StudyBuddy CLI — An AI Study Companion Built for My Friend Who's Cramming for Exams

Karan Ray — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 11:08:03 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend

What I Built

My friend is cramming for mid-term exams and has been spending hours re-reading notes without actually retaining anything. I built StudyBuddy CLI — a terminal-based AI study companion that turns messy notes into smart flashcards and quizzes you using spaced repetition, so you actually learn instead of just memorizing.

The killer feature? It runs 100% locally on their laptop using Ollama. No accounts, no cloud uploads, no subscriptions. Their study data — including potentially sensitive class notes — never leaves their machine.

Here's what it does:

📚 Paste notes, import a PDF, or speak into your mic → AI generates Q&A flashcards instantly
🧠 SM-2 Spaced Repetition — the same algorithm SuperMemo uses. Cards you struggle with appear more often
💡 AI Explanations — get a question wrong and the AI explains why the answer is correct
📊 Progress Tracking — streaks, accuracy, weekly activity charts, per-deck mastery breakdowns
🎤 Voice Input — speak your notes via a browser companion page (Web Speech API)
🔄 Swap Models — switch between Llama, Mistral, Phi, or any Ollama model

When I showed it to my friend, they said: "Wait, this runs offline? I can use this during study sessions at the library where the WiFi is terrible." That's exactly the point.

Demo

Here's what the CLI looks like when you launch it:

  ___ _           _      ___         _    _      
 / __| |_ _  _ __| |_  _| _ )_  _ __| |__| |_  _ 
 \__ \  _| || / _` | || | _ \ || / _` / _` | || |
 |___/\__|\_, \__,_|\_, |___/\_,_\__,_\__,_|\_, |
                    |__/                    |__/ 
  AI-Powered Study Companion  •  Ollama  •  100% Local

  ✔ Connected to Ollama • llama3.2:latest

  🔥 5-day streak  │  📚 3 decks  │  🃏 42 cards  │  🎯 85% accuracy

The quiz flow works like this:

See a question
Type your answer
Self-assess (correct / wrong / partial)
If wrong → get an AI-powered explanation
SM-2 schedules when you'll see that card next

The progress dashboard tracks everything:

  🔥 Current Streak: 5 days   |   🏆 Longest: 12 days

┌───────────────┬──────┐
│ Cards Studied │ 150  │
│ Correct       │ 120  │
│ Incorrect     │ 30   │
│ Accuracy      │ 80%  │
│ Decks Created │ 5    │
└───────────────┴──────┘

  📊 Last 7 Days
  Mon  ███████████      11
  Tue  ████████████████ 16
  Wed  ██████████       10
  Thu  ░                 0
  Fri  ████████         8
  Sat  █████████████    13
  Sun  ███████████████  15

Code

karanray06 / studybuddy-cli-

🎓 StudyBuddy CLI

AI-powered study companion with spaced repetition — runs 100% locally with Ollama.

Built for a friend who's cramming for exams and deserves a study tool that respects their privacy, works offline, and actually helps them learn — not just memorize.

✨ Features

📚 Smart Flashcard Generation — Paste notes, import a PDF, or speak into your mic. The AI generates high-quality Q&A flashcards instantly.
🧠 Spaced Repetition (SM-2) — The same algorithm SuperMemo uses. Cards you struggle with appear more often; cards you've mastered fade back.
💡 AI Explanations — Get it wrong? The AI explains why the answer is correct, in a way that helps you actually understand.
📊 Progress Tracking — Streaks, accuracy, daily activity charts, and per-deck mastery breakdowns.
📄 PDF Import — Drop in a textbook chapter PDF and get flashcards in seconds.
🎤 Voice Input — Speak your notes through a browser…

