Turning notes into flashcards is a good use of a model. But cards alone don't teach anyone anything — the spaced repetition schedule is what does the work, and that part is ordinary code.

1. Generate good cards, not many cards

The failure mode is fifty cards from one page, most of them trivial or overlapping.

generate-cards.txt
Generate flashcards from this material: <text>

Rules:
- One fact per card. If an answer needs a comma-separated list, it's
  probably several cards.
- The question must be answerable without seeing the source.
- No cards for trivia that doesn't matter — you decide what's load-
  bearing and say why for each.
- Prefer questions that test understanding over recall of exact
  wording.
- Maximum <n> cards. If the material doesn't warrant that many, make
  fewer and say so.

Return JSON: question, answer, and the source excerpt each came from.

The maximum plus permission to make fewer is what prevents padding.

2. Always keep the source

Every card links back to the passage it came from. Generated cards will sometimes be subtly wrong, and the ability to check is what stops you memorising an error.

3. Scheduling is the actual product

Use an established spaced repetition algorithm — SM-2 is well documented and straightforward to implement. Each card has an interval and an ease factor; answering well lengthens the interval, answering badly resets it.

This is ordinary arithmetic and it's what makes the difference between a flashcard app and a quiz.

4. Make reviewing fast

The daily review must be frictionless: show question, reveal answer, rate it, next. Keyboard only. No animations that delay anything.

People do this for ten minutes a day, and any friction ends the habit within a week.

5. Let people edit and delete

Generated cards need pruning. Editing a card mid-review, without losing your place, is essential — otherwise bad cards stay in rotation forever and the whole deck loses credibility.

Cap the daily review count. An app that presents 200 cards after a week away is one people abandon rather than catch up on.