Cookwala

What Cookwala MCP server does

The Cookwala MCP server gives MCP-compatible clients read-only access to Cookwala’s recipe data and Core operations. Its primary use is recipe discovery: agents can search by diet, allergen, cooking method, and language. The available index contains 2,439 recipes, including imported recipes from fifi.cooking and names in 29 languages.

The server also exposes dry-run functionality for checking whether a recipe can be handled by a device profile before heating begins. Cookwala’s Core model represents what a recipe should make, how completion is checked, and which conditions must not occur. Temperature-envelope checks are part of the published Core feature set.

Allergen information should be treated as screening data rather than certification. The repository notes that recipe analyses may identify allergens, no allergens, or cases requiring label checks, and that gluten and lactose statuses are used for the corresponding diet filters.

How it works

The package is published as @cookwala/mcp on npm and is registered as ai.cookwala/cookwala. A local MCP client can start it through the package runner, while an optional hosted endpoint is available at mcp.cookwala.ai/mcp. The hosted endpoint may be protected by a token.

Cookwala MCP server tools are read-only. Search is also available through Cookwala’s open REST API, but the MCP interface is the route intended for AI agents. The project describes 24 MCP tools in version 0.3.0, up from 16 in version 0.2.0. The repository does not document mutation tools for changing recipes or other Cookwala data.

Setup and configuration

For a local setup, configure an MCP client to launch:

npx -y @cookwala/mcp

The provided material does not specify required environment variables for the local process. The hosted endpoint is described as optionally token-protected, but the excerpt does not define the token’s environment-variable name or an authentication configuration format.

The README links setup guidance for Claude, Codex, Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Devin, and Antigravity. Client configuration details should therefore be taken from the project’s MCP documentation rather than inferred from the package command alone.

Tools and capabilities

The documented capability areas include:

• Searching recipes with the search_recipes tool.
• Filtering results by diet, allergen, method, and language.
• Running recipes in dry-run mode against device capabilities.
• Checking temperature-envelope constraints.
• Accessing read-only recipe and Core operations through 24 MCP tools.
• Using the hosted MCP endpoint or the local npm package.

Limitations and notes

Cookwala Core 0.2 and the MCP server are under public review. Other profiles in the repository may be draft or experimental, and the project states that nothing is deployed in the field yet.

Allergen analysis is not presented as medical, regulatory, or certification assurance. Some records need label checks, and declared or analyzed allergen data can differ by recipe source. Likewise, certification support is described as partial: verification, issuance, revocation, and search tools exist in the broader project, while a certifier registry is not yet available.

The static /v1/search route is documented but not deployed; search is served through the REST API, MCP tool, and CLI. Choose this server for read-only recipe lookup and pre-execution checks, not for editing recipes or treating search results as a substitute for food-safety review.