Allrecipes — Printing Press CLI
Prerequisites: Install the CLI
This skill drives the
binary.
You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:
- Install via the Printing Press installer:
bash
npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install allrecipes --cli-only
- Verify:
allrecipes-pp-cli --version
- Ensure (or ) is on .
If the
install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.23+):
bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/food-and-dining/allrecipes/cmd/allrecipes-pp-cli@latest
If
reports "command not found" after install, the install step did not put the binary on
. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.
When to Use This CLI
Reach for this CLI when an agent or user needs Allrecipes data as data, not as a webpage: searching for proven recipes, fetching ingredient lists in structured form, building grocery lists across multiple recipes, scaling for different serving counts, or filtering by what's in the pantry. The local SQLite cache makes iterative meal-planning workflows fast — every recipe fetched is queryable forever via
,
,
, and
. Skip this CLI when the user wants a multi-site comparison (different tool) or when they need authenticated features like saved recipes or meal plans (intentionally not supported).
When Not to Use This CLI
Do not activate this CLI for requests that require creating, updating, deleting, publishing, commenting, upvoting, inviting, ordering, sending messages, booking, purchasing, or changing remote state. This printed CLI exposes read-only commands for inspection, export, sync, and analysis.
Unique Capabilities
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Local state that compounds
-
— Score Allrecipes recipes against your pantry — see which ones you can actually cook tonight without a grocery run.
When the user says 'what can I make with what I've got', this is the only command that knows the answer.
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli pantry --pantry-file ~/pantry.txt --query brownies --agent
-
— Find every cached recipe that uses a given ingredient — a SQL view across your local corpus.
Use this when the user starts from an ingredient they want to use up, not a dish name.
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli with-ingredient buttermilk --top 10 --agent
-
— Filter cached recipes by gluten-free / vegan / low-carb using JSON-LD keywords plus ingredient-name patterns.
Use this when dietary restrictions are non-negotiable and the user wants more than what the site's diet category page surfaces.
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli dietary --type gluten-free --top 20 --agent
Ranking that beats the website
-
— Rank recipes by Bayesian-smoothed rating — proven popular wins over 1-review 5-star noise.
Pick this over raw search when the agent wants proven recipes, not freshly-uploaded 5-star outliers.
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli top-rated brownies --smooth-c 200 --limit 10 --agent
-
— Top-rated recipes that fit a strict time cap — Allrecipes' UI cannot enforce one, but the local cache can.
Use this when the user's constraint is time, not dish — 'what can I make in 25 minutes that's actually good'.
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli quick --max-minutes 30 --query chicken --agent
Agent-native plumbing
-
— Compile a top-rated category into a single markdown cookbook with TOC, ingredients, and instructions.
When the user asks for a curated bundle (gifts, meal-plan packs), this builds it in one command.
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli cookbook --category italian --top 20 --output italian-cookbook.md
-
— Aggregate ingredients from many recipes into a deduped, agent-readable shopping list.
Use this at the end of a meal plan — one call replaces five scrolls through ingredient lists.
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli grocery-list https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9599/quick-and-easy-brownies/ https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16354/easy-meatloaf/ --agent
Reachability mitigation
-
— Health check that names the Cloudflare 'Just a moment...' interstitial by inspecting the response body, then advises the browser-chrome transport.
When the CLI breaks because of bot detection, the agent gets a specific, actionable error rather than a generic timeout.
HTTP Transport
This CLI uses Chrome-compatible HTTP transport over HTTP/3 for browser-facing endpoints. It does not require a resident browser process for normal API calls.
Command Reference
recipes — Public Allrecipes recipe pages with Schema.org Recipe JSON-LD markup
allrecipes-pp-cli recipes get
— Fetch a recipe by ID + slug; returns parsed JSON-LD Recipe. Requires Cloudflare clearance cookie via `auth login...
allrecipes-pp-cli recipes search
— Search Allrecipes for recipes matching a query (no Cloudflare clearance required).
Hand-written commands
allrecipes-pp-cli recipe <url-or-id>
— Fetch and render a single recipe by URL or ID
allrecipes-pp-cli search <query>
— Search Allrecipes for recipes (live + cache)
allrecipes-pp-cli top-rated <query>
— Search and rank by Bayesian-smoothed rating (prior 4.0, default C=200)
- — Recipes from cache that fit a strict time cap and are top-rated
- — Score cached recipes by overlap with a pantry file
allrecipes-pp-cli with-ingredient <ingredient>
— Reverse index: cached recipes that use a given ingredient
allrecipes-pp-cli dietary
— Filter cached recipes by gluten-free / vegan / low-carb (strict ingredient blocklist)
allrecipes-pp-cli cookbook
— Compile a top-rated category or cuisine into a markdown cookbook
allrecipes-pp-cli grocery-list <urls...>
— Aggregate ingredients across many recipes into a deduped shopping list (subtract --pantry-file if given)
allrecipes-pp-cli scale <url>
— Rescale a recipe to a target serving count
allrecipes-pp-cli nutrition <url>
— Show nutrition for a recipe (per serving and total)
allrecipes-pp-cli ingredients <url>
— Show parsed ingredients for a recipe
allrecipes-pp-cli instructions <url>
— Show numbered instructions for a recipe
allrecipes-pp-cli reviews <url>
— Show review summary for a recipe
allrecipes-pp-cli category <slug>
— Browse recipes in a category (e.g. dessert, weeknight)
allrecipes-pp-cli cuisine <slug>
— Browse recipes by cuisine
allrecipes-pp-cli ingredient <name>
— Browse recipes featuring a primary ingredient
allrecipes-pp-cli occasion <slug>
— Browse recipes by occasion (holiday, weeknight, party)
allrecipes-pp-cli article <url>
— Extract the body of an Allrecipes article page
allrecipes-pp-cli gallery <url>
— Extract recipe links from an Allrecipes round-up gallery
allrecipes-pp-cli cook <slug>
— Show a cook profile and their recipes
allrecipes-pp-cli export <url>
— Export a recipe as markdown
- — Refresh cached recipes that are stale
- — Inspect, list, or clear the local recipe cache
- — Diagnose connectivity, Cloudflare clearance state, and cache health
Freshness Contract
This printed CLI owns bounded freshness only for registered store-backed read command paths. In
mode, those paths check
and may run a bounded refresh before reading local data.
