Paprika MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Paprika Recipe Manager, allowing AI assistants to search, read, and update recipes.

Features

• Search Recipes: Search across recipe titles, ingredients, categories, directions, and notes with context
• Read Recipes: Get full recipe data including all metadata, ingredients, and directions
• Update Recipes: Safely update recipe fields using find/replace (requires user confirmation)

Prerequisites

1. Python 3.10 or higher (Python 3.13 recommended)
2. A Paprika account with recipes
3. Node.js (for pre-commit hooks, optional)

Quick Start

Run the setup script to install everything and configure credentials:

cd paprika-mcp
./setup.sh

This will:

1. Install paprika-mcp with dependencies
2. Set up pre-commit hooks (if npm available)

Manual Installation

If you prefer manual setup:

1. Install paprika-recipes

cd ../paprika-recipes
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
deactivate

2. Install paprika-mcp

cd ../paprika-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

3. Configure credentials

Option 1: Interactive setup

source .venv/bin/activate
paprika-mcp setup

Option 2: Manual config file

Create ~/.paprika-mcp/config.json:

{
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "password": "yourpassword"
}

Set permissions:

chmod 600 ~/.paprika-mcp/config.json

Option 3: Environment variables

export PAPRIKA_EMAIL="[email protected]"
export PAPRIKA_PASSWORD="yourpassword"

Credential Management

The server uses a credential flow designed for MCP stdio transport:

Priority order:

1. PAPRIKA_EMAIL and PAPRIKA_PASSWORD environment variables
2. ~/.paprika-mcp/config.json file

Note: This server manages credentials independently from the paprika-recipes CLI tool’s keyring storage. This simplifies the credential flow for MCP stdio transport where the process is spawned by the AI app.

User-Agent

If you have Paprika for Mac installed, the fork of the paprika-recipes Python package should automatically create a suitable User-Agent string. Otherwise, you might have to set the PAPRIKA_USER_AGENT environment variable or the “user_agent” property in config.json.

Usage

As an MCP Server

Add to your MCP client configuration (e.g., Claude Desktop’s ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paprika": {
      "command": "/Users/yourusername/Developer/paprika-mcp/.venv/bin/paprika-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Or use environment variables:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paprika": {
      "command": "/Users/yourusername/Developer/paprika-mcp/.venv/bin/paprika-mcp",
      "env": {
        "PAPRIKA_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "PAPRIKA_PASSWORD": "yourpassword"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

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