View on GitHub

Architecture

studybuddy-cli/
├── bin/studybuddy.js        # CLI entry point
├── src/
│   ├── index.js              # Interactive menus
│   ├── ai/ollama.js          # Ollama REST API client
│   ├── cards/
│   │   ├── generator.js      # AI flashcard generation
│   │   ├── importer.js       # PDF/text extraction
│   │   └── manager.js        # Deck & card CRUD
│   ├── quiz/
│   │   ├── engine.js         # Quiz runner
│   │   └── sm2.js            # SM-2 algorithm
│   ├── progress/tracker.js   # Streaks & stats
│   ├── ui/
│   │   ├── display.js        # Banner, dashboard
│   │   └── theme.js          # Color palette
│   └── voice/
│       ├── page.html         # Web Speech API page
│       └── server.js         # Local HTTP server
├── LICENSE                   # MIT
└── README.md

All data is stored locally in ~/.studybuddy/ as JSON files — one per deck, plus a global progress file.

How I Built It

Open-source AI stack:

Ollama — runs open-weight models locally (Llama 3.2, Mistral, Phi, Gemma)
Node.js ESM — cross-platform CLI runtime
SM-2 Algorithm — the proven spaced repetition algorithm from SuperMemo
Web Speech API — browser-based voice recognition for hands-free note input
pdf-parse — extract text from PDF textbooks

The AI is used in two key places:

1. Flashcard generation — a carefully crafted system prompt tells Ollama to produce Q&A pairs as a JSON array from raw text. The parser handles markdown fences, leading prose, and other LLM quirks gracefully.

2. Wrong-answer explanations — when you get a card wrong, a second prompt asks the model to explain why the correct answer is right, given what you said. It's encouraging, not condescending. Here's a real example:

Q: What is the primary pigment in photosynthesis?
Your answer: Carotene
AI: You were close! Carotene is indeed an important pigment in plants, but it's not the primary one. Chlorophyll is the superstar of photosynthesis — it's the pigment that absorbs light mainly in the red and blue wavelengths, which is why plants appear green.

The interactive terminal UI uses chalk for colors, figlet for the ASCII banner, gradient-string for gradient effects, ora for spinners, and @inquirer/prompts for the menu system.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Concern	How StudyBuddy handles it
Privacy	Study notes never leave the machine. No API keys, no cloud. My friend studies medical terminology — that data shouldn't be on someone else's server.
Offline	Works in a library with no WiFi. Once the model is downloaded, zero internet needed.
Cost	Free forever. No per-token charges. A broke college student shouldn't have to pay to study.
Flexibility	Swap models instantly. Llama 3.2 for quality, Phi for speed on an older laptop.
Transparency	Every prompt is in the source code. No black-box behavior — you can see exactly what the AI is told to do.

A closed API couldn't do this. It would require internet, cost money per question, and send study notes to a server my friend doesn't control. Open-source AI made it possible to build a tool that's genuinely theirs.

My Agent Session

Building StudyBuddy CLI — AI Study Companion with Ollama

You

I want to build something for the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend. I chose a study buddy / flashcard generator for a friend in school. CLI tool, with Ollama for local AI, spaced repetition, voice input, PDF import, and progress tracking.

Agent

Let's build StudyBuddy CLI — a terminal-based AI study companion powered by Ollama. I'll create a full Node.js CLI app with SM-2 spaced repetition, AI-powered flashcard generation, wrong-answer explanations, PDF import, voice input via Web Speech API, and streak tracking. Everything runs 100% locally.

▸ write_to_file package.json — ESM Node.js project with chalk, ora, figlet, gradient-string, ...

Input

package.json — ESM Node.js project with chalk, ora, figlet, gradient-string, @inquirer/prompts, commander, pdf-parse

Output

Created package.json with all dependencies

▸ write_to_file src/quiz/sm2.js — SM-2 spaced repetition algorithm (calculateSM2, isDue, sort...

Input

src/quiz/sm2.js — SM-2 spaced repetition algorithm (calculateSM2, isDue, sortByDue, masteryLabel)

Output

Created SM-2 algorithm module

▸ write_to_file src/ui/theme.js — curated color palette (violet, cyan, coral pink, green) and...

