🌶️ Paprika MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that lets you talk to Paprika Recipe Manager through Claude Desktop. Just chat naturally to add recipes, find that thing you made last week, or update cooking times.

Oh, and it can generate food photos for your recipes too (using Flux from Black Forest Lab) if you want them to look fancy.

What it does

• Just talk to add recipes - No forms, no clicking around. Describe it and it's saved

• AI food photos - Automatically generates images with Flux (~$0.002/image, totally optional)

• Find stuff fast - Search by ingredient, cooking time, or just random words you remember

• Update anything - Change one field or rewrite the whole thing

• Syncs everywhere - Everything updates in your Paprika apps automatically, you see the same thing on your computer, phone, or tablet.

Related MCP server: Saffron MCP Server

Quick Start

What you need

• Python 3.8+ (probably already have it)

• Paprika Recipe Manager with cloud sync turned on

• Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any other MCP client

Installation

Two commands and you're done:

pipx install paprika-mcp
paprika-mcp setup

The setup wizard will ask for your Paprika login, find your MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, etc.), and configure everything automatically.

That's it. Restart your MCP client and you're ready to go.

Manual setup (if you prefer)

If you want to configure things yourself:

Install:

pipx install paprika-mcp

Configure Claude Desktop - Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paprika": {
      "command": "pipx",
      "args": ["run", "paprika-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PAPRIKA_USERNAME": "your_email@example.com",
        "PAPRIKA_PASSWORD": "your_password",
        "REPLICATE_API_TOKEN": "optional_token_for_images"
      }
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients (Claude Code, VS Code, Cursor, etc.) use the same config structure, just different file locations.

Restart your MCP client (full quit and reopen).

How to use it

Just talk to Claude like you're texting a friend about recipes:

Create recipes:

Create a Spaghetti Carbonara recipe with:
- 400g spaghetti, 4 eggs, 100g pancetta, 50g Parmesan, black pepper

Instructions:
1. Cook pasta, fry pancetta until crispy
2. Beat eggs with Parmesan
3. Mix hot pasta with pancetta, add eggs off heat
4. Season and serve

Servings: 4, Prep: 10 mins, Cook: 15 mins

Search and filter:

Show me all pasta recipes sorted by prep time
Find recipes with chicken and tomatoes
What can I make in under 30 minutes?

Update recipes:

Change the Carbonara recipe to serve 6 people
Add "Use room temperature eggs" to the notes
Update just the prep time to 15 minutes

Regenerate images:

Regenerate the Carbonara image with rustic style and darker lighting
Create a new photo with close-up view and more cheese visible

CLI Commands

Besides running as an MCP server, there are some handy commands:

# Run the MCP server (this happens automatically when MCP clients call it)
paprika-mcp

# Interactive setup wizard
paprika-mcp setup

# Reconfigure your credentials
paprika-mcp config

# Test if your Paprika login works
paprika-mcp test

# See recent logs from Claude Desktop
paprika-mcp logs

# Show version
paprika-mcp version

AI Image Generation

By default, new recipes get an AI-generated photo using Flux from Black Forest Lab (via Replicate). You'll need a Replicate account and API token.

Setup:

1. Make an account at replicate.com

2. Grab your API token from replicate.com/account/api-tokens

3. Add REPLICATE_API_TOKEN to your Claude Desktop config (see above)

Cost: Around $0.002 per image (pretty cheap)

Don't want images?

Create a recipe without generating an image

Make it look better:

Regenerate image for "Pasta Carbonara" with: overhead view, rustic style, darker background

Works with Multiple MCP Clients

This server works with any MCP-compatible client, not just Claude Desktop:

• Claude Desktop - The desktop app

• Claude Code - CLI tool for coding projects

• VS Code - With the MCP extension

• Cursor - AI code editor

• Windsurf - Another AI editor

• Goose - Terminal-based AI assistant

• Any other tool that supports MCP

The setup wizard (paprika-mcp setup) will find and configure any of these automatically.

Available Tools

Advanced Features

Brief Ingredients Pattern

You can add quick ingredient lists to recipe descriptions so you don't have to dig through the measurements:

Ingredients: Spaghetti, Pancetta, Eggs, Parmesan, Pepper

Classic Roman pasta with silky egg sauce and crispy pancetta.

Makes it way easier to check if you have everything before you start cooking.

Pagination and Sorting

Got a ton of recipes? You can page through them and sort however you want:

Show me recipes 50-100 sorted by name
List the next 20 recipes starting from position 40
Sort recipes by prep time, quickest first

Field Selection

Don't need everything? Just ask for the fields you want:

Show just recipe names and UIDs
List recipes but exclude directions and notes

Mix it up

You can combine all this stuff:

Find recipes with "chicken", sort by prep time, show first 10 with only name and ingredients

When stuff breaks

Can't log in

Error: Authentication failed

• Make sure your login works at paprikaapp.com

• Cloud sync needs to be on in your Paprika app

• Double-check you typed your credentials right in the config

Claude can't see the server

Connection issues

• Use full paths in the config (no ~/ shortcuts)

• Point to your venv's Python: /full/path/to/venv/bin/python

• Actually quit Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q on Mac) and reopen it

Import errors

• Activate your virtual environment: source venv/bin/activate

• Reinstall everything: pip install -r requirements.txt

Image problems

No images showing up

• Check that REPLICATE_API_TOKEN is in your Claude Desktop config

• Make sure your token works at replicate.com/account

• Don't worry, your recipe still saves fine without the image

Images look wrong

• Try regenerate_recipe_image with better instructions

• Be specific: "less sauce", "more garnish", "darker background"

Check the logs

If something's really broken, look at the logs:

• macOS: ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\Logs\mcp*.log

Development

Run tests:

pytest tests/ -v

Format code:

ruff format src/ tests/

Contributing

Want to help out? Cool. Open an issue to talk about changes or just submit a PR.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Thanks to

• Anthropic for MCP and Claude

• Paprika Recipe Manager for making a great recipe app

• Black Forest Lab for the Flux image generation model

• Replicate for hosting the AI models

Note: This is just a side project, not officially affiliated with Paprika or Anthropic.

Questions? Open an issue