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Flashcards

Osmosis flashcards live directly in your markdown files — as osmosis code fences for authored cards, as line cards generated from the note's own lines, or as masks over an image. No external database, no sync issues — your cards travel with your notes.

osmosis_sequential_mode_card_basic_with_audio

Enabling Cards

A note must opt in to card generation. Three ways:

Frontmatter

---
osmosis-cards: true
---

Folder Inclusion

In Settings > Osmosis > Include folders, add folder paths. All notes in those folders will generate cards automatically.

Tag Inclusion

In Settings > Osmosis > Include tags, add tags. All notes with those tags will generate cards automatically.

Opting Back Out

Exclude folders and Exclude tags in the same settings screen block card generation outright — a note in an excluded folder or carrying an excluded tag generates no cards even if it opted in through any of the three ways above. See Decks for details.

Opting in usually happens for you

The card-insertion commands, Rapid Flashcard Mode, the occlusion editor, and Generate flashcards from note all add osmosis-cards: true themselves. You only need to write it by hand if you're typing a fence out from scratch in a brand-new note.

Ways to Make a Card

Way in Produces
An osmosis fence you write, or the Insert card commands A fence card — basic, bidirectional, type-in, cloze, or code cloze
Rapid Flashcard Mode Basic fence cards, from plain typing
Generate flashcards from note Line cards — every line of a note, scheduled
Right-click an image > Create image occlusion Occlusion cards — one per mask group

Your First Card

Add an osmosis code fence to any opted-in note:

```osmosis
What is the capital of France?
***
Paris
```

The *** separator divides the front (question) from the back (answer).

Metadata

Add optional metadata at the top of the fence, before a blank line:

```osmosis
id: french-capital
deck: geography/europe
hint: Western Europe

What is the capital of France?
***
Paris
```
Field Description Default
id Stable card identifier Auto-generated
bidi Generate a reverse card too false
type-in Require typed answer false
deck Override deck assignment From folder/frontmatter
hint Shown on the front as a hint —
exclude Skip this fence for card generation false

Scheduling Data

After you review a card, Osmosis writes scheduling fields (due, stability, difficulty, reps, lapses, state, last-review) back into the fence metadata. A fence that produces several cards — bidirectional, cloze, occlusion — gives each one its own nested block (r:, c1:, c2:). Line cards store their schedules in the note's osmosis-schedule frontmatter instead.

All of it is managed by FSRS; don't edit it by hand. See Data Storage for the full format.

Guides

  • Card Types

    Basic, bidirectional, type-in, cloze, and code cloze cards with examples

  • Image Occlusion

    Cover parts of a diagram and recall what's underneath

  • Line Cards

    Turn every line of a note into its own flashcard — no extra authoring

  • Rapid Capture

    Type cards as fast as you can think of them, especially on mobile

  • Decks

    Organizing cards into decks by folder, frontmatter, or per-card override

  • Card Browser

    Find any card in the vault — then suspend, reset, re-deck, or delete it