Spaced repetition, APIs, and generative AI

Some of my recent experiments have combined almost every major theme of this blog: I've put a bunch of work into expanding, documenting, and testing the Zippyflash API. This has been useful for creating sets of flashcards based on a document: I now frequently ask a fast model to make me cards according to certain specifications about the material. The API and underlying data model are structured so that there's a review step between the LLM submitting the candidates and their being full-blooded members of my flashcard library.1 As part of my going-analog effort, I've experimented with asking an LLM to (i) find all my due cards that don't have images, (ii) create PDF worksheets from them, and then (iii) mark me right or wrong when I return photos of the completed worksheets to it. I love having the option to do my "flashcarding" in this longhand, analog way. Moreover, I've found the LLM (usually gpt-5.6-sol low, in this case) to be more than good enough at handwriting recognition and…