Mealie

Mealie MCP Server is an MCP server that connects AI assistants like Claude Desktop directly to a running Mealie recipe database instance. Built for home cooks, meal planners, and self-hosters, it provides an interface to manage digital culinary collections using conversational commands. The server exposes 62 operations covering full recipe lifecycle management, such as creating, updating, duplicating, and querying dishes with structured ingredients and metadata tracking. In addition to recipe handling, it enables users to generate and manage dynamic shopping lists, bulk-populate ingredients directly from saved recipes, and track checked items without losing existing notes. It also supports taxonomy organization by cataloging categories, tags, tools, units, and custom food items, while identifying unused tags and empty categories. Furthermore, the server supports meal planning workflows, allowing users to review today's menu or schedule bulk meals for upcoming dates, turning a self-hosted Mealie setup into an interactive kitchen assistant.

Category: CRM, ERP & E-commerce

Tags: cooking, database, food, mealie, recipes

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How to install and configure Mealie

1. Ensure Python 3.12+ and the uv package manager are installed, along with an active Mealie instance and API key. 2. Add the server configuration to your Claude Desktop configuration file (claude_desktop_config.json) using uvx: json { "mcpServers": { "mealie-mcp-server": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["git+https://github.com/rldiao/mealie-mcp-server"], "env": { "MEALIE_BASE_URL": "https://your-mealie-instance.com", "MEALIE_API_KEY": "your-mealie-api-key" } } } } 3. Alternatively, install directly using FastMCP: fastmcp install src/server.py --env-var MEALIE_BASE_URL=https://your-mealie-instance.com --env-var MEALIE_API_KEY=your-mealie-api-key. 4. Restart Claude Desktop to initialize the connection.

What you can do with Mealie

• Search recipe archives using combinations of text, category slugs, and tags with boolean AND or OR filtering logic. - Create comprehensive recipes with structured ingredients or duplicate and patch existing recipes with updated instructions. - Extract all ingredients from specific recipe entries and populate them directly into grocery shopping lists. - Update and check off shopping list items in bulk while automatically preserving existing item notes and quantities. - Review today's active meal schedule or generate multi-day meal plans in bulk across household calendars. - Audit recipe taxonomy to identify and delete unused categories, empty tags, or obsolete kitchen tools.

Key facts

• Open Source
• https://github.com/rldiao/mealie-mcp-server
• CRM, ERP & E-commerce, Files, Documents & PDFs
• cooking, database, food, mealie, recipes

Part of MCP Servers

What is Mealie MCP Server?

Mealie MCP Server is an integration tool built on the Model Context Protocol that connects AI assistants like Claude Desktop to a self-hosted Mealie recipe database. It provides access to 62 tools for managing recipes, meal plans, and grocery lists through natural language.

How do I install Mealie MCP Server?

You can configure it in Claude Desktop using uvx with the arguments git+https://github.com/rldiao/mealie-mcp-server, specifying your MEALIE_BASE_URL and MEALIE_API_KEY environment variables. Alternatively, you can install the server via fastmcp using Python 3.12.

How do I filter recipes by tags or categories?

When filtering recipes through the server, you must provide the tag or category slug or UUID rather than its display name. You can run the get_tags or get_categories tools beforehand to retrieve the exact slugs needed for search parameters.

Is Mealie MCP Server open source?

Yes, Mealie MCP Server is open-source software released under the MIT License. The code and documentation can be inspected, modified, or contributed to via its GitHub repository.