> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.janus.cards/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Flashcard Writer

The core engine of Janus is the **flashcard writer** that creates **flashcards** for a single **highlight/snippet**.

The writer has to solve the following problems:

* **Content Selection**: What should the cards specifically test?
* **Phrasing**: How should the information be broken down and expressed to best test you?
* **Formatting**: What should the cards look like?

Through prompting (and further customization soon), you can guide exactly how the writer thinks about making your flashcards.

## Prompting

The writer is governed by the following parameters:

* **User Prompt**: Prompts submitted by you in the [Generate](/workflow/notebook/generate) or [Highlight](/workflow/notebook/highlights) tabs.
* **Best Practices**: A comprehensive document outlining what "good" and effective flashcards look like, and how to create them. *There will soon be support for you to specify your own best practices*

The **user prompt** takes priority over **best practices** and allows you to give very specific instructions for what you want. Here are some examples:

> Turn this quote into a cloze card. There should be multiple deletions, each about 3-4 words long, that partition the quote fully. Then, if you know the name of the author and/or the book add these names to the end of the quote like: "- Meditations, Marcus Aurelius"

> Turn this vocab word into a Q\&A card. The front side should have just the word. The back side should have the definition, the part of speech and then an example in a sentence.

<Note>You will soon be able to save and reuse prompts.</Note>

## Writing Tasks

The same algorithm is used in multiple contexts. Below, you can find the tasks along with the user prompt.

| Task                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                | User Prompt                                                                                                                                                |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Generating new or additional flashcards for a single highlight in [highlights](/workflow/notebook/highlights) tab or [document reader](/workflow/notebook/document-reader). <img src="https://mintcdn.com/janus-8f513059/11EOzrkR4XI3jgr4/imgs/generate-button.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=11EOzrkR4XI3jgr4&q=85&s=b1691a09fe0c6d20f7dccda93780dc7d" alt="" width="234" height="102" data-path="imgs/generate-button.png" /> | **Prompt you input**                                                                                                                                       |
| Requesting to change or improve your flashcards for a single highlight <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/janus-8f513059/imgs/improve%20button.png" alt="" />                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    | **Prompt you input**                                                                                                                                       |
| Running an [edit command](/workflow/notebook/highlights#edit-commands) <img src="https://mintcdn.com/janus-8f513059/11EOzrkR4XI3jgr4/imgs/refinement.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=11EOzrkR4XI3jgr4&q=85&s=ef38b158e4fce33352290725f99430f7" alt="" width="668" height="328" data-path="imgs/refinement.png" />                                                                                                                                              | **Refinement prompt**                                                                                                                                      |
| Called by the **Highlighter** after running the [Generator](/workflow/notebook/generate) <img src="https://mintcdn.com/janus-8f513059/11EOzrkR4XI3jgr4/imgs/generate-tab-input.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=11EOzrkR4XI3jgr4&q=85&s=38c071a578c917e7a3c7af0667fa225e" alt="" width="1482" height="268" data-path="imgs/generate-tab-input.png" />                                                          | **Part of the prompt you input.** The highlighter determines which parts of the original prompt are relevant for that particular highlight, and uses that. |