What is vanilla-cookbook?

Vanilla Cookbook is a self-hosted recipe manager designed for home cooks who want a clean, uncluttered interface. It automatically parses ingredient strings from imported recipes, converting US volumetric measurements to metric and imperial weights, and supports scaling, nutrition parsing, and multiple import/export formats. Recipes can be scraped from hundreds of websites via a bookmarklet or URL paste. Optional LLM integration (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Ollama) enables AI-assisted scraping, ingredient cleanup, translation, recipe generation from prompts, image analysis, and semantic search. The app runs as a single Docker container with a portable SQLite database, includes automated weekly backups, and supports user authentication with OAuth/OIDC (GitHub, Google, Authentik, Keycloak). It installs as a Progressive Web App on mobile and offers a shopping list and cooking log with calendar view.

Should you self-host vanilla-cookbook?

vanilla-cookbook scores 46/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #13 of 18 in Recipe Management. It has 158 GitHub stars.

It shipped 13 stable releases in the past year. The latest, v1.6.1, came out on 28 October 2026. New versions land roughly every 1 days.

Setup is easy: most people get it running in one sitting. An official Docker image is available. It is GPL-3.0-licensed and written mostly in JavaScript.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is Mealie (75/100, 13 711 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See vanilla-cookbook vs Mealie side by side.

Features

Automated BackupsDocker installations only
Cooking Logs
Import/Export
LLM AssistRequires LLM API key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Ollama, or OpenAI-compatible)
Multi-language Support
Nutrition Parsing
OAuth/OIDC Authentication
Progressive Web App
Public Recipes
Recipe Management
Recipe Scaling
Recipe Scraping
Shopping List
Unit Conversion
User Management

How to install vanilla-cookbook

Install vanilla-cookbook with Docker Compose

Docker and Docker Compose

Environment variables

ORIGIN (required), VITE_SITE_NAME, BODY_SIZE_LIMIT, RECIPE_IMAGE_MAX_DIMENSION, RECIPE_IMAGE_GENERATION_SIZE, OAuth/OIDC credentials, LLM API keys, backup settings, PUID/PGID

In your project directory, create the .env and docker-compose.yml files using the respective .template files in the repo root:

curl -o .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jt196/vanilla-cookbook/main/.env.template
curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jt196/vanilla-cookbook/main/docker-compose.yml.template

In the .env file
- Change the ORIGIN to the URL it's going to be hosted on. If you get any login CORS messages, this not being set correctly will be the reason. The default ORIGIN=http://localhost:3000 should work with the default docker-compose.yml file unless you have anything else on that port.
Create db and uploads folders for persistence in your docker folder, make sure the share paths are correct in the docker-compose file: mkdir -p ./db ./uploads
Use :latest tags for bleedin' edge, :stable for stable release.
Run docker-compose up -d
On first run, you'll be prompted to enter Admin user details.
Optional: set PUID and PGID (in your shell or .env) if you want container file ownership to match a specific host user. Defaults are 1000:1000.

Single container with SQLite database, automated backups included

How to configure vanilla-cookbook

ANTHROPIC_API_KEYAnthropic API key for LLM features
Anthropic API key for LLM features
BACKUP_CRON_SCHEDULE0 3 * * 0Cron schedule for automated backups
Cron schedule for automated backups
values: standard cron syntax
BACKUP_RETENTION_COUNT6Number of scheduled backups to keep
Number of scheduled backups to keep
BODY_SIZE_LIMIT5242880Maximum request body size in bytes (applies to photo uploads and recipe imports)
Maximum request body size in bytes (applies to photo uploads and recipe imports)
GITHUB_CLIENT_IDGitHub OAuth client ID
GitHub OAuth client ID
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRETGitHub OAuth client secret
GitHub OAuth client secret
GOOGLE_API_KEYGoogle API key for LLM features
Google API key for LLM features
GOOGLE_CLIENT_IDGoogle OAuth client ID
Google OAuth client ID
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRETGoogle OAuth client secret
Google OAuth client secret
OIDC_CLIENT_IDGeneric OIDC provider client ID
Generic OIDC provider client ID
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRETGeneric OIDC provider client secret
Generic OIDC provider client secret
OIDC_EMAIL_CLAIMemailClaim for email from OIDC provider
Claim for email from OIDC provider
OIDC_ISSUER_URLGeneric OIDC provider issuer URL
Generic OIDC provider issuer URL
OIDC_NAMEOIDCButton label for OIDC provider
Button label for OIDC provider
OIDC_NAME_CLAIMpreferred_usernameClaim for username from OIDC provider
Claim for username from OIDC provider
OIDC_SCOPESopenid email profileScopes to request from OIDC provider
Scopes to request from OIDC provider
OLLAMA_BASE_URLhttp://localhost:11434Ollama base URL for local models
Ollama base URL for local models
OPENAI_API_KEYOpenAI API key for LLM features
OpenAI API key for LLM features
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_API_KEYAPI key for OpenAI-compatible server (optional for local servers)
API key for OpenAI-compatible server (optional for local servers)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URLOpenAI-compatible server API root (e.g., LiteLLM, OpenRouter, LM Studio, vLLM, Together, Groq)
OpenAI-compatible server API root (e.g., LiteLLM, OpenRouter, LM Studio, vLLM, Together, Groq)
ORIGINhttp://localhost:3000The full URL where your app is hosted (critical for auth cookies and CORS)
The full URL where your app is hosted (critical for auth cookies and CORS)
PASSWORD_MIN_LENGTH8Minimum password length
Minimum password length
PASSWORD_REQUIRE_DIGITtrueRequire digit in password
Require digit in password
values: true/false
PASSWORD_REQUIRE_LOWERCASEtrueRequire lowercase in password
Require lowercase in password
values: true/false
PASSWORD_REQUIRE_SPECIALtrueRequire special character in password
Require special character in password
values: true/false
PASSWORD_REQUIRE_UPPERCASEtrueRequire uppercase in password
Require uppercase in password
values: true/false
PGID1000Container group ID for file ownership
Container group ID for file ownership
PUID1000Container user ID for file ownership
Container user ID for file ownership
RATE_LIMIT_LOGIN_PER_ID5Rate limit login attempts per user
Rate limit login attempts per user
RATE_LIMIT_LOGIN_PER_IP10Rate limit login attempts per IP
Rate limit login attempts per IP
RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS60000Rate limiting window in milliseconds
Rate limiting window in milliseconds
RECIPE_IMAGE_GENERATION_SIZE1024x1024Recipe image generation output size (WIDTHxHEIGHT)
Recipe image generation output size (WIDTHxHEIGHT)
values: 256-4096 per side
RECIPE_IMAGE_MAX_DIMENSION1024Recipe image processing max dimension in pixels (resize target for stored images and OCR preprocessing)
Recipe image processing max dimension in pixels (resize target for stored images and OCR preprocessing)
values: 256-4096
SEMANTIC_WARMUP_ON_BOOTfalseOptional startup warmup for semantic search
Optional startup warmup for semantic search
values: true/false
VITE_SITE_NAMEVanilla CookbookSite name shown in browser tab and headers
Site name shown in browser tab and headers