Input

src/ui/theme.js — curated color palette (violet, cyan, coral pink, green) and Unicode symbols

Output

Created terminal theme

▸ write_to_file src/ai/ollama.js — Ollama REST API client with model discovery, chat, flashca...

Input

src/ai/ollama.js — Ollama REST API client with model discovery, chat, flashcard generation, and wrong-answer explanations

Output

Created Ollama integration

▸ write_to_file src/cards/manager.js — file-based deck/card CRUD in ~/.studybuddy/, SM-2 stat...

Input

src/cards/manager.js — file-based deck/card CRUD in ~/.studybuddy/, SM-2 state per card

Output

Created card storage manager

▸ write_to_file src/cards/generator.js — bridges Ollama AI with deck storage to generate flas...

Input

src/cards/generator.js — bridges Ollama AI with deck storage to generate flashcards from text

Output

Created card generator

▸ write_to_file src/cards/importer.js — PDF text extraction via pdf-parse, plain text file su...

Input

src/cards/importer.js — PDF text extraction via pdf-parse, plain text file support

Output

Created file importer

▸ write_to_file src/quiz/engine.js — interactive quiz runner with self-assessment, SM-2 sched...

Input

src/quiz/engine.js — interactive quiz runner with self-assessment, SM-2 scheduling, AI explanations

Output

Created quiz engine

▸ write_to_file src/progress/tracker.js — streaks, accuracy, daily history, weekly activity c...

Input

src/progress/tracker.js — streaks, accuracy, daily history, weekly activity charts

Output

Created progress tracker

▸ write_to_file src/voice/page.html — beautiful Web Speech API companion page with glassmorph...

Input

src/voice/page.html — beautiful Web Speech API companion page with glassmorphism design

Output

Created voice input HTML page

▸ write_to_file src/voice/server.js — local HTTP server that serves voice page and receives t...

Input

src/voice/server.js — local HTTP server that serves voice page and receives transcripts via POST

Output

Created voice input server

▸ write_to_file src/ui/display.js — ASCII banner, progress dashboard, card rendering, quiz su...

Input

src/ui/display.js — ASCII banner, progress dashboard, card rendering, quiz summaries with gradients

Output

Created display helpers

▸ write_to_file src/index.js — main app with interactive menus for deck creation (text/PDF/vo...

Input

src/index.js — main app with interactive menus for deck creation (text/PDF/voice), study, progress, settings

Output

Created main application

▸ write_to_file bin/studybuddy.js — CLI entry point with commander and graceful Ctrl+C handling

Input

bin/studybuddy.js — CLI entry point with commander and graceful Ctrl+C handling

Output

Created CLI entry point

You

Let's test it

Agent

▸ run_command npm install

Input

$ npm install

Output

added 68 packages, audited 69 packages in 21s, 0 vulnerabilities

▸ run_command node -e "import all modules" --input-type=module

Input

$ node -e "import all modules" --input-type=module

Output

theme OK, sm2 OK, manager OK, ollama OK, display OK, importer OK, generator OK, engine OK, voice OK, index OK

▸ run_command node bin/studybuddy.js

Input

$ node bin/studybuddy.js

Output

StudyBuddy ASCII banner displayed, Connected to Ollama llama3.2:latest, interactive menu rendered with all 6 options

All 10 modules import cleanly. The app launches, connects to Ollama, shows the gradient ASCII banner, displays streak/deck stats, and presents the full interactive menu. StudyBuddy is working perfectly!

DEV Community: Karan Ray

StudyBuddy CLI — An AI Study Companion Built for My Friend Who's Cramming for Exams

What I Built

Demo

Code

karanray06 / studybuddy-cli-

🎓 StudyBuddy CLI

✨ Features

Architecture

How I Built It

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

My Agent Session