anki-multidefine-mcp

Tell Claude to add a word to Anki. It looks it up in a real monolingual dictionary, formats the card, downloads audio, and creates the note — all in one message.

"Add a card for 'Schadenfreude' to my German deck."

Works for English, German, Russian, French, and Azerbaijani. Definitions come from Oxford, DWDS, Wiktionary, and Larousse — the same sources the MultiDefine Anki add-on uses.

What you need before starting

Related MCP server: Yomitan MCP Server

Setup

Quickest path — drag and drop (Claude Desktop on macOS/Windows)

1. Download anki-multidefine-mcp.mcpb

2. Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions → drag the file in (or use Install Extension and select it)

3. Claude Desktop installs the server automatically

You still need to install the Anki add-ons (Step 2 below) and the Anki MCP server.

Manual setup (all platforms / other MCP clients)

Step 1 — Install uv

# macOS / Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Or via Homebrew: brew install uv

Step 2 — Install the Anki add-ons

Open Anki → Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons and enter:

2055492827

That installs AnkiConnect. Then install MultiDefine:

1. Download multidefine.ankiaddon

2. In Anki: Tools → Add-ons → Install from file → select the downloaded file

Restart Anki after both are installed.

Step 3 — Configure Claude Desktop

Open (or create) this file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Paste the following (merge with any existing mcpServers block if you have one):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anki-multidefine": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["anki-multidefine-mcp"]
    },
    "anki-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ankimcp/anki-mcp-server", "--stdio"],
      "env": {
        "ANKI_CONNECT_URL": "http://localhost:8765"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 4 — Restart Claude Desktop

Keep Anki open — AnkiConnect only responds while Anki is running.

Quick prompts to try

Copy any of these directly into Claude:

Add a card for "Haus" to my German deck.

Look up "schadenfreude" in English and add it to my Vocabulary deck.

Add cards for these Russian words to my Russian deck: уважение, доверие, свобода.

What German words have I added in the last week?

How it works

When you ask Claude to add a word, it:

1. Calls define(word, language) — looks up the word in the monolingual dictionary

2. Reads multidefine://schema — knows exactly which Anki fields to fill and how

3. Calls findNotes — skips the card if it already exists in the deck

4. Calls storeMediaFile with the audio URL — downloads pronunciation into Anki's media folder

5. Calls addNote with the MultiDefine_{Language} note type — card appears in your deck

No UI to learn. No form to fill. Just describe what you want.

Supported languages

Claude infers the language from context — you rarely need to specify the key explicitly.

Troubleshooting

Claude says it can't connect to Anki — Anki must be open and AnkiConnect installed. Verify by visiting http://localhost:8765 in your browser; you should see a plain-text AnkiConnect response.

"Note type not found" — MultiDefine must be installed in Anki so the MultiDefine_German (etc.) note types exist. Check via Tools → Manage Note Types.

"Word not found" — The word isn't in that dictionary. Try a different spelling or language.

Duplicate card — Claude checks first and tells you if the card already exists. Ask it to update the existing note if you want.

uvx not found — Claude Desktop may not inherit your shell PATH. Use the full path: run which uvx in your terminal, then replace "uvx" in the config with that path (e.g. /Users/you/.local/bin/uvx).

MCP tools exposed

Resource: multidefine://schema — field mapping and workflow rules Claude reads automatically before creating notes.

For developers

See AGENTS.md for the provider contract, word_info schema, and instructions for adding a new language.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, smoke tests, and PR checklist.

License: GPL v2. providers/oxford.py is BSD 3-Clause (Near Huscarl).