mealie-cli is a small Rust command-line client for the Mealie REST API. It is designed for automation and LLM-facing workflows: output is compact, stable JSON with no prose on successful commands.

Build the mealie binary from this repository:

cargo build --release

The executable is written to:

target/release/mealie

Set both environment variables before running commands:

MEALIE_URL=https://mealie.example.com
MEALIE_TOKEN=<token>

MEALIE_URL may include a trailing slash. MEALIE_TOKEN is sent as a bearer token and is never printed by the CLI.

NDJSON is the default output format, one JSON object per line:

{"ok":true,"type":"recipe","id":"uuid","slug":"recipe-slug","name":"Recipe Name"}

Global output flags:

--json     print one pretty JSON document
--ndjson   print NDJSON, default
--quiet    print only mutation ids, or nothing for successful reads

Errors are always machine-readable:

{"ok":false,"error":"not_found","message":"get recipe returned 404"}

Stable error codes:

missing_config
invalid_args
not_found
ambiguous
api_error
network_error

Search recipes:

mealie recipes search "pesto chicken" --limit 5

Get a recipe by exact slug:

mealie recipes get butter-chicken

List meal plans:

mealie plan list --from 2026-05-13 --to 2026-05-16

Filter meal plans by type:

mealie plan list --from 2026-05-13 --to 2026-05-16 --type dinner

Create or replace a plain-text meal plan entry:

mealie plan set --date 2026-05-13 --type dinner --title "Bolognaise"

Create or replace a meal plan entry from a recipe slug:

mealie plan set --date 2026-05-16 --type dinner --recipe pesto-chicken-stew-with-cheesy-dumplings

Delete a meal plan entry:

mealie plan delete --id 123

Valid meal types:

breakfast lunch dinner side snack drink dessert

plan set is intentionally conservative:

• It requires exactly one of --title or --recipe.
• --recipe must be an exact recipe slug.
• Existing entries are replaced only for the same date + type.
• The CLI deletes and recreates entries instead of updating in place, avoiding accidental preservation or mutation of unknown API fields.

Run the test suite:

cargo test

Check formatting:

cargo fmt --check

Run clippy as CI does:

cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings