Choosing spaCy Models

First you need to find out which spaCy model(s) you want to download. A spaCy model determines which language is used and how to interpret that language. Find the names of the models you want to use from the spaCy website, e.g., en_core_web_sm.

Note that there are usually four different types of models to choose from, each with their distinct suffixes:

sm (small model)
md (medium model)
lg (large model)
trf (transformer model) NOT SUPPORTED BY ANKIMORPHS!

Larger models are slower, but they might produce better results.

If you go to the spaCy website: Language support section, you can click on the packages of a language to see which models are available.

Installing spaCy

There is, unfortunately, no super simple way to integrate spaCy with Anki, so we have to perform a little bit of terminal magic. This is because spaCy has a relatively large size (usually ~400 MB), so it can't be included as part of AnkiMorphs itself.

Another problem is that we have to install spaCy with the same python version that Anki uses. If you downloaded Anki from their website, the python version will be 3.9. This version of python is considered outdated, further complicating the process somewhat.

If your Anki is from another source, then read the section below:

Non-standard Anki builds

Note: If you are using a non-standard Anki build (e.g. anki-bin from AUR), then the python version will probably not be 3.9. To check which python version your Anki is using, go to Help -> About, and you will find something like this: Python 3.9.15 Qt 6.6.1 PyQt 6.6.1

Because of the way the python packaging system works, we have to install spaCy with a python version that has the same first two number groups, i.e. if your Anki shows Python 3.11.xx, you can install spaCy using any Python 3.11.yy version.

The rest of this guide assumes Anki uses Python 3.9, but if that is not the cause, then substitute 3.9 in the terminal commands with whatever your Anki is using.

With all that being said, this only needs to be done once, so hopefully it's not too bad.

Windows

First, we need to have Python 3.9 on our system. Go to the start menu, open a Command Prompt, and type in:

py -3.9 --version

If your output is not Python 3.9.x, then 3.9 has to be installed.

Note: If you install Python 3.9 in a different way than the instructions below, then you might encounter important differences that could prevent you from accessing the spaCy morphemizers in Anki.

Installing Python

Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3913/ and download the Windows installer (64-bit) at the bottom of the page.

Note: When you start the installer, make sure to select the Add python.exe to PATH checkbox at the very bottom:

Install with the default settings ("Install Now").

After the installation, go back to the command prompt and type in py -3.9 --version again. You should now see the new Python version you installed.

Now we are ready to install spaCy and the models you want to use. Paste these commands into the command prompt:

cd %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\Anki2\addons21
py -3.9 -m pip install --upgrade pip virtualenv
py -3.9 -m venv spacyenv
spacyenv\Scripts\activate
py -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
py -m pip install --upgrade spacy six

In the same command prompt, we now want to download the models. Here I'll use the Korean model ko_core_news_sm and the Russian model ru_core_news_sm.

py -m spacy download ko_core_news_sm
py -m spacy download ru_core_news_sm
deactivate

Now those spaCy models should be available as morphemizers in AnkiMorphs!

macOS

First, we need to have `Python 3.9` on our system. Go to the start menu, Open a terminal and type:

python3.9 --version

If your output is not Python 3.9.x, then 3.9 has to be installed.

Note: If you install Python 3.9 in a different way than the instructions below, then you might encounter important differences that could prevent you from accessing the spaCy morphemizers in Anki.

Installing Python

Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3913/ and download the macOS 64-bit universal2 installer at the bottom of the page.

Install with the default settings ("Install Now").

After the installation, open a new terminal and type in python3.9 --version again. You should now see the new Python version you installed.

Now we are ready to install spaCy and the models you want to use. Paste this into the terminal:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Anki2/addons21
python3.9 -m pip install --upgrade pip virtualenv
python3.9 -m venv spacyenv
. spacyenv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
python -m pip install --upgrade spacy six

In the same terminal, we now want to download the models. Here I'll use the Korean model ko_core_news_sm and the Russian model ru_core_news_sm.

python -m spacy download ko_core_news_sm
python -m spacy download ru_core_news_sm
deactivate

Now those spaCy models should be available as morphemizers in AnkiMorphs!

Linux

First, we need to have Python 3.9 on our system. Go to the start menu, Open a terminal and type:

python3.9 --version

If your output is not Python 3.9.x, then 3.9 has to be installed.

Installing Python

This is the hardest part of the installation process because Python 3.9 is considered dead, and it can therefore be tricky to download and install.

If you are on a Debian distro you can install it from the deadsnakes PPA:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3.9
sudo apt install python3.9-venv

Another alternative that also works on other distros is pyenv.

After the installation, open a new terminal and type in python3.9 --version again. You should now see the new Python version you installed.

Now we are ready to install spaCy and the models you want to use. Open a terminal and cd to the addons21 directory, e.g:

cd ~/.local/share/Anki2/addons21/

Then install spaCy:

python3.9 -m pip install --upgrade pip virtualenv
python3.9 -m venv spacyenv
source spacyenv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
python -m pip install --upgrade spacy six

In the same terminal, we now want to download the models. Here I'll use the Korean model ko_core_news_sm and the Russian model ru_core_news_sm.

python -m spacy download ko_core_news_sm
python -m spacy download ru_core_news_sm
deactivate

Now those spaCy models should be available as morphemizers in AnkiMorphs!

Potential problems

PowerShell Execution Policy Error

This is a safeguard against running malicious scripts, which is generally a good thing. To allow an exception for this one time, you can use the command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope Process

If you want to permanently remove this restriction for your user, then use the command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser

ImportError: cannot import name 'ModelMetaclass' from 'pydantic.main'

Some people on Arch have experienced problems getting spaCy for work when they already have installed the python-spacy and python-thinc AUR packages. Uninstalling those packages can potentially fix this import error. For more info see issue #239.