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srs-mcp — spaced repetition, as an MCP server

Give any MCP-capable agent (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, or any other MCP host) real, correctly-scheduled spaced-repetition memory instead of re-deriving "what's due today" from a markdown table by hand every session. Implements SM-2 (the algorithm behind Anki/SuperMemo) as four callable tools, backed by a local SQLite file. No account, no network calls, no telemetry — everything runs on your machine.

Status: prototype, not yet published anywhere. Built and verified locally (see "How it's been verified" below); not yet installed by anyone outside this project. Treat version 0.2.0 as pre-release.

Why this exists

Markdown checklists and vocab tables are common ways people (and the agents helping them) track what to review, but nothing computes an actual schedule from them — "due today" ends up being a guess, re-read by eye every time. srs-mcp is the missing piece: a small, real scheduling algorithm exposed as tools, so an agent can track review state for anything — flashcards, interview questions, vocab, onboarding quizzes — without re-implementing SM-2 in a prompt.

Related MCP server: FlashLearn

The four core tools (free, unlimited, forever)

Tool

What it does

add_item(topic, question, answer)

Add a review item under a topic. New items are due immediately.

get_due_items(topic="", limit=10)

List items due today or overdue. Answer withheld until graded, like a real flashcard review.

grade_item(item_id, quality)

Grade recall 0–5 (5 = perfect, <3 = fail/reset). Returns the next due date via SM-2 and the correct answer.

get_stats(topic="")

Totals, due-today count, average ease factor.

Get Pro

Two additional tools are gated behind a Pro license — this is the free/paid split srs-mcp uses instead of subscriptions or a hosted backend:

Tool

What it does

export_items(topic="", format="json"|"csv")

Bulk export/backup all your review data.

get_forecast(topic="", days=30)

Review-load forecast — how many items come due each of the next N days, so a pile-up is visible before it happens.

How licensing works, concretely: srs-mcp signs license keys with an Ed25519 private key that never leaves the maintainer's machine; this repo ships only the matching public key (license.py), which can verify a signature but can't forge one. Buy a key, set it as SRS_LICENSE_KEY (env var) or save it to ~/.srs-mcp/license.key, and the Pro tools unlock — no account, no phone-home check, works offline. See license.py for the full mechanism and its stated limitations (short version: this deters casual copying, it isn't DRM — nothing stops someone from patching out the check in their own local copy of an open-source Python file; see the module docstring for the honest version of this tradeoff).

No live purchase link exists yet. This section describes the mechanism, which is built and tested (see test_license_gate.py), not a working store. When a purchase flow exists, it goes here.

Install

Requires Python 3.11+.

git clone <repo-url>   # not yet public — see status note above
cd srs-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -e .
.venv/bin/srs-mcp       # runs the server on stdio

To use it as a Claude Code plugin, point Claude Code at this directory (or, once published, at its marketplace listing) — .claude-plugin/plugin.json and .mcp.json are already set up; the server reads SRS_DB_PATH so a plugin install's data survives updates (${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/srs.db under Claude Code, or a co-located srs.db for a direct/manual run).

How it's been verified

Not just "it imports" — actually run, over the real MCP protocol:

  • test_client.py spawns server.py as a subprocess (the same way a real MCP host does), drives a full add/list/grade/list session, and independently re-checks the resulting SQLite rows outside the test harness.

  • test_license_gate.py spawns the server three ways (no license, valid license, tampered license) and confirms export_items / get_forecast refuse in cases 1 and 3 and return real data in case 2 — proving the license check is a real gate, not a no-op.

  • examples/bulk_import.py is a working, idempotent example script that loads a generic CSV or JSON file of items into srs-mcp via real add_item MCP calls (not direct SQLite writes) — a starting point for bulk-loading your own tracker (vocab, interview prep, onboarding checklists, anything else) instead of adding items one at a time.

