Mealie
Enables AI assistants to interact with Mealie for recipe management, meal planning, and shopping list operations. Supports searching and managing recipes, creating meal plans, and generating shopping lists from recipes or meal plans.
What is Mealie?
Mealie is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to enables ai assistants to interact with mealie for recipe management, meal planning, and shopping list operations. supports searching and managing recipes, creating meal plans, and generating shopping ...
Enables AI assistants to interact with Mealie for recipe management, meal planning, and shopping list operations. Supports searching and managing recipes, creating meal plans, and generating shopping lists from recipes or meal plans.
This server falls under the Business Applications category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- Enables AI assistants to interact with Mealie for recipe man
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx mealie-mcp-serverConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Mealie
Mealie MCP Server is a Python-based MCP server that connects AI assistants to a self-hosted Mealie recipe management instance, exposing 45 tools spanning recipe operations, shopping list management, meal planning, and recipe organization. Using natural language, you can search recipes, create and update meal plans, generate shopping lists from ingredients or planned meals, manage categories and tags, and track recipe preparation history — all without opening the Mealie web interface. It requires a running Mealie instance and a valid API key for authentication.
Prerequisites
- A running Mealie instance (self-hosted) with API access enabled
- A Mealie API key (generate one in Mealie under your user profile settings)
- Python 3.10 or higher and the `fastmcp` CLI installed
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop
Clone the repository
Download the mealie-mcp-server source code from GitHub.
git clone https://github.com/rldiao/mealie-mcp-server.git
cd mealie-mcp-serverInstall fastmcp
The server uses fastmcp for installation and running. Install it globally or in a virtual environment.
pip install fastmcpInstall the server with fastmcp
Use fastmcp to install the server and pass your Mealie instance URL and API key as environment variables. This registers it with your MCP client automatically.
fastmcp install src/server.py \
--env-var MEALIE_BASE_URL=https://your-mealie-instance.com \
--env-var MEALIE_API_KEY=your-mealie-api-keyOr configure Claude Desktop manually
Alternatively, add the server configuration directly to your claude_desktop_config.json with the required environment variables.
{
"mcpServers": {
"mealie": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["/path/to/mealie-mcp-server/src/server.py"],
"env": {
"MEALIE_BASE_URL": "https://your-mealie-instance.com",
"MEALIE_API_KEY": "your-mealie-api-key"
}
}
}
}Verify the connection
Restart Claude Desktop and ask it to search for a recipe. If the server is connected, it will query your Mealie instance and return results. Use slugs (not display names) when filtering by tags or categories.
Mealie Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop configuration with Mealie instance URL and API key as environment variables.
{
"mcpServers": {
"mealie": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["/path/to/mealie-mcp-server/src/server.py"],
"env": {
"MEALIE_BASE_URL": "https://mealie.yourdomain.com",
"MEALIE_API_KEY": "your-mealie-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Natural language prompts for managing recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists through Mealie.
- "Search for chicken recipes in Mealie"
- "Create a meal plan for next week using recipes I already have"
- "Add all ingredients from tonight's dinner recipe to my shopping list"
- "Mark the meatloaf recipe as made today"
- "Show me recipes tagged with 'quick-meals'"
- "Find all recipes in the 'Dinner' category and suggest a weekly plan"Troubleshooting Mealie
Authentication errors or 401 Unauthorized responses
Verify your MEALIE_API_KEY is correct by testing it directly: `curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-key' https://your-mealie-instance.com/api/recipes`. Generate a new API key in Mealie under your user profile if the current one has expired or been revoked.
Filtering by tags or categories returns no results
Mealie filters use slugs or UUIDs, not display names. For example, use `tags=['quick-meals']` not `tags=['Quick Meals']`. View the correct slugs by asking Claude to list all available tags or categories in your Mealie instance.
Server fails to connect to the Mealie instance
Ensure MEALIE_BASE_URL does not have a trailing slash and is the base URL of your Mealie instance (e.g. `https://mealie.yourdomain.com`). Verify the instance is reachable from the machine running the MCP server, particularly if Mealie is on a local network.
Frequently Asked Questions about Mealie
What is Mealie?
Mealie is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables ai assistants to interact with mealie for recipe management, meal planning, and shopping list operations. supports searching and managing recipes, creating meal plans, and generating shopping lists from recipes or meal plans. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Mealie?
Follow the installation instructions on the Mealie GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Mealie?
Mealie works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Mealie free to use?
Yes, Mealie is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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