mealie-recipe-import

Import recipes into a self-hosted Mealie instance from a photo, text, or URL, with AI ingredient parsing and cover image upload.

Add a recipe to a self-hosted Mealie instance (v1 API, app v3.x) from a photo, plain text, or a URL. Handles AI ingredient parsing, food/unit dedup + creation, recipe metadata, and cover-image upload. Verified against Mealie v3.21.0.

Requirements

• A running self-hosted Mealie instance (v1 API / app v3.x; verified on v3.21.0) reachable over the network.
• A Mealie API token (see Setup).
• Python 3 (standard library only) for the bundled script — no pip install needed.
• For photo import: an agent with a vision/image capability to transcribe the recipe. Plain-text and URL import work without vision.
• Optional but recommended: an AI ingredient parser configured in Mealie admin (OpenAI or Gemini) for best ingredient structuring; otherwise the built-in nlp/brute parser is used.

Setup

Two env vars (never hardcode instance/token):

• MEALIE_URL — base URL, e.g. http://mealie.example.lan:9925
• MEALIE_API_KEY — long-lived Mealie API token

Get a token: Mealie UI -> user profile -> "Manage Your API Tokens" -> create; or POST /api/users/api-tokens {"name":"agent"}. Store it in your agent's .env, never in the skill.

Verify access:

bash

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $MEALIE_API_KEY" "$MEALIE_URL/api/users/self"   # 200 + user json
curl -s "$MEALIE_URL/api/app/about"                                                # version

Workflow

1. Extract. Photo -> use your vision/image tool to transcribe: title, servings, times, ingredient lines (one per line, keep quantity + unit + note), and steps. Text -> use as-is. URL -> POST /api/recipes/create/url {"url":..,"includeTags":false} returns the slug (URL import parses ingredients weakly, so still run the parser in step 3).
2. Create record (photo/text): POST /api/recipes {"name":"<Title>"} returns the slug as a bare quoted JSON string.
3. Parse ingredients: POST /api/parser/ingredients {"parser":"openai","ingredients":[...]}. Each result item has .ingredient = {quantity, unit|null, food|null, note, originalText, referenceId} plus .confidence.average. The AI parser auto-resolves existing foods/units to their DB ids.
4. Dedup + create foods/units. GET /api/foods?perPage=2000 and GET /api/units?perPage=2000. For any parsed food/unit that has no id: match by lowercased/trimmed name; if still missing POST /api/foods {"name":..} / POST /api/units {"name":..} and use the returned object. Prevents duplicate foods.
5. Build + PUT recipe. GET /api/recipes/{slug} for the full object, then set recipeIngredient (array), recipeInstructions ([{title:"",text,ingredientReferences:[]}]), recipeServings (number), recipeYield (string), totalTime/prepTime (strings), then PUT /api/recipes/{slug} with the modified object.
6. Cover image: PUT /api/recipes/{slug}/image as multipart form image=@<file>;type=image/jpeg + extension=jpg -> {"image":"<n>"}. If you have both a cookbook-page scan and a finished-dish photo, use the finished dish as the cover.
7. Verify (VBR): GET /api/recipes/{slug} (check name, servings, ingredient/instruction counts, image id) and GET /api/media/recipes/{recipe_id}/images/original.webp -> expect HTTP 200.

The bundled scripts/mealie_import.py performs steps 2 + 4-7 (and step 3 if you pass raw ingredient lines) from a JSON job file.

recipeIngredient entry shape

json

{
  "quantity": 250.0,
  "unit": { "id": "...", "name": "Gramm" },
  "food": { "id": "...", "name": "Tortellini" },
  "note": "dry",
  "isFood": true,
  "disableAmount": false,
  "originalText": "250 g dry tortellini",
  "referenceId": "<uuid>"
}

Gotchas

• parser:"openai" selects whichever AI provider is configured in Mealie admin (OpenAI or Gemini). If no AI parser is configured, fall back to "parser":"nlp" or "brute", or keep lines as plain notes (food/unit null, disableAmount:true).
• The parser can return a transient HTTP 500 -> retry once.
• Set disableAmount:true when an ingredient has no quantity and no unit (e.g. Salt, Pepper) so it renders as just the name.
• POST /api/recipes returns the slug as a bare quoted JSON string, not an object.
• URL import (/api/recipes/create/url) stores ingredients as weakly-parsed raw text -> re-run the parser and PUT.
• Every write needs the Bearer token; keep it in env only.

Usage example (photo -> Mealie)

bash

export MEALIE_URL=http://mealie.example.lan:9925
export MEALIE_API_KEY=****

# After transcribing the photo, write a job file:
cat > job.json <<'JSON'
{
  "title": "Party Tortellini Salad",
  "servings": 4,
  "yield": "4 servings",
  "total_time": "40 min",
  "instructions": [
    "Cook tortellini per package. Dice peppers, wedge tomatoes, strip the ham. Drain and cool.",
    "Whisk yogurt with sour cream, balsamic and chives. Season, fold everything in, rest 10 min, serve."
  ],
  "ingredient_lines": [
    "250 g dry tortellini", "Salt", "1 yellow bell pepper", "1 green bell pepper",
    "4 tomatoes", "6 slices cooked ham", "250 g low-fat yogurt", "2 tbsp sour cream",
    "1 tbsp balsamic vinegar", "3 tbsp chives", "Pepper"
  ],
  "parser": "openai",
  "image_path": "/path/to/finished-dish.jpg"
}
JSON

python3 scripts/mealie_import.py job.json