Memora MCP

An interactive flashcard MCP App for Claude Desktop. Claude generates flashcards from your request or the conversation and renders them as an inline, gradeable flip-card review with spaced repetition. Your grades flow back to the model, so Claude can react to your score and offer to drill what you missed.

Keywords: Model Context Protocol, MCP server, MCP Apps, Claude Desktop, flashcards, spaced repetition, SRS, Anki alternative.

Built on the MCP Apps extension (SEP-1865): core MCP spec 2025-11-25 plus the Apps extension 2026-01-26.

What it does

• review_deck: opens a deck as an inline flip-card UI. Click to flip, grade Got it / Missed it, see a results screen. Due cards come first, and grades are sent back to the model via the host bridge.

• create_deck: Claude generates cards from your request or the chat, saves them to data/decks.json, and renders them immediately. They persist, so review_deck can replay them later.

• grade_card (spaced repetition): each grade persists a per-card schedule (due date, interval, ease, reps) using a simple SM-2-style algorithm, so weak cards resurface sooner.

• Deck picker: switch between your decks from buttons in the UI, no retyping in chat.

• Decks are plain JSON read live on every call, so you can hand-edit them or let Claude create them. No database, no external service.

Related MCP server: MCP-AnkiConnect

How it works (MCP Apps)

A tool declares a ui:// resource. When Claude calls the tool, the host (Claude Desktop) fetches that resource and renders its HTML in a sandboxed iframe, passes the tool result to the UI, and the UI talks back to the host over JSON-RPC.

Tech stack

• Server: TypeScript, @modelcontextprotocol/sdk plus @modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps, stdio transport.

• UI: React plus Vite, bundled to a single inlined HTML file via vite-plugin-singlefile.

• Runtime is plain node (no bun or tsx needed) once built.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+

Setup

npm install
npm run build      # builds the UI bundle (dist/mcp-app.html) and compiles the server (dist/)

Connect to Claude Desktop

Open Settings > Developer > Edit Config and add (use the absolute path to this folder):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memora": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\memora-mcp\\dist\\main.js", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Then fully quit Claude Desktop (from the system tray) and relaunch. memora should appear under Settings > Developer.

Usage (in a Claude Desktop chat)

• review my World Capitals deck

• make me a deck of 10 Spanish travel phrases

• turn what we just discussed into a deck called "Photosynthesis"

• add 5 harder capitals to my World Capitals deck (uses append)

Development

npm run dev        # vite watch (UI) plus tsx server on http://localhost:3001/mcp
npm run typecheck  # tsc --noEmit (UI)

For fast local iteration you can also run the app against the MCP Apps reference host (basic-host) from the ext-apps repo.

Deck format (data/decks.json)

{
  "Deck Name": [
    { "front": "question", "back": "answer" }
  ]
}

Read live (mtime-cached). create_deck and grade_card write here atomically. Cards gain optional spaced-repetition fields (due, interval, ease, reps) as you review them; cards without them are treated as new. Keep it valid JSON, or the server falls back to a built-in default deck.

Project structure

memora-mcp/
├── server.ts            # MCP server: review_deck + create_deck + grade_card + ui:// resource
├── main.ts              # entry: stdio (Claude Desktop) or Streamable HTTP transport
├── mcp-app.html         # UI entry HTML (bundled by vite)
├── src/
│   ├── mcp-app.tsx      # React flip-card UI, deck picker, grade -> model bridge
│   ├── mcp-app.module.css
│   └── global.css       # host theme variable fallbacks (light/dark)
├── data/decks.json      # editable decks, read live
├── media/flip-card.svg  # README image
├── vite.config.ts       # single-file bundle config
└── tsconfig*.json

Roadmap

See TODO.md for the full backlog: inline card editing, deck management tools, a fuller FSRS scheduler, npm + MCP Registry publishing, cross-client hosting, and a real demo GIF.

License

MIT