nutrition-mcp

A small local-first nutrition tracker exposed as an HTTP MCP server for Hermes.

The database is the source of truth. Hermes should call tools here to remember foods, aliases, recipes, and meal logs instead of storing nutrition facts in agent memory.

Design

The server stores three useful concepts:

• Foods: atomic macro sources such as Babybel, Greek yogurt, tuna, dough, mozzarella, or homemade sauce.
• Aliases: stable names Hermes can resolve, such as babybel, default tuna, or pizza dough.
• Recipes: reusable templates composed from foods, such as tuna pizza = 165g dough + 60g tuna + 40g cheese.

Recipes can be logged with one-off adjustments. For example, after creating a tuna pizza recipe, Hermes can log it with:

{
  "alias": "tuna pizza",
  "adjustments": [
    {"alias": "cheese", "delta_grams": 20}
  ]
}

The logged meal stores macro snapshots and a component snapshot, so historical logs do not change when you later edit a food or recipe.

Tracked nutrients are calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, sugars, saturated fat, and salt. Salt is stored as grams of salt from nutrition labels, not sodium in milligrams.

MCP Endpoint

• URL: http://HOST:8765/mcp
• Transport: Streamable HTTP via the official Python MCP SDK v1 FastMCP
• Health endpoints:
  • GET /
  • GET /health

If MCP_TOKEN is set, every HTTP request must include:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

Tools

Core tools:

• add_food
• update_food
• add_alias
• get_food
• search_foods
• list_foods
• log_food
• get_day
• get_entries
• delete_entry
• delete_food
• update_entry
• finalize_day
• get_weekly_report
• list_aliases
• health

Recipe tools:

• add_recipe
• update_recipe
• get_recipe
• search_recipes
• log_recipe
• delete_recipe

Data Paths

Inside the container:

• SQLite DB: /data/nutrition.db
• Exports: /data/exports
• Daily Markdown: /data/exports/daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md
• CSV: /data/exports/csv/YYYY-MM-DD.csv
• JSON: /data/exports/json/YYYY-MM-DD.json

Local Development

py -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\python -m pip install -e ".[test]"
.\.venv\Scripts\pytest
.\.venv\Scripts\python -m app.main

On Linux/macOS:

python -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -e ".[test]"
pytest
python -m app.main

Test the health endpoint:

curl http://localhost:8765/health

With a token:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer change-me" http://localhost:8765/health

Demo Data

After the server is running, add demo foods through MCP:

{
  "name": "Babybel",
  "serving_name": "1 piece",
  "kcal": 70,
  "protein_g": 4,
  "carbs_g": 0,
  "fat_g": 5,
  "fiber_g": 0,
  "sugars_g": 0,
  "saturated_fat_g": 0,
  "salt_g": 0,
  "aliases": ["babybel"]
}

{
  "name": "Greek yogurt",
  "serving_name": "1 serving",
  "kcal": 180,
  "protein_g": 20,
  "carbs_g": 8,
  "fat_g": 4,
  "fiber_g": 0,
  "sugars_g": 0,
  "saturated_fat_g": 0,
  "salt_g": 0,
  "aliases": ["greek yogurt"]
}

Example recipe ingredients use grams when the food has grams_per_serving:

{
  "name": "Tuna pizza",
  "aliases": ["tuna pizza"],
  "ingredients": [
    {"alias": "pizza dough", "grams": 165},
    {"alias": "default tuna", "grams": 60},
    {"alias": "cheese", "grams": 40}
  ]
}

Docker

Build:

docker build -t nutrition-mcp:0.3.0 .

Run:

docker run -d \
  --name nutrition-mcp \
  -p 8765:8765 \
  -e TZ=Europe/Bucharest \
  -e MCP_TOKEN=change-me \
  -e PUBLIC_HOSTS=192.168.1.142,nutrition-mcp \
  -v /mnt/user/appdata/nutrition-mcp:/data \
  nutrition-mcp:0.3.0

For a published image:

docker run -d \
  --name nutrition-mcp \
  -p 8765:8765 \
  -e TZ=Europe/Bucharest \
  -e MCP_TOKEN=change-me \
  -e PUBLIC_HOSTS=192.168.1.142,nutrition-mcp \
  -v /mnt/user/appdata/nutrition-mcp:/data \
  ghcr.io/REPLACE_ME/nutrition-mcp:0.3.0

Unraid Add Container

• Name: nutrition-mcp
• Repository: ghcr.io/REPLACE_ME/nutrition-mcp:0.3.0
• Network Type: bridge
• Port: host 8765 -> container 8765 TCP
• Path: /mnt/user/appdata/nutrition-mcp -> /data
• Env:
  • TZ=Europe/Bucharest
  • MCP_TOKEN=<long random token>
  • PUBLIC_HOSTS=192.168.1.142,nutrition-mcp
• WebUI: http://[IP]:[PORT:8765]/

Hermes MCP Config

If Hermes connects over LAN:

mcp_servers:
  nutrition:
    url: "http://192.168.1.142:8765/mcp"
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer change-me"

If Hermes and this server are on the same custom Docker network:

mcp_servers:
  nutrition:
    url: "http://nutrition-mcp:8765/mcp"
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer change-me"

Environment

DATA_DIR=/data
TZ=Europe/Bucharest
MCP_TOKEN=
PUBLIC_HOSTS=192.168.1.142,nutrition-mcp
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=8765

Notes

• SQLite is the only database.
• All persistent files live under /data.
• No arbitrary SQL tool is exposed.
• Deletes require an exact meal entry_id.
• Historical entries keep snapshots when foods or recipes are updated.