Flashcard List API
Design decks, notes, cards, and review events so learning content stays portable without overwriting a learner’s history.
Start with the record.
Keep what matters.
A flashcard list API needs to represent both learning material and a learner's interaction with that material. Those are related, but they are not the same thing. A vocabulary note can generate several cards, each card can belong to a study collection, and each learner can have a different review history. Flattening everything into “front, back, due date” makes sharing and synchronization harder than it first appears.
A simple field model
These illustrative fields are a starting point for your own design. They are not a live ListAPI.com API contract and should not be substituted for a provider’s documented request format.
| Illustrative field | What it should tell you |
|---|---|
note_id | The underlying fact or content record. |
card_id | A particular question generated from that content. |
deck_id | The study collection, separate from the note identity. |
review_events | Learner-specific attempts and outcomes. |
A useful starting point
Use a note to represent the underlying content record and a card to represent one question generated from it. A language note might contain a term, meaning, and example sentence. One card can ask for the meaning, while another asks for the term. Both cards can refer to the same note without duplicating the underlying content.
The Anki manual distinguishes notes, cards, and decks in its introductory explanation. That is a useful concrete reference for this separation. Your own schema can use different names, but preserve the roles. A deck is an organizational or study collection; moving a card between decks should not automatically create a new fact or erase the learner's previous attempts.
Before you connect the list
Identify the source of truth and the intended audience. Start with a small read-only view so you can compare the result with the source. Record the retrieval scope and keep incomplete imports visible instead of treating a partial result as the whole collection.
Choose how to handle a renamed record, a repeated request, a removed item, and lost access. Make field ownership explicit before adding two-way edits. The full guide explores the decisions specific to this list type and links to an official reference.