How I Built a Slack Anki Reminder Bot in Record Time (Thanks, ChatGPT!)

When I decided to create a Slack bot to remind me of my due Anki flashcards, I didn’t find the concept intimidating. The steps—accessing Anki’s data, posting to Slack, and setting up a cron job—were all within my capability. However, I’m not a seasoned software developer, and my workflow often involves switching between documentation, tutorials, and trial-and-error. I wanted to see if using ChatGPT could speed up the process. The results surprised me: ChatGPT didn’t just guide me—it made the entire process significantly faster and smoother than if I had gone it alone.

From Concept to Steps

My idea was straightforward: Run a script each day that fetches due card counts from Anki (via AnkiConnect) and posts them to Slack. Normally, I’d spend time parsing multiple documentation sources. With ChatGPT, I simply asked for a plan and got a clear roadmap in seconds. It was like having a quick, on-demand consultant who knew exactly what to do next.

Refining the Details

As I coded, I needed to parse JSON responses, ensure Slack tokens were correct, and handle small hiccups like channel_not_found errors. ChatGPT walked me through each of these issues. Without spending time digging through forums or guesswork, I got immediate, actionable instructions. It felt like having a seasoned developer on call who could point me in the right direction every time I hit a snag.

Accelerating the Setup

One of the more fiddly parts was running my script via a cron job and ensuring my conda environment was activated. ChatGPT gave me the exact snippet I needed—no more trial-and-error with environment variables or sourcing the wrong files. This shaved minutes, even hours, off what would have otherwise been a slow, incremental testing process.

Professional Polish

Beyond coding, I wanted a professional touch: a polished README.md and a license file. ChatGPT provided a complete, cohesive README template and suggested the MIT License. It even wrote out the full license text, personalized with my name and the current year. Instead of cobbling together documentation, I instantly got a great starting point.

A Faster Path, Not a New Path

What stands out is that ChatGPT didn’t enable something I couldn’t do before; it just helped me do it faster and with fewer frustrations. I already had the necessary knowledge, but ChatGPT cut through the friction—no more constant context-switching or double-checking basic concepts. It let me stay focused on the interesting parts of the project rather than getting bogged down in setup details.

Looking Ahead

Now that my Slack Anki Reminder Bot is running smoothly, I’m confident that ChatGPT will also speed up future projects. It’s not about replacing the learning process but about making it more efficient. If you’re comfortable with coding but want to reduce the overhead of searching and verifying every detail, ChatGPT is a game-changer.

You can find the code for my Slack Anki Reminder Bot here: https://github.com/kychanbp/anki_slack_reminder

This blog post is also written by ChatGPT o1 pro.