Honest gap to "ready to launch" — not rounded up

  1. No public repo. Every real distribution path (Claude Code's community plugin marketplace, a GitHub release, an MCP directory listing) needs this reachable at a public git URL. This project is local-only. Creating that (a GitHub repo, possibly an account) is outside this project's current autonomy without an explicit go-ahead — everything above is prepared to make that a copy-and-push action, not a build task, once given.

  2. Can't self-validate against claude plugin validate. No claude CLI or Node/npx available in this dev environment. The plugin manifest is schema-conformant as far as careful reading of Anthropic's docs and cross-referencing their own production marketplace.json can confirm, not machine-validated.

  3. No live purchase flow. The license mechanism is real and tested; turning it into an actual sale needs a storefront (Ko-fi, Gumroad, or similar) that doesn't exist yet — that's an account-creation step, outside this project's autonomy without a go-ahead.

  4. License enforcement is honesty-based, not tamper-proof, by design and by the nature of shipping readable Python — see the "Get Pro" section above and license.py's docstring.

  5. No auth/multi-tenant story. Single local SQLite file, single user. Fine for the current "runs on your machine" model; would need real design work to become a hosted/team product.

  6. Zero external validation. Nobody outside this project has installed or used this. Every claim above is "this works as built and tested," not "people want this."

License

MIT — see LICENSE. (The Pro-tier license key mechanism is separate from the code's own MIT license — see "Get Pro" above.)

Available Tools

6 tools
add_itemA

Add a new spaced-repetition item (e.g. a LeetCode problem, a Chinese vocab word, an interview question) under a topic. New items are due immediately.

Inputs: topic (required), answer (required), question (required).

export_itemsA

[Pro] Export items (id, topic, question, answer, interval_days, repetitions, ease_factor, due_date, created_at) as json or csv text, optionally filtered to one topic. Requires a valid Pro license (see README's "Get Pro" section) -- this is the free/Pro split's first concrete gate: the 4 core tools stay free and unlimited forever, bulk export/backup is part of the paid tier. Without a valid license, returns an upgrade message instead of data, not an error the caller has to guess the meaning of.

Inputs: topic, format.

get_due_itemsA

List items due for review today (or overdue), optionally filtered to one topic. Returns id, topic, question (answer withheld until grade_item is called, same as a real flashcard review).

Inputs: limit, topic.

get_forecastA

[Pro] Review-load forecast: how many items become due on each of the next N days, optionally filtered to one topic. Lets a user see an upcoming pile-up before it happens instead of discovering it the day of -- a real planning feature, not a gate for its own sake. Requires a valid Pro license, same as export_items.

Inputs: days, topic.

get_statsA

Summary stats: total items, how many due today, average ease factor, optionally scoped to one topic.

Inputs: topic.

grade_itemA

Grade recall quality for an item just reviewed (0-5: 0 = total blackout, 3 = correct with effort, 5 = perfect instant recall) and return the newly computed next-due date, plus the correct answer for confirmation. Uses SM-2 scheduling.

Inputs: item_id (required), quality (required).

Tool Schema Changelog

Recent tool additions, removals, and schema changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Loading tool schema changelog…

    TDQS

    A4.2/5.0

    Scored across 6 tools

    Disambiguation5/5

    Each tool serves a clearly distinct purpose: adding items, fetching due items, grading recall, viewing stats, exporting data, and forecasting workload. There is no overlap or ambiguity in their intended actions.

    Naming Consistency5/5

    Every tool follows a consistent verb_noun pattern (add_item, get_due_items, grade_item, get_stats, export_items, get_forecast), making it easy to infer the action and target. No mixed conventions or vague verbs.

    Tool Count5/5

    With 6 tools, the server is well-scoped for a spaced-repetition system, covering the core workflows (add, review, stats, export, forecast) without unnecessary bloat or excessive granularity.

    Completeness4/5

    The tool surface covers the primary lifecycle (add, review, stats, export, forecast) well, but lacks direct update and delete operations for items. Export tools can serve as a workaround, so the gap is minor.

    Maintenance

    ActivityInactive
    ResponsivenessNo recent community issues

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