mela-mcp

A read-only MCP server that lets an MCP-compatible assistant (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, etc.) search and read recipes stored by the Mela macOS app.

Unofficial, third-party project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Mela or Mela's developers. It reads Mela's local database directly; it does not use any official Mela API.

Requirements

• macOS, with the Mela app installed and at least one recipe saved locally.
• Python 3.10+.

What it does

Three model-facing tools, all read-only:

• search_recipes — full-text search across title, ingredients, instructions, notes, description, nutrition, and link. All words in the query must match. Optional filters: tag, favorite, want_to_cook. Text only, no photos.
• get_recipe — full detail for one recipe, by the numeric id returned from search_recipes (ingredients, instructions, notes, times, tags). On hosts that support MCP Apps (Claude Desktop), it also renders a Mela-styled card with your real photos inline — your own photos, downscaled, never stock images. The photos display in that card; they are not sent to the model as text.
• list_tags — every tag/category in your library with its recipe count.

That's it — no writing, no shopping lists, no meal planning. The server opens Mela's SQLite database read-only and never modifies it.

Example things you could ask an assistant connected to this server:

• "What can I make with chicken and kale?"
• "Show me my prime rib recipe."
• "What tags do I have, and which one has the most recipes?"

Install

Install it from a local checkout of the source:

git clone https://github.com/krumme/mela-mcp.git
cd mela-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Then register it with your MCP host, pointing at the venv's Python you just created.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add mela -- /absolute/path/to/mela-mcp/.venv/bin/python -m mela_mcp.server

Substitute the actual path to the venv you created above.

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mela": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/mela-mcp/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "mela_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Configuration

• MELA_DB_PATH (optional) — overrides the path to Mela's database. Leave it unset (or blank) to auto-detect the default location: ~/Library/Group Containers/66JC38RDUD.recipes.mela/Data/Curcuma.sqlite

Caveats

• macOS only — Mela's database lives in a macOS app container.
• macOS privacy prompt. macOS shows a dialog like "python… would like to access data from other apps." the first time (and, for an unsigned Python interpreter, often on every launch) the server reads Mela's app container. Clicking Allow works but usually won't persist for a bare interpreter. The durable fix is to grant Full Disk Access to your MCP host: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, then add the Claude app (for Claude Desktop) or your terminal app (for Claude Code) — its child Python process inherits the access. The access is read-only, to your own recipes.
• If the server still can't find your database, set MELA_DB_PATH explicitly.
• Read-only by design: the server only ever opens the database in read-only mode and never writes to it.
• Photos render only in the inline card on hosts that support MCP Apps (Claude Desktop). On other clients you get the recipe text; the model isn't handed the photos, so it can't display them itself. Whether the card renders is up to the host — this server can't force it.

Development / tests

python -m pytest

The live tests (tests/test_live.py) read your real Mela library, so they are opt-in — otherwise they'd trigger a macOS privacy prompt on every run. Enable them explicitly:

MELA_LIVE_TEST=1 python -m pytest

Plain python -m pytest skips them (and they also skip when Mela isn't installed).