Recipes and cookbooks

The Recipes page is the pantry the AI picks meals from when it makes a meal plan. You see the recipes of your group and those that are public (a shared base for all groups) or that someone shared with your group. You do not see the cookbooks and recipes of other groups, nor their original files; only the group that uploaded the file may download the original.

Cookbooks

You find cookbooks on the Recipes page in the Cookbooks switch. On the left is the Add a cookbook panel, on the right the list of cookbooks.

Declaring the right to the content

The picture of a page is not stored when importing a recipe from a link unless the admin has allowed it; the recipe is saved without a photo and with a link to its source.

Before uploading a cookbook, importing a Google document, or importing a recipe from a link or a photo, you must tick I have the right to this content (for example I bought the cookbook and use it only for myself and my household). Without it the buttons are disabled and the server refuses the import. The app records when and who made the declaration. You are responsible for the content you upload; see the Terms of use for details.

Uploading a cookbook

1. Drag files into the frame, or click Choose from your device. PDF, Word (.docx) or text (.txt, .md) are allowed, and you can choose several files at once.
2. For each file you can edit the book title, then click Upload and process.
3. You add a cookbook that is a Google document by pasting the link into the From a Google document field and clicking Load from link. The document must be shared as "Anyone with the link – viewer"; later changes to the document are not picked up automatically.

The browser splits every file into smaller parts and uploads them to the server. For a PDF that has a text layer (not a scan) it also uploads the text of the pages, which makes processing faster and cheaper. The page has to stay open only while uploading. The AI on the server then extracts the recipes from the individual parts, so you can close the page and the computer.

For every recipe the following is recorded: the page in the book, preparation and cooking times, number of servings, calories per serving, meal type, the "meat-free" flag, ingredients with amounts per 1 serving, and the method. Recipes keep the language they are written in; they are not translated.

Photos and descriptions of finished dishes

For recipes from PDF books, uploading and processing also stores a description of the finished dish (the intro text of the recipe) and a photo from the book, if the book has one for the recipe; they are shown on the card, in the list and in the recipe detail. The photos are cut out of the pages by the browser (it reads every image format) before processing starts, so the page has to stay open a little longer while uploading (several minutes for a thick book). A photo is assigned only where the text of the book makes it clear which recipe it belongs to; when we are not sure, the recipe stays without a photo. Photos are assigned using the text of the book, so they work only for books with a text layer (not scans) and only where the photo takes a large part of the page and is not the whole page.

If a photo cannot be uploaded, the upload stops with an error and the book is not processed; just upload it again, the photos already uploaded are skipped. Photos and descriptions cannot be added afterwards. For a cookbook uploaded earlier you get them by deleting it and uploading it again (the same file is otherwise never uploaded twice). Someone else's cookbook (shared or from the shared base) shows neither a photo nor a description, just like the method. You can edit the description of your own recipes in the recipe form.

Processing status

Next to every cookbook in the list you see its status (Done · N recipes, Processing, Paused, Error), a progress bar and a sentence about how many pages have been read.

• Pause stops processing, Continue resumes it and repeats the parts that failed.
• The same file is never uploaded twice in a group. A finished book is skipped, an unfinished one continues where it stopped – just choose the file again or click Continue.
• In the queue you can remove a file with the cross.
• Show recipes opens the recipes of that cookbook.
• Share – see below. Delete deletes the cookbook with its recipes (the app asks first).

Only the group that uploaded a cookbook can control its processing. A cookbook and individual recipes may be deleted only by the person who uploaded them; for someone else's cookbook there is a note instead of the buttons saying you can only use it. Recipes from other people's cookbooks can only be read and added to a meal plan.

Recipe library: tabs

The All recipes switch has three groups under it:

• Mine – the recipes of your group: from your cookbooks, your own, and those you copied.
• Shared with me – cookbooks that another group shared with your group. At the top you see new invitations with the Accept for this group button and, for accepted shares, the Stop using button.
• Shared base – recipes that the operator of the app published for all groups (own, freely available and licensed).

For recipes with a shared licence (for example Creative Commons) the licence and the author are shown under the cookbook name. Search and filters work in every group.

Your own recipes

Your own recipes are saved in the My recipes collection of your group (it is created by itself with the first recipe). Above the list of recipes choose:

• + Own recipe – you fill in a form (name, times, servings, calories, ingredients per 1 serving, method). The recipe is saved with Add to My recipes.
• From a photo – you choose or take a photo of a recipe (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 5 MB). The AI proposes a recipe from it.
• From a link – you paste the address of a page with a recipe and the AI reads the recipe from it. It works only with a public web page or a Google document shared by link (“Anyone with the link – viewer”); for a document the AI reads its text. Recipes from the web are saved in the Recipes from the web collection and remember the link to the source. If the page has a picture of the dish (the recipe's image or the page's sharing image), it is saved with the recipe as its photo and only the group that imported the recipe sees it. If you already have a recipe from the same link, the app says so before reading the page (and spends no operations); the Read it again anyway button reads it regardless.

