@cookmd/mcp

cook-mcp

An MCP server that gives your AI agent (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, or any other MCP client) access to your Cooklang recipe collection. Recipes stay as plain .cook and .menu files in a folder you own. The agent can read, search, validate and write them, build shopping lists, track a pantry and render reports, all locally and without an account. With a cook.md login it can also compute nutrition and import recipes from photos and social links.

Install

Claude Code:

claude mcp add cook -- npx -y @cookmd/mcp

Any client that takes an mcpServers config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cook": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cookmd/mcp"],
      "env": { "COOK_RECIPES_DIR": "/path/to/recipes" }
    }
  }
}

If COOK_RECIPES_DIR is not set, the client's working directory is the recipe root.

Supported platforms: macOS (arm64, x64) and Linux (x64, arm64, glibc 2.35 or newer). There are no Windows builds yet.

Setup notes for specific clients: https://cook.md/help/mcp

Tools

Free (local, no login)

Tool	What it does
list_recipes	List recipes, meal plans or report templates (kind: recipe, menu, template, all)
read_recipe	Read a recipe or menu: source plus parsed ingredients, cookware, steps and metadata; optional scaling
search_recipes	Search names and contents, optionally filtered by tag
validate	Check a file, a folder, the whole collection, or unsaved content for errors and broken references
write_recipe	Save a .cook recipe (validated first)
write_menu	Save a .menu meal plan (validated first)
write_config	Save config/aisle.conf, config/pantry.conf, or a .jinja report template under reports/ or config/reports/
shopping_list	Build a shopping list from recipes and/or menus: merges duplicates, groups by aisle, subtracts the pantry
pantry_list	Show the pantry, by section
pantry_expiring	Items expiring soon
pantry_depleted	Items at or below their low-stock threshold
pantry_recipes	Which recipes you can cook with what is in the pantry
pantry_update	Add, update or remove pantry items
render_report	Render a jinja report template against a recipe or menu (plain templates need no login)

Cook Basic / Pro (cook.md login)

Tool	What it does
login	Start a cook.md device login; shows a code and a URL
auth_status	Show login status, plan and import allowance
get_nutrition	Nutrition facts for one ingredient amount
aggregate_nutrition	Sum nutrition across many ingredient lines
lookup_ingredient	Fuzzy-search the ingredient catalog
convert_units	Convert between units (volume to mass needs a density)
check_category	Check whether an ingredient belongs to a category
branded_lookup	Look up a packaged product by barcode or text
reference_intakes	Daily reference-intake tables (RDA/DV)
import_recipe	Convert a web page, photos or pasted text to Cooklang

import_recipe from a web page or pasted text works without a login. Photos and social-media links need a cook.md account and use your import allowance. It returns Cooklang text and does not save it; the agent validates it and calls write_recipe. Nutrition functions inside render_report also need Cook Basic or Pro.

Prompts and resources

Prompts: meal-planning, shopping-list, pantry, import-recipe, edit-recipe, nutrition-report, nutrition-goals.

Resources:

• cooklang://spec: the Cooklang specification
• cooklang://syntax: a syntax reference
• cooklang://menu-format: the .menu meal plan format
• cooklang://skills/<name>: working guides for the agent: cooklang-editing, cooklang-validation, meal-planning, metadata, nutrition-goals, nutrition-reports, pantry, recipe-import, report-authoring, shopping-list

Safety

• Writes stay inside the recipe root. Paths outside it are refused.
• Every write is validated first; invalid Cooklang is not saved.
• The deprecated >> metadata syntax is refused. Use YAML frontmatter.
• There is no delete tool. The agent cannot remove your files.

Known limitations

• Pantry subtraction in shopping lists only works when units match. For example, 1 kg in the pantry does not cancel 200 g in a recipe. This is a limitation of cookcli-core.
• Symlinks inside the recipe folder are mostly not followed for reads and listing. A symlink requested by bare name without an extension, or reached through a recipe's @./ reference, may still be followed. This only matters if you put symlinks pointing outside the folder into your recipes.
• No Windows builds yet.
• No delete tool.

Environment variables

Var	Default	Meaning
COOK_RECIPES_DIR	the client's working directory	Recipe root. Every path is relative to it.
COOKMD_BASE_URL	https://cook.md	Login, entitlements, import
NUTRITION_API_URL	https://nutrition.cook.md	Nutrition service
NUTRITION_API_TOKEN	none	Org key or pre-made token. Takes priority over the stored login.
COOK_MCP_AUTH_PATH	~/.config/cook-mcp/auth.json	Token store. The old NUTRITION_MCP_AUTH_PATH still works as an alias.

Things to ask

• "Plan dinners for next week from my recipes and make the shopping list."
• "What can I cook with what's in my pantry?"
• "Check my whole collection for broken references."
• "Import https://example.com/some-recipe as a recipe."
• "How much protein is in this week's plan?" (needs Cook Basic or Pro)

Building from source

cargo build --release
cargo test

The binary is target/release/cook-mcp. It speaks MCP over stdio. cook-mcp login and cook-mcp logout manage the cook.md login from a terminal.

Migrating from nutrition-mcp

@cookmd/nutrition-mcp keeps working: it is now a thin shim that runs @cookmd/mcp. To switch, change the package name in your MCP config to @cookmd/mcp. Your login carries over.

Two things changed. Recipe tools need COOK_RECIPES_DIR (old configs did not set it), or start the client in your recipe folder; without either, recipe tools tell the agent that no recipe folder is set. And render_report paths are now relative to the recipe folder.

License

MIT