CookCLI – manage recipes, meal plans and shopping lists

CookCLI is a collection of command-line tools for managing recipes written in Cooklang, a plain-text format designed specifically for cooking instructions. It provides a way to maintain recipes without relying on a traditional recipe database.

Recipes are stored as ordinary text files, making them easy to edit, organise and manage with familiar Linux utilities. Cooklang adds a small amount of structure for identifying ingredients, quantities, cookware and preparation steps.

CookCLI goes beyond displaying recipes. It can help plan meals, assemble shopping lists and keep track of ingredients available in the kitchen. These tasks can be performed interactively or incorporated into shell scripts, while an embedded web interface offers another way to access the same collection.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Parses Cooklang recipe files, extracting ingredients, cookware, preparation steps, timers and recipe metadata.
• Scales ingredient quantities to accommodate different serving sizes.
• Generates shopping lists from individual recipes, multiple recipes or entire collections, combining matching ingredients.
• Organises shopping lists by store section using configurable aisle information.
• Supports meal plans using menu files that reference recipes, individual ingredients and planned meals.
• Maintains pantry inventories, helping users track ingredients already available and identify additional shopping requirements.
• Searches recipe collections using ingredients, instructions and recipe metadata.
• Generates reports from recipes and menus for examining ingredients and other structured information.
• Provides validation tools for checking recipe syntax, pantry configuration and shopping list settings.
• Runs an embedded web server for browsing and editing recipes from a browser, with optional user authentication for modifying content.
• Can generate a static recipe website suitable for local browsing or publication on a web server.
• Supports exporting recipe information in structured formats such as JSON and Markdown.
• Can import recipes from websites, with conversion requiring access to an external AI service.
• Provides a language server for integrations with compatible text editors.

Website: cooklang.org
Support:
Developer: Alexey Dubovskoy and contributors
License: MIT License

$ cook recipe read "Neapolitan Pizza.cook"
Metadata:
    servings: 6

Ingredients:
    chopped tomato                3 cans
    dried oregano                 3 tbsp
    fresh basil                   18 leaves
    fresh yeast                   1.6 g
    garlic                        3 cloves
    mozzarella                    3 packs
    parma ham                     3 packs
    salt                          25 g
    tipo zero flour               820 g
    water                         530 ml

Steps:
     1. Make 6 pizza balls using tipo zero flour, water, salt and fresh yeast. Put in a fridge for 2 days.
        [fresh yeast: 1.6 g; salt: 25 g; tipo zero flour: 820 g; water: 530 ml]
     2. Set oven to max temperature and heat pizza stone for about 40 minutes.
        [–]
     3. Make some tomato sauce with chopped tomato and garlic and dried oregano. Put on a pan and leave for 15 minutes occasionally stirring.
        [chopped tomato: 3 cans; dried oregano: 3 tbsp; garlic: 3 cloves]
     4. Make pizzas putting some tomato sauce with spoon on top of flattened dough. Add fresh basil, parma ham and mozzarella.
        [fresh basil: 18 leaves; mozzarella: 3 packs; parma ham: 3 packs]
     5. Put in an oven for 4 minutes.
        [–]

CookCLI is written in Swift. Learn Swift with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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