Anki add-on: Atomic Rescue – Turn Repeated "Again" Into an Instant AI Explanation

Failing the same card again and again is a symptom of a missing concept — not a need for more repetitions. Atomic Rescue spots those cards during review and hands you a ready-made prompt to understand them in seconds. How it works You study as usual. In the background, Atomic Rescue tracks how often you press "Again" on each card. A correct answer eases that count back down instead of erasing it — so a card you keep failing (even with the occasional "Good" in between) still gets caught, while a card you've truly relearned quietly fades out. When the count reaches your threshold (default: 4 for review cards, 6 for new ones), a small popup appears. A complete, learning-science-based prompt — including the card's content — is already copied to your clipboard . Paste it into your AI of choice and get a short explanation. The prompt is built on proven learning principles (Wozniak's "understand before memorizing", the Feynman technique, elaborative encoding): Feynman explanation + everyday example so the concept finally clicks. The big picture — where this fact fits, so it stops being an isolated "orphan card". Works with any AI — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, NotebookLM, etc. The add-on itself sends nothing anywhere : it only builds the text and copies it to your clipboard. You stay in full control of what you paste and where. Available in 5 languages — English, German, Spanish, French and Chinese (Simplified). Pick your language for the popup and the prompt under Tools → Atomic Rescue . Features Separate thresholds for review and new cards (new cards need more misses, since failing them a few times while first learning is normal), with per-deck overrides . Smart counter that decays on correct answers instead of hard-resetting, so struggling cards aren't hidden by a single lucky "Good". Manual shortcut (default Ctrl/Cmd+R) to trigger the rescue on the current card anytime. One popup per note per session — no nagging. Sibling cards are covered too. " Mark " button tags the note (default tag: atomic-rescue ) so you can find and rework problem cards later. " Ignore this note " for cards you intentionally want to keep drilling. Fully editable prompt template with placeholders {deck} , {notetype} , {fields} — includes the full deck path for module/chapter context. Clean settings window (Tools → Atomic Rescue) and proper dark & light mode support. How to use Install and restart Anki. Study normally — or press the shortcut when you know a card isn't clicking. When the popup appears, paste the prompt into your AI, read the short explanation, and (optionally) click "Mark" to rework the card later. Configure everything under Tools → Atomic Rescue . Feedback and suggestions are welcome!