11 · Generating decks — alix deck

Authoring cards by hand is the slow part of any flashcard habit. alix deck removes it: point it at a source and Claude drafts a deck of fact cards for you.

alix deck https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch04-01-what-is-ownership.html
alix deck src/scheduler.rs            # a local file (or a whole directory)

The source is a web page URL or a local file/directory — the deck-side mirror of alix trace (a later chapter), which builds traces from the same kinds of source.

What you get

Claude reads the source and returns a deck spread across four layers of understanding — facts → concepts → application → connections — using cloze (#?) cards for terminology. The prompt has it draft, then re-read the whole set and merge or drop cards that test the same fact, so the deck doesn’t repeat itself. alix validates the text it gets back (it only ever accepts cards, never a write or shell command) and writes it to ~/decks/<slug>.txt.

How the source is recorded depends on its kind, and it matters later:

• A web page is read with the WebFetch tool, and the deck opens with a % link: line back to it — so the ask-Claude tutor can consult the page on your cards.
• A local source is explored read-only with Read/Glob/Grep, and the deck opens with a % source: line — so the AI exam can later grade your understanding against that same source (next chapter). Each fact that maps to specific lines also gets a % at: citation, so you can flip the card to its source on reveal.

Useful flags

alix deck <source> -o ownership    # choose the output file name
alix deck <source> --cards 15      # cap the number of cards
alix deck <source> --review        # a 2nd pass that dedups and tightens
alix deck <source> --print         # print to stdout instead of writing a file

--review runs a second Claude call that takes the draft and returns a deduplicated, tightened version. It costs an extra call, but it’s worth it when the source is repetitive. The prompt and limits — model, timeout_secs (default 300), max_cards (default 30), and an extra instruction field — live in the [generate] section of the config.

Generate, then own it

A generated deck is just a plain-text deck like any other: read it, edit it, cut the weak cards, add your own. Treat the output as a strong first draft, not gospel — the point is to skip the blank page, not to outsource judgment. That’s the same division the whole tool runs on (see how alix was made).