Essentialist

Essentialist is a simple, private, and cross-platform flashcard app designed to make studying and note-taking a seamless process. 🧠 It is an open-source program for spaced repetition (similar to Anki).

screenshot of essentialist on Linux screenshot of essentialist on Linux

Create Flashcards from Notes

Tired of creating flashcards in a separate app after taking notes? Essentialist makes it easy. Your flashcard decks are just simple Markdown files, which means you can create cards directly while taking notes. This is a perfect workflow for students and anyone who takes notes and wants to quickly turn them into study material. Each card is defined by a simple H2 header (## Your Card Title).

Because your decks are plain text files, they are:

Essentialist supports a variety of Markdown features, including lists, tables, emojis, and basic text styling (italic and bold). Please note that image support is not yet available.

Privacy and Simplicity at the Core

We believe your data should stay yours. Essentialist doesn’t perform any network operations. It respects your privacy by keeping your data right where it belongs: on your device. There’s no cloud, no sync service, and no data collection.

The app features a minimalist user interface that’s distraction-free and helps you focus on your learning. It includes a dark theme for comfortable late-night study sessions and robust keyboard bindings for quick navigation and interaction. For those who prefer the command line, there’s also a companion terminal application.

Learn Anywhere, On Any Device

Whether you’re on your laptop, desktop, or phone, Essentialist has you covered. It’s not just for Linux; it’s also available on Windows, macOS, and Android, allowing you to study and review your flashcards in different environments without being locked into a single platform.

The space repetition algorithm used is based on SM-2.

Flash card syntax

Each deck of cards is a plain text Markdown file with the extension .md (ex: sample.md). You can put all your decks in the same directory.

Each card starts with a heading level 2 (line starting with ##) defining the question. The answer is the content following (until the next heading level 2).

Your progress is stored in a hidden file .<deck file>.db (ex: .sample.md.db).

Example of a deck with 3 cards:

## Question: what format is used?

Questions and answers are in **Markdown**.

## Are lists supported?

Yes, here is an example:

- three
- two
- **one**
- :rocket:

## How to include a table in the answer?

Answer with a table.

|  A  |  B  |
| --- | --- |
| 124 | 456 |

Reporting Issues

If you find a bug or have a feature request, please open an issue on our GitHub repository.