes, and decks — untouched.
• The scheduler — Anki's, exactly as before.
• Sync — Anki's, exactly as before.
• Reviewer answer buttons and shortcuts — native.
• Add, Browse, Stats windows — native.

anki.design replaces the chrome, not the brain. It can be disabled or uninstalled at any time and you'll be back to default Anki with all your data intact.

Conflicts with other add-ons

anki.design is designed to replace a handful of separate add-ons with a single cohesive thing. It declares conflicts so Anki warns you instead of letting them fight silently:

• Onigiri — anki.design redesigns the deck list itself, so the two collide.
• Review Heatmap — the heatmap is built in.
• Progress Bar add-on — the progress bar is built in.

Disable or remove these before installing anki.design.

Uninstall

Open Tools › Add-ons, select anki.design, and click Delete. Restart Anki. Your collection is unchanged.

Troubleshooting

Some rows look low contrast on Anki 25.09

The deck-list DOM changed in 25.09. We're tuning selectors; if you see rows that read faintly, please file an issue with a screenshot.

I don't see the heatmap

Open settings and check that Show heatmap is on. If it's on but you still don't see it, make sure no other add-on is also rewriting the deck-browser content.

The progress bar is overlapping the card

Switch it off in settings, or report it with the card template you're using.

Settings shortcut doesn't fire

anki.design registers both Ctrl+, and ⌘, as application-wide shortcuts on startup. If neither responds, another add-on may be claiming the same key — open Tools and pick anki.design Settings… directly.