Cardivate documentation

Last updated May 6, 2026.

1. Install the add-on

You'll need Anki desktop 2.1.50 or newer. Cardivate is delivered as an Anki add-on package (.ankiaddon file).

1. Open Anki → Tools → Add-ons → Install from file…
2. Pick the cardivate.ankiaddon file you received.
3. Restart Anki when prompted. A new Cardivate menu appears in the toolbar.

2. Your first generation

1. Open Cardivate → Settings. Paste your license key in the License field and click Save. You should see "License active — N credits".
2. Close settings. Click Cardivate → Generate from PDF…
3. Pick a PDF (lecture notes, textbook chapter, paper, scanned slides — all work).
4. Choose page range, card types, and language. Click Generate.
5. Review the preview, edit anything you want, hit Add to deck.

Each generated card costs 1 credit. A typical 30-page lecture produces 100–150 cards depending on density and chosen card types.

3. Card types

Basic Q/A

A single question on the front, the answer on the back. Use this for definitions, dates, named relationships — anything atomic.

Cloze

The model picks the most testable phrases in a sentence and turns them into {{c1::deletions}}. Best for facts that live inside fluent prose, drug names, mechanisms, classifications.

Image occlusion

Cardivate detects diagrams in your PDF and lets you mask labels, regions, or anatomical parts. Each occluded region becomes its own card. Great for anatomy, histology, pathology slides, engineering schematics.

• The built-in Occlusion editor opens whenever a diagram card is generated. You can move/resize the masks before adding to your deck.
• Hint metadata (a small badge under the image) is configurable — see settings.

4. AI study tools

Beyond turning PDFs into cards, Cardivate ships four AI helpers you'll find under the Cardivate menu and inside the preview window. Failed AI calls auto-refund credits.

✨ Conversational refine (preview window)

After generating cards, hit ✨ Refine with AI in the preview window (or press Ctrl+R) to chat with the AI about the selected rows. Use the one-click presets — Make harder, Make easier, Shorter, Add example, Fix grammar — or type a free-form instruction. Cardivate shows the rewritten cards as a preview first; nothing replaces your originals until you click Apply. You can keep refining the accepted set in repeated passes. Cost: 1 credit per pass.

🎯 Weakness audit

Cardivate → 🎯 Weakness Audit… scans your Anki collection for cards you've lapsed on at least twice (across all decks) and asks the AI to identify the recurring themes behind those lapses (e.g. "confuses adrenergic vs cholinergic receptors"). For each theme you can choose a card type and a count, then generate targeted practice cards into the deck Cardivate::Weakness Practice with the tags cardivate weakness_practice audit_<timestamp>. Run it again later — old practice batches are kept tagged so you can prune them.

📚 Ask a PDF

Cardivate → 📚 Ask a PDF… opens a chat scoped strictly to a PDF you choose. Pick a page range, type a question, and the AI answers only from the document text — if the answer isn't in the pages, it tells you so instead of guessing. Click ✨ Make cards from last answer to turn an exchange into a deck through the normal preview flow (target deck: Cardivate::PDF Q&A Practice, tags cardivate pdf_qa qa_<timestamp>). Cost: 1 credit per question; the card-creation step costs the usual 1 credit per generated card.

📝 Mock exam

Cardivate → 📝 Mock Exam… samples a randomised, timed quiz from any deck. Pick the deck, the number of questions (5–60), and an optional time limit. Cardivate quizzes you one question at a time with a live progress bar and countdown timer.

• Multiple choice, true/false, and cloze are graded automatically and are free.
• Tick Include free-text questions and grade them with AI to also include basic Q/A and short-answer cards. Each AI-graded answer costs 1 credit.
• The results screen shows your overall score, per-question verdicts (correct / partial / wrong), the expected answer, and short feedback. Hit 🔁 New exam to retry with a fresh sample.

