Cadence Pulse
Your answer rhythm says more than your answer buttons. Pulse notices when your attention drifts mid-review — and tells you the moment a 20-second reset will save your session, instead of letting you grind through cards you won’t remember.
v1.2.0 · Anki 2.1.45+ · works offline
Notices drift before you do
Pulse watches the rhythm of your answers — not the answers themselves. When your response times get erratic against your own session baseline, that's attention drifting, and it quietly offers a 20-second movement reset.
Knows drift from exhaustion
Erratic rhythm gets a 20-second micro-movement. A steady slowdown — every card quietly taking longer — gets a different prompt: take a real 2-minute break. A tired brain needs water and daylight, not toe touches.
Finds your golden hours
Pulse learns which hour of the day your attention is steadiest and tells you on the dashboard — so you can guard that block for your hardest decks. Real ammunition against time-blindness scheduling.
Movement resets that actually work
The prompts are open-skill, unpredictable movements — the exercise type with the strongest evidence for acutely boosting executive function in ADHD. Twenty seconds, no equipment, back to your cards.
Respects hyperfocus, never nags
Dismiss two prompts and it goes quiet for the rest of the session. Minimum six minutes between prompts. Quiet hours you control. Locked in is locked in.
Private by design
100% local. No account, no telemetry, no network calls. Your review data never leaves your machine — Pulse just reads the rhythm and keeps it to itself.
Install in under a minute
- 1In Anki, open Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons… and paste the code 981518603.
- 2Restart Anki. You'll see a Cadence button in the top toolbar — that's your dashboard.
- 3Review as normal. Pulse learns your rhythm from the first ten cards of each session.
The dashboard tracks a show-up streak (it counts showing up, not perfection), your weekly steadiness trend, and a recap of your last session.
Frequently asked questions
What is Cadence Pulse?
Cadence Pulse is a free Anki add-on that detects attention drift during flashcard review by measuring the variability of your response times against your own session baseline. When drift is detected, it prompts a 20-second movement reset. It runs entirely on your computer with no account required.
How does an Anki add-on detect attention drift?
Response-time variability is a well-replicated behavioral marker of lapsing attention, especially in ADHD. Pulse establishes your personal baseline from the first ten cards of each session, then watches a rolling window of answer latencies. When variability spikes above your baseline, that's drift — no camera, no tracking, just timing.
Is Cadence Pulse free?
Yes. Cadence Pulse is completely free. Install it from AnkiWeb with add-on code 981518603, or download the file directly from this page. There is no premium tier, no account, and no ads.
Does Cadence Pulse send my study data anywhere?
No. Cadence Pulse is 100% local: it makes no network calls, requires no account, and collects no telemetry. Your response times and steadiness scores are stored inside Anki's own add-on configuration on your machine and never leave it.
Why movement breaks instead of just a pause?
The prompts are open-skill movements — unpredictable, externally-paced motor tasks. A 2023 network meta-analysis in Frontiers in Public Health found open-skill exercise the most effective exercise type for executive function in ADHD (SUCRA 98%). Twenty seconds is enough to reset without breaking your study session.
Does it change how Anki schedules my cards?
No. Cadence Pulse never touches your decks, cards, or the spaced-repetition scheduler. It only reads the time between a question appearing and you answering, and shows an optional prompt. Removing the add-on leaves your collection exactly as it was.
Cadence Pulse is a study aid, not medical advice. The drift signal is based on peer-reviewed response-time variability research (intra-individual RT variability is among the most replicated behavioral findings in ADHD); the movement prompts follow open-skill exercise findings (Zhu et al. 2023, Frontiers in Public Health network meta-analysis). It works with your existing decks and changes nothing about how Anki schedules cards. Last updated: 2026-07-16.