cookidoo-mcp

This is what happens when you love your wife, love AI, but she loves her Thermomix even more. 😘 An MCP server that lets an AI assistant browse, compare, plan, and shop from Cookidoo — and save arbitrarily tweaked custom recipes back to your account ("load this recipe, apply my manual tweaks, save it").

It ships with a companion usage skill that teaches the assistant how to use the tools well (tweak methodology, Thermomix step formatting, safety rails). The skill is discoverable at runtime through a get_skill tool, so even MCP clients without filesystem-skill support can pull the methodology on demand.

Unofficial project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Vorwerk, Thermomix, or Cookidoo. It talks to an unofficial/undocumented API that may change or break at any time. Use at your own risk and only within Cookidoo's Terms of Service (personal use — no scraping at scale). You need an active Cookidoo subscription.

What it can do

The single biggest capability over prior art is create_custom_recipe: it builds a fully custom recipe (name, ingredients, steps, servings, times, hints) via the undocumented created-recipes endpoint. This is what makes "load a recipe, apply my manual tweaks, save the result" possible.

Known limitations (v1)

• No guided-cooking automation. Uploaded custom recipes are readable on the Thermomix but do not drive the machine (per-step temperature/speed/time annotations are not reliably reverse-engineered). Write steps machine-adjacent (3 min / 100°C / speed 2) so they're easy to follow on-device.

• No cooking steps from the library. get_recipe_details returns ingredients, timing, nutrition, etc., but the Cookidoo API does not expose guided-cooking steps for library recipes, so a draft made from a library recipe starts with an empty step list for you to fill in.

• Custom recipes are always PRIVATE.

• No in-place edit is guaranteed in v1: the safe flow is create-new (+ optionally delete the old one). update_custom_recipe is provided as a best-effort PATCH but shares the reverse-engineered schema risk.

• No recipe images; no multi-account support.

Related MCP server: Israel Grocery MCP

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.13

• uv

• An active Cookidoo subscription

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables (or a local .env; environment wins over .env). Copy the example:

cp .env.example .env
# then edit COOKIDOO_EMAIL / COOKIDOO_PASSWORD

Credentials are stored in plaintext locally (in .env or your client config). They are sent only to the configured Cookidoo host. .env is gitignored. Never commit real credentials.

Run it

# install deps into a project venv
uv sync

# dev loop with the MCP Inspector
uv run mcp dev src/cookidoo_mcp/server.py

# run the server directly (stdio transport)
uv run cookidoo-mcp

Client integration

This is a local stdio server: it runs as a process on your machine. Which of the following applies depends on the client. In all cases the server reads credentials from your .env, so no secrets go into client configs.

Claude Code (CLI or the Code/Cowork sessions in Claude Desktop)

Register it once at user scope (available in every session):

claude mcp add --scope user cookidoo -- \
  "$(command -v uv)" run --directory /absolute/path/to/cookidoo-mcp cookidoo-mcp

Verify with claude mcp list (should show cookidoo … ✔ Connected). MCP tools load when a session starts, so open a new session to see them.

Claude Desktop chat — classic builds (config file)

Edit claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json) while Claude Desktop is fully quit, then relaunch:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cookidoo": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/absolute/path/to/cookidoo-mcp", "cookidoo-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Use the absolute path to uv (find it with command -v uv) — Claude Desktop launches with a minimal PATH and often can't find a bare uv.

Note: newer Claude Desktop builds (the "Cowork" / Extensions UI) rewrite this file and drop custom mcpServers. If your added server disappears after a restart, you're on a newer build — use the extension below instead.

Claude Desktop chat — newer "Extensions" builds (.mcpb)

Newer builds load servers as Extensions. Build and install the bundle:

sh extension/build.sh            # writes ~/Downloads/cookidoo.mcpb

The launcher (extension/launch.sh) finds uv on PATH and expects the repo at ~/Documents/GitHub/cookidoo-mcp; if yours lives elsewhere, either edit that file or export COOKIDOO_MCP_DIR=/path/to/cookidoo-mcp before launching Claude, then rebuild.

Install it:

1. Double-click ~/Downloads/cookidoo.mcpb in Finder → Install in Claude, or Claude → Settings → Extensions → Advanced → Install Extension… and pick the file.

2. If blocked as "unverified", enable local/unverified extensions in Settings → Extensions (Advanced), then install.

3. cookidoo now appears in the Connectors menu (like the built-in extensions) — toggle it on. First use logs in via your .env.

Cursor / other stdio clients

Use the same mcpServers JSON as the classic-build example above.

Remote / mobile / ChatGPT

ChatGPT and the Claude mobile apps cannot run a local process on your machine, and ChatGPT does not support .mcpb extensions at all — both only talk to a remote MCP server reachable over HTTPS. Making that work means:

1. Run the server with HTTP transport instead of stdio.

2. Add an authentication layer (a bearer token / OAuth) — a hosted server exposes your Cookidoo account, so it must not be open to the internet.

3. Expose it over HTTPS (a cloudflared/ngrok tunnel for testing, or a small always-on host).

4. Add it as a custom connector by URL: claude.ai → Settings → Connectors (then it syncs to the Claude mobile app), or ChatGPT → Settings → Connectors / developer mode (paid plans).

This is not wired up in v1 — it's the natural next step if you want mobile/ChatGPT.

Any client can call get_skill("index") first to discover the recommended workflows; clients with filesystem-skill support can instead load skills/cookidoo-usage/SKILL.md directly. Same content, two delivery paths.

Example: "load a recipe, apply my tweaks, save it"

A representative transcript of the canonical flow (see get_skill("recipe-tweaking")):

User: Load recipe r59322, make it for 6 people, swap the butter for olive oil, and save it.

Assistant: (calls draft_tweak_from_recipe("r59322", target_servings=6)) Here's the scaled draft (4 → 6 servings). I applied your tweaks:

• 200 g butter → 75 g olive oil (swap + reduced, fat swaps aren't 1:1)

• 300 g flour → 450 g flour (scaled)

• "salt to taste" — left unchanged (unscaled)

Note: the library doesn't expose the original steps, so I've drafted them from your instructions. Review and confirm before I save.

User: Looks good, save it.

Assistant: (calls create_custom_recipe(...) after confirmation) Saved ✅ → https://cookidoo.ch/created-recipes/de-CH/<id> Reminder: it's readable on your Thermomix but does not include guided-cooking automation.

The rule the skill enforces: never call create_custom_recipe without showing the final draft and getting an explicit yes.

Development

uv sync --extra dev
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run pytest -q            # pure-python unit tests, no network

Manual end-to-end verification against your own account: see tests/smoke.md.

Security & privacy

• TLS verification is always on. The one workaround is clearing VERIFY_X509_STRICT (Vorwerk's certificate is missing the key-usage extension that Python 3.13+ enforces strictly); hostname and chain verification remain enabled. PRs that disable TLS verification are rejected on principle.

• Credentials only via env/.env; never logged (only the login email is logged, once, at INFO).

• No telemetry. The server talks only to the configured Cookidoo host.

• Destructive tools (remove_*, clear_shopping_list) declare their irreversibility in their docstrings so MCP clients surface it in approval prompts. The skill mandates explicit confirmation before create_custom_recipe, every remove_*, and clear_shopping_list.

Acknowledgements

Builds on the prior art of otisthescribe/cookidoo-mcp (structure, correct TLS handling, read/plan/shop tools), alexandrepa/mcp-cookidoo (the created-recipes two-step create/PATCH, reimplemented here without disabling TLS), and the miaucl/cookidoo-api library (auth, session, endpoint constants, typed models).

License

MIT