Why is data from the actual Anki program showing up in the local (dev) Anki build?

Anki Development
1

I built Anki using the ./run command, and it runs. However I can see my actual data imported into the development project which was surprising. Is this expected?

Link to screen recording: Screen Recording 2026-02-23 at 16.09.35

2

Collection files are stored independently from the app itself. If you want to make a separate working directory for a different version of anki, follow these instructions Managing Files - Anki Manual

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3

Thanks I also found a note about using a separate profile for development at the end of docs: anki/docs/development.md at main · ankitects/anki · GitHub

4

If you only need to separate cards and learning progress, this can work too. Just keep in mind that add-ons and their settings are shared between all user profiles in the same working directory.

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