Import from a photo or a link only proposes a recipe: it opens in the form, you check it, correct it and only then save it. Every load that finds a recipe costs 2 operations (see Monthly operations below). Before a new recipe is saved, the app checks whether you already have a similar one (the same link, the same name, also with the “(2)” suffix, or almost the same ingredients). If so, it warns you in an orange box with a link to the existing recipe, and you can still add it with Add anyway. Only the person who added an own recipe may delete it.

Sharing cookbooks between groups

Share only with people from your household. Sharing with anyone by e-mail is off by default (the admin switches it on); while it is off, only sharing between your own groups is offered.

In the list of cookbooks every cookbook of yours (and the My recipes collection) has a Share button if you uploaded or created it:

• My other group – with other groups you are a member of, sharing is immediate.
• Someone else by e-mail – the recipient gets an e-mail with an invitation. After signing in they accept it in the Shared with me tab in the group they choose.

What the other group sees: for uploaded cookbooks and recipes from the web only the name, times, calories and ingredients, not the method (that is someone else's work). For own, freely available and licensed recipes they see everything. The original PDF file never. You can stop sharing at any time (stop sharing). Meal plans that the other group has already made with the recipes stay: they keep the name and ingredients of the meal. Who shares what with whom and when is written in the sharing log.

A recipe from a shared or shared-base cookbook can only be read. With the Copy to My recipes button you copy it into your collection, where you edit it and can write your own method (for someone else's cookbook the method is not copied). The copy remembers which recipe it came from.

Browsing and editing recipes

By default recipes are shown as a grid of cards; the Cards / List switch on the right above them changes this to a compact list (name, cookbook and page, time, calories) that fits more recipes at once. The browser remembers the chosen view. At the top is the search (in the name, ingredients and method), the cookbook choice, the meal-type buttons (All, Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Dinner) and the Meat-free only and Up to 30 minutes switches. Under More filters you choose the ingredients a recipe contains. You get further recipes with the Load more button.

Clicking a card opens the detail on the right: ingredients per serving and the method. With Add to meal plan you add the recipe to a chosen day and meal of an existing meal plan. Edit recipe opens a form where you can edit the name, times, servings, calories, ingredients and method by hand (for someone else's recipe it is Copy and edit). The Method is written in the same formatting editor as the instructions for the AI (Editor for instructions and wishes); it is stored as Markdown and shown the same way in the export and printout of the meal plan. The Perishable mark on an ingredient means it will be bought as close to the day it is eaten as possible.

Note: a recipe whose preparation or cooking exceeds the time set in Household → Tastes and rules is not sent to the AI at all.

Monthly operations

Work with the AI is counted in operations. An operation is charged for a finished action, not for every AI call in the background, and an action that failed is not charged. The admin decides what each action costs; the default price list:

The monthly number of operations is set by the plan of the group owner – the person who created the group, until they hand it to another member (Household → Group). If someone owns several groups, they all draw on one number. The admin assigns the plan; when subscriptions and payments are switched on, the owner chooses it under Subscription in the profile menu. When the number is used up, the app refuses further AI actions with a message saying how many operations the action needs and how many are left. When subscriptions and payments are switched on, the owner can buy more under Subscription with the Buy … button; the ones bought are valid until the end of the month. Otherwise the number simply renews at the start of every month (UTC time). You then finish an unfinished reading with the Continue button. An overview of what the operations were spent on is in Statistics in the Operations block.

Subscription, payments and used-up operations

• The period is a calendar month (UTC). Under Subscription you see from when to when the plan is valid, how many operations are left and when they renew.
• A bigger plan starts as soon as the price difference is paid. A smaller plan starts with the next period and is free; until then your current plan and its limit stay.
• Do not renew at the end of the period: the subscription then does not renew and from next month you have the default plan.
• Payment: an order (a plan or a purchase) is paid by a bank transfer from a QR code (or by hand: account number, amount, variable symbol). The admin confirms the payment when it is credited; only then the plan changes or the operations are credited. An unpaid order expires after two weeks, or you can cancel it.
• History under the plan shows orders and payments and where the operations came from (plan, purchase, lapsed at the end of the month).
• Used-up operations: a notice with the renewal date appears above the page; actions that cost operations (a new menu, import, pricing, basket, uploading a cookbook) are disabled with an explanation. Browsing and export keep working. A cookbook being read is paused and after the renewal or a purchase you finish it with Continue; nothing is lost.
• More shops than the plan covers: a notice tells you which to disconnect. Until then pricing and the basket work only in the shops the plan covers; nothing is disconnected by itself.