never refreshes.
reads the API and does not mutate the local store. Set
ALLRECIPES_NO_AUTO_REFRESH=1
to skip the freshness hook without changing source selection.
When JSON output uses the generated provenance envelope, freshness metadata appears at
. Treat it as current-cache freshness for the covered command path, not a guarantee of complete historical backfill or API-specific enrichment.
Finding the right command
When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"
resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code
means at least one match; exit code
means no confident match — fall back to
or use a narrower query.
Recipes
Top 5 brownies, narrowed to ranking fields only
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli top-rated brownies --limit 5 --agent --select rank,title,url,rating,reviewCount,madeItCount
Bayesian smoothing kills 1-review 5-star outliers; --select trims the payload to fields agents actually use.
Plan three weeknight dinners and one grocery list
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli quick --max-minutes 30 --query chicken --limit 3 --agent | xargs allrecipes-pp-cli grocery-list --pantry-file ~/pantry.txt --agent
Compose two commands: quick weeknight selection feeds straight into pantry-aware grocery aggregation.
Compile a personal Italian cookbook
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli cookbook --category italian --top 20 --output ~/italian-cookbook.md
Pulls the top-20 by Bayesian rating and writes a markdown cookbook with TOC.
Cook with what's in the pantry
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli pantry --pantry-file ~/pantry.txt --max-missing 2 --agent --select title,url,have,missing
Local index ranks cached recipes by ingredient overlap; --max-missing 2 keeps recipes that need at most two extra ingredients.
Strict gluten-free with field narrowing
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli dietary --type gluten-free --top 20 --agent --select title,url,rating,recipeIngredient
Strict ingredient blocklist + JSON-LD tag filter; --select pulls only the title, url, rating, and ingredients for agent verification.
Auth Setup
Browse and search work without any auth. Recipe detail pages need a Cloudflare clearance cookie — run
allrecipes-pp-cli auth login --chrome
once to capture one from your browser. This is bot-protection clearance, not an Allrecipes account login: no username, no password, no token tied to a user. The CLI does not support saved-recipes / meal-plan / profile features that require an actual Allrecipes account.
Agent Mode
Add
to any command. Expands to:
--json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes
.
-
Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr
-
Filterable —
keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli recipes get mock-value mock-value --agent --select id,name,status
-
Previewable —
shows the request without sending
-
Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
-
Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag
-
Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests
Response envelope
Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:
json
{
"meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
"results": <data>
}
Parse
for data and
to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable
summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.
Agent Feedback
When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:
allrecipes-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
allrecipes-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
allrecipes-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10
Entries are stored locally at
~/.allrecipes-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl
. They are never POSTed unless
ALLRECIPES_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT
is set AND either
is passed or
ALLRECIPES_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true
. Default behavior is local-only.
Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.
Output Delivery
Every command accepts
. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:
| Sink | Effect |
|---|
| Default; write to stdout only |
| Atomically write output to (tmp + rename) |
| POST the output body to the URL ( or when ) |
Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.
Named Profiles
A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.
allrecipes-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
allrecipes-pp-cli --profile briefing recipes get mock-value mock-value
allrecipes-pp-cli profile list --json
allrecipes-pp-cli profile show briefing
allrecipes-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes
Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults.
lists all available profiles under
so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.
Exit Codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|
| 0 | Success |
| 2 | Usage error (wrong arguments) |
| 3 | Resource not found |
| 4 | Authentication required |
| 5 | API error (upstream issue) |
| 7 | Rate limited (wait and retry) |
| 10 | Config error |
Argument Parsing
- Empty, , or → show output
- Starts with → ends with → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
- Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with )
MCP Server Installation
- Install the MCP server:
bash
go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/food-and-dining/allrecipes/cmd/allrecipes-pp-mcp@latest
- Register with Claude Code:
bash
claude mcp add allrecipes-pp-mcp -- allrecipes-pp-mcp
- Verify:
Direct Use
- Check if installed:
If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
- Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
- Execute with the flag:
bash
allrecipes-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
- If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help:
allrecipes-pp-cli <command> --help
.