Getting started

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 22
• A running Mealie instance (verified against v3.22.0)
• An API token from Mealie's Settings → API Tokens — see Configuration

Run it

MEALIE_URL=https://mealie.example.com MEALIE_API_TOKEN=… npx -y @ni-c/mealie-mcp

The server speaks MCP over stdio, so it is normally started by an MCP client rather than by hand — see Connecting clients for the config snippets for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex and others.

Without credentials the server still starts and lists its tools; every call then fails with setup instructions instead of reaching the API. This lets registries and inspectors introspect the tool catalog without a live instance.

First calls

A good smoke test once the server is connected:

1. get_about — reports the Mealie version and the identity the token acts as, including the permission flags that decide which write tools will succeed.
2. search_recipes with a search term — returns recipe summaries.
3. get_recipe with one of the returned slugs — returns the full recipe with ingredients and steps.

Read-only mode

Set MEALIE_READ_ONLY=true (exactly the string true) to register only the 17 read tools. The 35 write and import tools are not registered at all — a model cannot call what does not exist. Check the startup line on stderr, which reports the mode in effect.