Docs / Basics
Getting started
What Askesis is, your first session, and a tour of the dashboard.
What Askesis is
Askesis is an open-source spaced repetition app. You review flashcards, grade how well you remembered each one, and Askesis schedules the next review for just before you would forget it. Scheduling follows the classic SM-2 timings, and you can switch any deck to FSRS.
On top of that sit streaks, XP and levels, daily quests, trophies and analytics, so a daily review habit is easy to keep. New to spaced repetition? Spaced repetition, explained covers why it works in a few minutes.
Your account
Create an account with an email and password. Every new account starts with:
- Two starter decks: Askesis Basics (how spaced repetition and Askesis work) and World Capitals.
- A deck preset with the standard SM-2 defaults, so cards come back on a familiar schedule. See How scheduling works.
- Your device’s time zone, so your study day and streak roll over at local time.
The dashboard
| Panel | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Today | Cards due now, split into New (blue), Learning (orange) and Review (green), an estimated time, and your daily goal ring. |
| Quick study | A short session of up to 20 of today’s cards, the ones you’re closest to forgetting first. Visitors pick a free practice deck instead. |
| Streak | Consecutive study days, this week at a glance, and your banked streak freezes. |
| Level | Your rank and progress to the next level. |
| Decks | Every deck with today’s New, Learn and Due counts, 30-day recall and the share of mature cards. |
| Daily chest | Open once a day for XP and coins; better chests with longer streaks, and a weekly chest for seven days in a row. Shows your coins. |
| Daily quests | Six small goals a day; claim each for XP and coins, all six for a bonus. |
| Insights | Forecast of upcoming reviews, reviews per day, and true retention by week. Each chart has a table view. |
| Activity | A year-long heatmap of reviews per day, with averages and streak stats. |
| Answers, Collection, Sharpest hour | How you grade, what your collection is made of, and the hour of day you recall best. |
| Trophies | Achievements, unlocked and in progress. |
What each number means and how it’s worked out: Reading your stats.
Try it with sample data
To see every chart and trophy with real-looking numbers, open Settings → Sample data and load sample history. It replaces your collection with about 13,500 cards and 11 months of simulated reviews.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space or Enter | Show the answer |
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 |
They work in every study session and in the practice drill on public deck pages.