anki-csv2ankicards/README.md

# AnkiAI - Automated Anki Deck Creator

AnkiAI is a tool that leverages OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and GPT-3's powerful natural language processing capabilities to automatically generate Anki decks from images containing text.

### Overview

- AnkiAI is designed to streamline the process of creating Anki decks from images.
- The core idea is to use OCR to extract text from images and then use GPT-3 to transform this text into a structured Anki deck format.
- Users can make a POST request to a Flask server endpoint with their images to receive the Anki deck (.apkg file).

### Directory Structure

- `.vscode/`: Contains configuration for VSCode debugger for Flask applications.
- `ankiai.py`: The main script that drives the creation of Anki decks from images.
- `constants.py`: Contains constant variables used across the project.
- `deck_creation.py`: Contains logic for communicating with OpenAI's API and deck creation using genanki.
- `image_processing.py`: Processes images, converting them for OCR and then performing OCR to extract text.
- `logging_config.py`: Logging configuration for the entire project.
- `server.py`: Flask server that provides an API endpoint to upload images and get back an Anki deck.

### Requirements

To run AnkiAI, you'll need to have the following dependencies installed:

```
genanki==0.8.0
Pillow
openai
flask
```

You can install these via `pip` using the `requirements.txt` file:

```bash
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

### How to Run

1. **Environment Variables**: Make sure to set the `OPENAI_API_KEY` environment variable to your OpenAI API key.
   
2. **Run the Flask server**:

   ```bash
   python server.py
   ```

   This will start the Flask server. You can then make a POST request to `http://localhost:5000/deck-from-images` with your images to get an Anki deck.

3. **Run Directly**:

   If you prefer not to use the Flask server, you can also run `ankiai.py` directly:

   ```bash
   python ankiai.py <directory_path_containing_images>
   ```

### How to Debug (VSCode Users)

- Open the project in VSCode.
- Set up your breakpoints.
- Use the VSCode debugger and select "Python: Flask" to start debugging the Flask server.

### Important Notes

- **API Key**: For the project to work, it is essential to have the `OPENAI_API_KEY` environment variable set.
- **Image Types**: Currently, the image processing module supports PNG, JPG, and JPEG formats.
- **Output**: The output `.apkg` file (Anki package file) will be named `out.apkg`.

### Acknowledgements

This project heavily relies on the `openai` library for processing and the `genanki` library for deck generation.

### Contributions

Contributions are always welcome. Please create a new issue or a pull request for any bug fixes or feature requests.