Which integrations are available for this server?

Enables AI assistants to interact with Mealie for recipe management (search, create, update, import from URLs), meal planning (create, view, update meal plans), and shopping list operations (create lists, add items, generate from meal plans).

How do I use Mealie MCP Server?

1. Click on "Install Server". 2. Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state. 3. In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@Mealie MCP Server search for chicken recipes for dinner this week" That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed. Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

Mealie MCP Server

Build and Push Docker Image Test

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants to interact with Mealie for recipe management, meal planning, and shopping lists.

Features

Tools (31 total)

Recipes

mealie_recipes_search - Search recipes by name, tags, or categories
mealie_recipes_get - Get full recipe details including ingredients and instructions
mealie_recipes_list - List all recipes with pagination
mealie_recipes_create - Create a new recipe
mealie_recipes_create_from_url - Import recipe by scraping a URL
mealie_recipes_update - Update an existing recipe
mealie_recipes_update_structured_ingredients - Update recipe with structured ingredients from parser
mealie_recipes_delete - Delete a recipe

Meal Planning

mealie_mealplans_list - List meal plans for a date range
mealie_mealplans_today - Get today's meals
mealie_mealplans_get - Get specific meal plan entry
mealie_mealplans_get_date - Get meals for a specific date
mealie_mealplans_create - Create meal plan entry
mealie_mealplans_update - Update meal plan entry
mealie_mealplans_delete - Delete meal plan entry
mealie_mealplans_random - Get random meal suggestion

Shopping Lists

mealie_shopping_lists_list - List all shopping lists
mealie_shopping_lists_get - Get shopping list with items
mealie_shopping_lists_create - Create new shopping list
mealie_shopping_lists_delete - Delete shopping list
mealie_shopping_items_add - Add item to list
mealie_shopping_items_add_bulk - Add multiple items at once
mealie_shopping_items_check - Mark item checked/unchecked
mealie_shopping_items_delete - Remove item from list
mealie_shopping_add_recipe - Add recipe ingredients to list
mealie_shopping_generate_from_mealplan - Generate shopping list from meal plan
mealie_shopping_clear_checked - Clear all checked items

Ingredient Parsing

mealie_parser_ingredient - Parse single ingredient string to structured format
mealie_parser_ingredients_batch - Parse multiple ingredient strings at once

Resources

recipes://list - Browse all recipes
recipes://{slug} - View specific recipe
mealplans://current - Current week's meal plan
mealplans://today - Today's meals
mealplans://{date} - Specific date's meals
shopping://lists - All shopping lists
shopping://{list_id} - Specific shopping list

Prerequisites

Docker (or Podman)
A running Mealie instance
Mealie API token

Quick Start

1. Get the Docker Image

Option A: Pull from GitHub Container Registry (recommended)

docker pull ghcr.io/mdlopresti/mealie-mcp:latest

Option B: Build from source

git clone https://github.com/mdlopresti/mealie-mcp.git cd mealie-mcp docker build -t mealie-mcp:latest .

2. Get Your API Token

Log into your Mealie instance
Go to User Settings (click your name in sidebar)
Navigate to API Tokens
Create a new token (e.g., "MCP Server")
Copy the token immediately (it won't be shown again)

3. Configure Claude Code

Add to .mcp.json in your project root:

{ "mcpServers": { "mealie": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MEALIE_URL=https://your-mealie-instance.com", "-e", "MEALIE_API_TOKEN=your-api-token-here", "ghcr.io/mdlopresti/mealie-mcp:latest" ] } } }

Then add mealie to your ~/.claude/settings.json:

{ "allowedMcpServers": [ { "serverName": "mealie" } ] }

4. Test the Connection

Restart Claude Code and try:

Can you search for recipes in Mealie?

Usage Examples

Clearing Optional Fields

To clear an optional field (remove its value), pass the special sentinel value "__CLEAR__":

# Remove recipe association from a meal plan entry mealie_mealplans_update( mealplan_id="abc-123", recipe_id="__CLEAR__" ) # Clear the title from an entry mealie_mealplans_update( mealplan_id="abc-123", title="__CLEAR__" ) # Clear the text/notes from an entry mealie_mealplans_update( mealplan_id="abc-123", text="__CLEAR__" ) # Clear multiple fields at once mealie_mealplans_update( mealplan_id="abc-123", recipe_id="__CLEAR__", title="__CLEAR__", text="__CLEAR__" )

To leave a field unchanged, simply omit it from the call:

# Update only the date, preserving all other fields mealie_mealplans_update( mealplan_id="abc-123", meal_date="2025-12-25" )

Development

Local Development (without Docker)

# Create virtual environment python -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate # Install dependencies pip install -r requirements.txt # Set environment variables export MEALIE_URL=https://your-mealie-instance.com export MEALIE_API_TOKEN=your-api-token # Run server python -m src.server

Running Tests

Unit/Integration Tests (mock API, always run):

# Run all tests except E2E pytest -m "not e2e" # Run all tests with coverage pytest --cov=src --cov-report=term-missing

End-to-End Tests (optional):

E2E tests validate against a real Mealie instance. Two modes are supported:

Docker E2E Tests (recommended - isolated environment):

# Install test dependencies pip install -r requirements-dev.txt # Run Docker E2E tests pytest tests/e2e/test_docker_e2e.py -v # These tests: # - Start a containerized Mealie instance automatically # - Run tests in isolated environment # - Clean up containers and data after tests # - Require Docker/Podman to be running

Live Instance E2E Tests (test against existing server):

# Set required environment variables export MEALIE_E2E_URL="https://your-mealie-instance.com" export MEALIE_E2E_TOKEN="your-test-api-token" # Run E2E tests against live instance pytest -m e2e # These tests are skipped if environment variables are not set

See tests/e2e/README.md for detailed E2E testing documentation.

Note: Live instance E2E tests create and delete test resources. Use a test/development instance, not production!

Project Structure

mealie-mcp/ ├── Dockerfile # Container definition ├── requirements.txt # Python dependencies ├── build.sh # Build helper script └── src/ ├── server.py # MCP server entry point ├── client.py # Mealie API client ├── tools/ # MCP tool implementations │ ├── recipes.py │ ├── mealplans.py │ ├── shopping.py │ └── parser.py └── resources/ # MCP resource implementations ├── recipes.py ├── mealplans.py └── shopping.py

Security

Never commit API tokens - Use environment variables
The API token has full access to your Mealie account
Consider creating a dedicated Mealie user for the MCP server

Requirements

Python 3.12+
Mealie v1.0+ (tested with v3.6.1)

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or PR.

Mealie - Self-hosted recipe manager
Model Context Protocol - MCP specification
FastMCP - Python MCP framework

Mealie MCP Server

Mealie MCP Server

Features

Tools (31 total)

Resources

Prerequisites

Quick Start

1. Get the Docker Image

2. Get Your API Token

3. Configure Claude Code

4. Test the Connection

Usage Examples

Clearing Optional Fields

Development

Local Development (without Docker)

Running Tests

Project Structure

Security

Requirements

License

Contributing

Resources

New MCP Servers

Latest Blog Posts

MCP directory API

Mealie MCP Server

Features

Tools (31 total)

Resources

Prerequisites

Quick Start

1. Get the Docker Image

2. Get Your API Token

3. Configure Claude Code

4. Test the Connection

Usage Examples

Clearing Optional Fields

Development

Local Development (without Docker)

Running Tests

Project Structure

Security

Requirements

License

Contributing

Related

Resources

New MCP Servers

Latest Blog Posts

MCP directory API