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Weekly

Turn new words in your vocabulary sheet into Anki flash cards

Every Sunday the new words in your Vocab sheet get a translation, pinyin and an example sentence, and a ready-to-import Anki file is saved to Drive.

Runs
Weekly
Apps
Google Drive, Google Sheets
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Sheets read+write; Drive write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every Sunday, take the new words in my Vocab sheet, add the translation, pinyin and an example sentence, and save an Anki CSV to my Drive.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A student learning Mandarin jots down new words in a Google Sheet during the week, from classes, shows and menus. Turning them into flash cards means looking up each one, finding an example sentence and typing it all into Anki, so the list keeps growing and the cards never get made.

Filling in the details and producing an import file once a week means the words you collect become cards you actually review.

What you get out of it

  • Collect words in seconds

    Just type the word into the sheet when you meet it. The details are filled in later.

  • Cards with context

    Each card has an example sentence, which makes words easier to remember than a bare translation.

  • One import a week

    A single file each Sunday adds the week's words to Anki in one step.

  • Your sheet becomes a full glossary

    Translations and examples are written back to the sheet, so you have a searchable record too.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every Sunday ClickRuntime reads your Vocab sheet and picks out the words that have no translation yet.

  2. AI adds a translation, pinyin and a short example sentence for each new word.

  3. The details are written back into your sheet next to each word.

  4. A CSV file of the new cards, ready to import into Anki, is saved to your Drive folder.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google Drive
  • Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use

What you get

RunsWeekly
Turn new words in your vocabulary sheet into Anki flash cardstoday, 9:00Succeeded
Google Drive · FlashcardsSaved anki-2026-10-19.csv: 菜单 | càidān | menu | 请给我看一下菜单。

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Drive and Google Sheets steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
flash_card_deck_from_a_vocabulary_sheet.pyexample
import csv, io, json
from datetime import date
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, ai

SHEET, FOLDER = "your-spreadsheet-id", "your-flashcards-folder-id"
S = f"https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4/spreadsheets/{SHEET}/values"
SCHEMA = {"type": "object", "properties": {"cards": {"type": "array", "items": {"type": "array", "items": {"type": "string"}}}}, "required": ["cards"]}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    h = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('google', 'work')}"}
    rows = http.get(f"{S}/Vocab!A2:D", headers=h).json().get("values", [])
    new = [(i, r[0]) for i, r in enumerate(rows, start=2) if r and len(r) < 2]
    if not new:
        return {"new": 0}
    words = "\n".join(w for _, w in new[:60])
    cards = ai.generate(f"For each Mandarin word give [translation, pinyin, example sentence], same order:\n{words}",
                        json_schema=SCHEMA, max_output_tokens=2000).json["cards"]
    data = [{"range": f"Vocab!B{i}:D{i}", "values": [c[:3]]} for (i, _), c in zip(new, cards)]
    http.post(f"{S}:batchUpdate", headers=h, json={"valueInputOption": "RAW", "data": data})
    buf = io.StringIO()
    csv.writer(buf).writerows([w, f"{c[1]}<br>{c[0]}<br>{c[2]}"] for (_, w), c in zip(new, cards))
    http.post("https://www.googleapis.com/upload/drive/v3/files?uploadType=multipart", headers=h, files={
        "metadata": (None, json.dumps({"name": f"anki-{date.today()}.csv", "parents": [FOLDER]}), "application/json"),
        "file": ("cards.csv", buf.getvalue().encode(), "text/csv")})
    return {"cards": len(cards)}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it only work for Mandarin?
No. It works for any language. For Mandarin it adds pinyin; for other languages it can add a pronunciation guide or gender instead.
How do I get the cards into Anki?
Download the CSV from your Drive folder and use Anki's Import option. Each row becomes a card with the word on the front and the details on the back.
Will it re-make cards for old words?
No. Only rows without a translation are processed, so each word is turned into a card once.
What permissions does it need?
Sheets read+write; Drive write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (weekly). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Turn new words in your vocabulary sheet into Anki flash cards” from your assistant

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