Manual

Everything you need to install Sentmine and mine your first card.

The extension’s own screens (the settings page and the toolbar panel) are currently in Spanish, so this manual gives the Spanish name in brackets the first time: Settings (Ajustes) → Anki, Language (Idioma), Account (Cuenta), Data and backup (Datos y copia de seguridad), About (Acerca de).

1. Install the extension

Sentmine works in Chrome, Brave and Edge (any Chromium-based browser with Manifest V3 extensions).

Open the Sentmine page on the Chrome Web Store and press Add to Chrome. In Brave it installs the same way; in Edge, the Chrome store asks you to allow extensions from other stores and Edge guides you.
Accept the permissions and pin the Sentmine icon to the toolbar (the extensions puzzle piece) to keep it at hand.
To see which version you have, open the Sentmine icon: the version is at the bottom of the panel. It is also in Settings → About. Chrome updates extensions on its own.

If Netflix or YouTube were already open, reload the tab so Sentmine starts.

2. Set up Anki

Install desktop Anki.
In Anki: Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons and enter the code 2055492159 (AnkiConnect). Restart Anki.
Keep Anki open while you mine. The first time, Anki asks whether to allow the extension access: accept.
In Sentmine, open Settings → Anki and check that it says “Conectado” (connected). Sentmine creates the “Sentmine” note type and the decks by itself.

3. Use Sentmine

Open a video with subtitles in the language you are learning on YouTube, Netflix, HBO Max or Gaia (in testing: Prime Video, Disney+ and Crunchyroll). Sentmine always starts off: press Z, the power button in the player, or the switch on the extension icon. Turning it on also switches on YouTube’s CC button and hides the native subtitles; if no subtitles appear, press the player’s CC button once.
Hover a word to see its translation, definition and IPA; click to pin the box. With “★ Use as key word” you highlight it in the card.
Press Alt+Shift+M to mine the current line. You will see “Card added to Anki ✓”. The first time, Sentmine asks where to save your cards; after you answer, press the shortcut again.

The audio is recorded by playing the line again, so the video stops and repeats for a few seconds while you mine. The tab is muted only while recording.

In Anki, when you flip the card the audio plays again by itself (the sentence’s or the word’s). If you already had Sentmine cards, the design with this improvement is applied the next time you mine a card (or press “Reaplicar el estilo” — Reapply style — in Settings → Anki).

Mine a single word

If you know the sentence but not one word, hover that word and press “Mine this word” in the dictionary box. Sentmine creates a card for just that word: on the front the word, with its recorded pronunciation by a native speaker (when one exists), and on the back a related picture, its translation, its phonetics (IPA), a definition per part of speech and the sentence where it appeared, with the word in bold, its phonetics and its translation. In Settings → Anki you can turn off the audio and the picture for words.

The card goes to the same deck as the sentences of that episode or video (the ones you mine with Alt+Shift+M), so what you take from an episode stays together. Word cards carry the word tag in Anki, in case you want to study them separately. If the word was already in that deck, Sentmine says “Already in Anki”.

Phrasal verbs

Sentmine recognises about 400 English phrasal verbs (pick up, turn off, get away with…) in any tense and even with the object in the middle (turn the lights off). Their words appear with a faint underline in the subtitle and, when you hover one of them, the whole verb lights up.

In the dictionary box you will see the phrasal verb first (with the “phrasal verb” label, its translation and its definitions) and the single word below, as usual. With “Mine this phrasal verb” you create a card for the verb: the base form on the front, its meaning on the back and the sentence where it appeared with all the verb’s words in bold. It goes to the same deck as the sentences of that episode and carries the phrasal-verb tag.

Detection uses a list of phrasal verbs, so it does not recognise those that are not on it, and it sometimes marks a literal use (for example “went up the stairs”).

AI explanation

In the dictionary box, “Explain in context” asks an AI to explain the sentence in its scene: the natural translation (it uses the surrounding lines and the title to work out who is speaking, pronouns and jokes), how the word is translated in that sentence, what it means in this context, idioms or cultural references and grammar that may confuse. You need to sign in (Settings → Account); it is free up to 10 explanations a day.

When you mine a sentence or a word, Sentmine asks for the explanation by itself and saves it on the back of the card, next to the AI’s translation (if there is no session, quota or timely answer, the card is created anyway with the subtitle’s translation). If you do not want to spend your quota when mining, turn off “Explicación de la IA en la tarjeta” (AI explanation on the card) in Settings → Anki.

The AI can be wrong, especially with references to a show or to local culture. Use it as a help, not as absolute truth. What is sent and to whom: privacy policy.

The language you learn and your language

In Settings → Language you choose the language you learn (the one in the videos) and your language (the one it is translated into). English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish and Indonesian can be the language you learn; the two must differ. Reload open tabs to apply it. Phrasal verbs are only available for English and the Wiktionary definitions are in English. Cards for languages other than English carry a tag with the language code (for example fr).

Where the cards are saved

The first time you mine, Sentmine asks: a deck for each video (recommended; the deck is named like the video), a deck you already have or a new deck. For Netflix series, the default deck is Series::Episode. We remember it and you can change it whenever you like from the Sentmine icon in the browser toolbar: there you see your Anki decks with their card counts, choose “Por vídeo” (per video) or “Siempre el mismo” (always the same) and create a new deck. With “always the same”, all cards, from any platform, go to that deck.

Turning it on and off

Sentmine always starts off each time a page loads: only you turn it on, with the Z key, with the power button in the player’s own control bar (next to the playback buttons) or with the switch on the extension icon. The state belongs to each tab. It is amber when Sentmine is on. When off, the site stays exactly as it is. If you turn on auto-pause (Q) and then turn it off while the video is stopped by it, the video resumes by itself.

4. Shortcuts

On the video page

Key	Action
`A`	Previous line
`D`	Next line
`S`	Repeat the current line
`W`	Play / pause
`R`	Loop the current line
`Q`	Pause at the end of each line
`[`	Slower
`]`	Faster
`E`	Show / hide the original subtitles
`N`	Show / hide the translation
`Z`	Turn Sentmine on / off

From the browser

Shortcut	Action
`Alt+Shift+M`	Mine the current line to Anki

Browser shortcuts can be changed at chrome://extensions/shortcuts. The page keys do not act while you type in a text field.

5. Account and sync (optional)

Sentmine works without an account, except the AI explanations, which need one. If you create one in Settings → Account (we email you a 6-digit code, no password) — or straight from the extension icon in the toolbar — you can use the AI and your vocabulary, settings and card history sync between your devices. In Settings → Data and backup you can export and import a backup.

6. Common problems

No subtitles appear

Check that Sentmine is on (Z). Reload the tab. On YouTube, press the player’s CC button once. If the video has no subtitles in the language you learn (Settings → Language), Sentmine cannot show them.

“Explain in context” gives an error

You need to be signed in. If you see “Free AI is busy”, the free AI is overloaded today: try later. If you used up your 10 daily explanations, they renew at midnight UTC.

Anki shows “Sin conexión” (offline)

Check that Anki is open, that AnkiConnect is installed and that you accepted the extension’s permission. Restart Anki if you just installed the add-on.

No screenshot on Netflix

Netflix protects its video and the capture comes out black, so Sentmine does not offer it there. On YouTube it is available.

Cards look different after updating

In Settings → Anki, “Reaplicar el estilo de las tarjetas” (Reapply card style) restores the card design (it overwrites changes you made to the note type).

Anything else? Write to us at diegojosepc@gmail.com.