Glean doesn't touch Anki's files directly. It runs entirely as a Chrome extension: a content script watches for a highlighted or right-clicked word, hands the surrounding sentence to a background service worker, which detects the word's language and asks an AI for a context-matched definition and example in that language, grabs pronunciation audio from whichever source actually has the word, and posts the finished note to your local Anki through the AnkiConnect add-on. Anki itself never has to know Glean exists.
This runs on Chrome and any other Chromium-based browser (Edge, Brave, Arc, and so on) that supports Manifest V3. See below for the state of things elsewhere.
Glean auto-detects the language of whatever word you look up and writes both the definition and the example sentence in that language - no translation, no picking a deck per language first. It's currently tuned for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch.
Pronunciation follows the same detection: English goes through Merriam-Webster (if you've added a key) or the Free Dictionary API, and everything else gets native-language audio via Google Translate's TTS endpoint.
English words also get a second field, Meaning - the AI picks the single best-fitting sense from the word's real Free Dictionary API entry, separate from the Definition field it writes itself for the specific sentence you looked the word up in. There's no equivalent free dictionary for the other six languages, so Meaning stays empty for those and you just get the AI's own definition and example.
You'll need the official Anki desktop app with the AnkiConnect add-on installed, since Glean talks to your existing Anki library rather than replacing it.
The fastest way in (no toolchain needed):
- Grab the latest release zip and unzip it.
- Open
chrome://extensions, flip on Developer mode (top right), and click Load unpacked. - Select the unzipped folder.
Building from source instead? Glean is a WXT + Svelte + TypeScript project, so it needs a one-time build:
npm install
npm run buildThen Load unpacked and point Chrome at .output/chrome-mv3/ (not the repo root - the manifest gets generated into .output). For live-reloading development, run npm run dev instead.
Then, in Anki:
- Go to Tools > Add-ons > Get Add-ons... and enter the code
2055492159. - Restart Anki. AnkiConnect now listens on
http://127.0.0.1:8765whenever Anki is open.
Glean will open its onboarding wizard on first install - it'll walk you through getting a free Hack Club AI key (required, for definitions) and a free Merriam-Webster key (optional, for nicer pronunciation audio).
This almost always means Anki isn't open, or AnkiConnect isn't installed. Glean talks to http://127.0.0.1:8765, which only exists while Anki is running with the add-on active - there's no cloud fallback. Open Anki, wait a second for AnkiConnect to bind the port, and try again. The extension's popup shows a live Anki Connection status if you want to confirm before you start highlighting words.
Hack Club AI keys are free but rate-limited and occasionally slow to provision - give it a minute after generating one. If it still fails, hit Test API Key on the options page to see the actual error instead of guessing.
Glean is built with WXT, Svelte 5, and TypeScript. npm run dev starts a live-reloading dev build, npm run build produces .output/chrome-mv3/, and npm run check runs the type and Svelte diagnostics (kept at zero). WXT generates the manifest, so you won't find one in the repo root - it lands in .output. The service worker's console lives behind "Inspect views: service worker" on the extensions page; the content script just uses normal page DevTools.
Note
Chrome and the Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, Arc, and so on) are the tested target. Since moving to WXT there's now a Firefox build too - npm run build:firefox - but it isn't verified end to end yet, so treat it as experimental for now. PRs welcome. Safari is a much bigger lift and isn't currently planned.
Open the extension's options page (chrome://extensions > Glean > Details > Extension options) to manage your API keys and target deck. Everything is stored locally in chrome.storage.local - there's no account, no sync, and no server keeping a copy of your words.
Hack Club AI is the default because it's free and needs no setup beyond an email, but if you'd rather bring your own key, switch AI Provider to OpenRouter on the options page and paste in an OpenRouter key instead. Both providers let you type in any model ID they support (there's a sensible default pre-filled for each, so you don't have to) - OpenRouter in particular has a bunch of free-tier models (their IDs end in :free) if you want to experiment without spending anything.
If you want to change how the actual flashcard looks in Anki, that lives in one place: CARD_CSS, CARD_FRONT, and CARD_BACK in lib/anki-connect.ts. Edit those, rebuild (npm run build), reload the extension, and delete the existing Glean Vocab note type in Anki so it gets recreated with your changes - Glean only creates it once and won't overwrite an existing one. New fields are the one exception: if you're upgrading from an older version of Glean, missing fields (like Meaning) get added to your existing note type automatically the next time you add a card - no manual recreation needed.
- Anki and AnkiConnect for making a local flashcard API possible at all.
- Hack Club AI for a free AI (only for teens) and OpenRouter for the bring-your-own-key alternative.
- Free Dictionary API and Merriam-Webster for pronunciation audio and (for English) dictionary-verified definitions.
- Google Translate's text-to-speech endpoint for pronunciation audio in every supported language besides English.
- Claude for being a good assistant.
This is under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for the legal mumbo jumbo. In short: do what you want with it, just don't blame me. If you're not sure what that means, see choosealicense.com/licenses/mit. This code is provided to you for free, use at your own risk!