AnkiWeb addon 1005118618
Lets you review Anki cards with a Bluetooth gamepad by mapping its buttons to actions like flip, grade, undo, and sync, all remappable in the config.
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| Min Anki | Max Anki | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1.50 | 2.1.54+ | 2026-08-31 |
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Maps standard gamepad buttons to Anki actions like flipping, answering, undo, and browser, plus custom keyboard shortcuts for card-template interactions.
Adds native gamepad support to Anki, mapping controller buttons and analog sticks to keyboard shortcuts, card actions, and smooth scrolling, with multi-profile detection, a modifier layer, and press-to-bind setup.
Enables gamepad control of Anki with customizable bindings, on-screen overlays, analog cursor control, a radial menu, and over 15 haptic vibration patterns for review actions.
Adds customizable, real-time text-to-speech to card templates, with pronunciation lists, voice and speed settings adjustable and toggleable directly on iOS/iPadOS mobile devices via user actions.
Starts a local-network phone remote for Anki via QR code or URL, letting you answer cards, scroll, undo, switch decks, show hints, and run custom actions.
Enables hands-free Anki reviews by using a webcam to detect head and hand gestures, with customizable gesture-to-action mapping, sensitivity settings, recalibration, and optional camera preview.
Review with a Bluetooth gamepad. No Karabiner-Elements, no input-monitoring permissions — the controller is read through the Gamepad API inside Anki's own window, so nothing outside Anki ever sees your input.
Written for the 8BitDo Zero 2, but any controller the OS recognises as a gamepad should work.
Setup (8BitDo Zero 2)
Default mapping
Based on Jesse Simon's 8BitDo-for-Anki layout (https://www.jessefsimon.com/8bitdo-controller-for-anki/): Y flips the card / answers Good, X = Again, A = Hard, B = Easy, L = Undo, R = Bury, Select = Decks, Start = Sync, d-pad left/right scrolls the card. Grade buttons on the question side reveal the answer first, and also step you from the deck list into a study session.
Everything is remappable in Tools → Add-ons → Config, including binding any keyboard shortcut (e.g. other add-ons' hotkeys) to any button. Pressing an unmapped button shows a tooltip with its config name, so setting up a different controller or mode is just pressing buttons and filling in the config.
Notes
Anki add-on that maps the 8BitDo Zero 2 to reviewer actions. Written for Anki 2.1.54 (Qt 6.3.1 / PyQt 6.3.1 / Python 3.9) on macOS.
Available on AnkiWeb: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1005118618
Instead of pairing the controller as a keyboard and remapping keystrokes with Karabiner-Elements (which needs the Input Monitoring permission), the controller is paired in gamepad mode and read through the Gamepad API inside Anki's own webview. Nothing outside Anki sees it.
gamepad.js gets injected into Anki's pages, polls
navigator.getGamepads() at 30 Hz, and forwards button presses to
Python over the pycmd bridge. __init__.py maps them to actions via
the add-on config. The d-pad works whether the current mode reports it
as buttons or as an axis pair.
From AnkiWeb: in Anki, go
to Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons and paste the code 1005118618.
From source:
cp -R zero2_controller "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Anki2/addons21/"
then restart Anki. Or build a package to install via Tools → Add-ons → Install from file:
cd zero2_controller && zip ../anki-gamepad.ankiaddon __init__.py gamepad.js config.json config.md manifest.json
If macOS mode gives odd button numbers, try Switch mode (Y + Start) or Android mode (B + Start) and remap. Pressing an unmapped button shows a tooltip with its config key.
Follows Jesse Simon's layout:
(photo from Jesse Simon's post)
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Y (left) | Flip card / Good |
| X (top) | Again |
| A (right) | Hard |
| B (bottom) | Easy |
| L | Undo |
| R | Bury card |
| Select | Deck browser |
| Start | Sync |
| D-pad up | h (hint reveal add-on) |
| D-pad down | n (cloze one-by-one) |
| D-pad left | Scroll down |
| D-pad right | Scroll up |
Grade buttons on the question side reveal the answer first, and also
step deck browser → overview → study. Everything is remappable in
Tools → Add-ons → Config, including arbitrary key:<x> bindings — see
zero2_controller/config.md for the full action list.
AGPLv3, same as Anki itself.