5. Settings reference

Open Cardivate → Settings. Every option below is also editable in the raw config.json via Anki's add-on config screen.

Generation

• Model — which AI model produces the cards. The default is the recommended balance of cost and quality.
• Language — output language for cards. Source PDF can be in any language; the cards use this one.
• Detail level — low produces fewer, broader cards; high produces more granular cards. medium is the default.
• Max cards per page — hard cap so a single dense page doesn't blow your credit budget.
• Temperature — randomness. Leave at 0.3 unless you want more creative phrasing.
• Include page image — attach a thumbnail of the source page to each card. Costs slightly more credits but very helpful for visual subjects.

Image occlusion

• Show occlusion hints — display a small text hint under the image when a region is hidden.
• Show hint-metadata badge — adds a "1/4" style indicator so you know how many regions are in the image.
• Hint metadata badge placement — above or below the image.

PDF processing

• Auto-searchable PDF — if your PDF is image-only, Cardivate will read the page directly so cards can still be generated.
• Debug bbox — overlay detection boxes on each page (useful when reporting layout bugs).

Account

• License key — paste from your welcome email. Save activates the device.
• Portal — opens api.cardivate.com/portal where you can see remaining credits and manage devices.

6. Buying credits & top-ups

All packs are pay-once on the pricing page. Credits never expire. If you already own a license, the same modal will detect your email and top up your existing license instead of minting a new one.

Payment is in USDT on the Tron (TRC20) network — fast (~1 minute), low fee (~$1), and pegged to the dollar. The pricing page has a step-by-step "How to pay" section if you're new to crypto.

After the blockchain confirms, your license key (or top-up confirmation) lands in your email automatically.

7. Managing your license

Where to see remaining credits

• Inside Anki: Cardivate → Settings shows the live credit balance.
• From a browser: api.cardivate.com/portal. Paste your license key.

Devices

One license activates on up to 2 devices by default (configurable on enterprise plans). To free a device slot, open the portal and click Release next to the entry you no longer use.

Lost your key?

On the pricing page click Recover my license. We email a one-time link (good for 30 minutes) that shows the licenses on file for your email and lets you reissue a fresh key. Your old key stops working immediately, your credits and tier carry over.

8. Troubleshooting

"License invalid" / "License inactive"

• Check for whitespace at the start or end of the key. Re-paste from the email.
• If you've moved to a new computer, your old device may still hold one of your two slots. Visit the portal and release it.
• If you bought just now, give the webhook 1–2 minutes to fire, then try again.

Scanned PDF not generating cards

If your PDF is image-only (no embedded text), make sure Auto-searchable PDF is enabled in Settings → PDF processing. Then run Generate again. Very large or low-resolution scans can be slower; try a smaller page range first.

"No cards generated" / blank preview

• The PDF page might be image-only. Enable Auto-searchable PDF in settings.
• The page might be too dense for the chosen Max cards per page cap. Bump it.
• Try a smaller page range (e.g. one page) to isolate the problem.

"Generation failed" mid-batch

You're never charged for failed generations — credits are auto-refunded. If the failure persists, send us the diagnostics via Cardivate → Help & Feedback. The diagnostics block contains version, OS, and Qt info — no PDF content, no personal data.

Crashes or freezes

1. Restart Anki holding Shift to disable add-ons; re-enable Cardivate and reproduce.
2. Open Cardivate → Help & Feedback, tick Attach diagnostics, describe the steps, hit Send.
3. Or click Email support in the same dialog — it pre-fills hi@cardivate.com with the diagnostics.

9. Privacy & data

• PDF content is sent to our server only when you press Generate. We do not retain your PDFs after the generation completes.
• The license key is hashed before storage; we cannot read it back.
• Diagnostics in the Help dialog include only software versions and OS info — never PDF content, never your license key.

For the full policy, see the Privacy Policy.

Couldn't find what you needed? Email hi@cardivate.com — we read every message and reply within 1–2 business days.