immerAnki

A Firefox (and Chrome) browser extension for creating Anki flashcards from Japanese audio while watching videos.

Record a short clip of a spoken Japanese sentence, get an automatic transcription and English translation, edit either field, queue the card — with the audio attached — then export everything as a single .apkg file to import into Anki.

Demo (v0.1.5):

immerAnki_demo_5.mp4

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Features

• Records audio directly from your browser tab (no separate app needed)
• Captures a screenshot of the current tab when recording starts
• Transcribes Japanese speech using Whisper running locally in the browser — no API key, no cost
• Translates to English via MyMemory (free, no key required)
• Editable transcription and translation fields before saving
• Queues cards locally across browser sessions; exports them as a standard .apkg file
• No AnkiConnect, no Anki plugin, no Anki needs to be open while you work
• Works in Firefox and Chrome

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Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Anki (only needed at import time — not while recording)

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Getting Started

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Build the extension

npm run build

This produces a dist/ folder containing the compiled extension.

3. Load the extension in Firefox

1. Open about:debugging in Firefox
2. Click This Firefox
3. Click Load Temporary Add-on…
4. Select dist/manifest.json

The extension is now active. A small immerAnki panel will appear in the bottom-right corner of every page.

4. First use

1. Navigate to any page with a video (e.g. YouTube)
2. Click Record in the panel
3. Firefox will show a screen-share picker — select your current tab and enable Share tab audio (only needed once per session)
4. Play the sentence you want to capture, then click Stop
5. A screenshot is captured automatically when you start recording; you can see a preview in the panel and remove it if desired
6. Wait a few seconds for transcription (the Whisper model downloads ~290 MB on first run and is then cached permanently)
7. Edit the Japanese and English fields if needed
8. Type a deck name (e.g. Japanese::Immersion) and click Queue Card
9. Repeat for as many sentences as you like
10. When ready, click Export N cards in the panel header
11. Open Anki and go to File → Import — select the downloaded .apkg file

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Development

npm run build  # one-off production build (both main + content script)
npm run watch  # watch mode for both builds (use with Option B below)
npm run lint   # web-ext lint against the dist/ folder

Running the extension locally

Start both build watchers:

npm run watch

Then in Firefox:

1. Go to about:debugging → This Firefox → Load Temporary Add-on…
2. Select dist/manifest.json

The extension stays loaded until Firefox is closed. After each rebuild, click Reload next to the extension in about:debugging to pick up the changes.