User Guide

Getting Started

Signing In

To use Foodex, you sign in with either your GitHub or Google account. You don't need to create a separate username and password — just click the sign-in button and choose which account to use.

Creating or Joining a Household

A household is your shared space in Foodex. It's where your recipes, pantry, and shopping lists live. Think of it as your kitchen — everyone in the household can see and contribute to it.

When you first sign in, you'll need to either:

• Create a household — Give it a name (like "The Smiths" or "Apartment 4B") and you'll become the owner.
• Join an existing household — If someone you live with already has a household, they can give you an invite code. Enter it on the join page, and you're in.

You can belong to one household at a time.

Recipes

Browsing Recipes

The main page of Foodex shows all your recipes. Each recipe card shows the title, a cover photo (if one was added), the difficulty level, and relevant tags. Recipes are shown 20 per page — use the page controls at the bottom to see more.

Searching and Filtering

At the top of the recipe list, you can narrow down what you're looking for:

• Search — Type a word or phrase to search across recipe titles, ingredients, and steps.
• Difficulty — Filter by Easy, Medium, or Hard.
• Meal type — Show only Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, or Dessert recipes (you can select more than one).
• Dietary needs — Filter by Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, and more.
• Favorites only — Show only the recipes you've marked as favorites.
• Ready to make — Shows only recipes where you already have all the required ingredients in your pantry. Perfect for answering "what can I make right now?"

Viewing a Recipe

When you open a recipe, you'll see:

• Cover photo — Click it to see a larger version.
• Description — A brief summary of the dish.
• Details — Prep time, cook time, difficulty, and tags.
• Ingredients — Everything you need, with exact amounts. Ingredients already in your pantry are marked with a green checkmark.
• Steps — Numbered instructions. Some steps include photos.
• Tools — Any kitchen tools needed (like a whisk or baking tray).
• Cost estimate — If ingredient prices have been entered, you'll see an estimated total cost.

Scaling a Recipe

Every recipe has a quantity control (usually a serving count). If a recipe serves 4 but you need to cook for 6, just change the number. All ingredient amounts will automatically adjust.

Some recipes use different quantity types: servings (the most common), weight (for things like bread dough), volume (for liquids like soup), or custom dimensions.

Timers

Some recipe steps include built-in timers. For example, a step might say "bake for 15 minutes" with a timer button next to it. Click the button to start a countdown — it'll alert you when time's up. No need to set a separate timer on your phone. You can run multiple timers at the same time.

Creating a Recipe

Click New Recipe to create one from scratch. You'll fill in:

1. Title — The name of your dish.
2. Description — A short summary (optional but helpful).
3. Cover image — Upload a photo of the finished dish. You can crop it before saving.
4. Difficulty — Easy, Medium, or Hard.
5. Prep time and Cook time — How long each phase takes, in minutes.
6. Meal type — Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, etc. You can select multiple.
7. Dietary tags — Mark if it's Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, etc.
8. Quantity type — Usually "servings" with a number (like 4).
9. Ingredients — Add each ingredient one by one. For each, pick from the database (or add a new one), set the amount, and choose a unit.
10. Steps — Write each step. You can add a photo and specify tools for any step.
11. Private — Toggle on if you want it visible only to your household.

When you're happy, save the recipe. It will appear in your recipe list.

Editing and Forking Recipes

• Edit — Open a recipe and click Edit to change anything about it.
• Fork — Create your own variation of any recipe. The fork links back to the original so you can always compare. Great for personalizing shared recipes like "Mom's pasta sauce — spicy version".

Importing a Recipe from a Photo

Have a recipe in a cookbook, on a card, or in a magazine? Photograph it and let Foodex extract it automatically:

1. Go to Import Recipe.
2. Upload one or more photos. You can crop each one to focus on the text.
3. Foodex uses AI to read the text and pull out the title, ingredients, steps, and other details.
4. The result appears as a draft that you can review and edit before publishing.

Always double-check the extracted recipe, especially ingredient amounts. AI is helpful but not perfect.

Generating a Recipe with AI

Generate a brand-new recipe based on what's currently in your pantry:

1. Go to your Pantry page.
2. Click Generate Recipe (only appears if your pantry has items).
3. Optionally set a maximum cooking time or special instructions (e.g., "something spicy" or "a simple weeknight dinner").
4. Foodex suggests a recipe using ingredients you already have.
5. Review, tweak, and publish the draft.

Drafts

When you import or generate a recipe, it starts as a draft. Drafts appear in a separate section on your recipe list and are only visible to you. Open a draft to edit it, then publish it when you're satisfied.

Favorites

Click the heart icon on any recipe to mark it as a favorite. Your favorites are personal — other household members have their own. Use the "Favorites only" filter to quickly find recipes you've saved.

Private Recipes

When creating or editing a recipe, you can mark it as private. Private recipes are only visible to your household members. Useful for secret family recipes or works in progress.

Your Pantry

The pantry is a shared inventory of what's currently in your household's kitchen. Everyone in the household sees and can update the same pantry.

Adding Items

To add something to your pantry:

1. Go to the Pantry page (found under your household).
2. Search for the ingredient you want to add.
3. Set the amount and unit (e.g., 500g of flour, 2L of milk).
4. Optionally set an expiration date.
5. Save it.

If the ingredient doesn't exist in the database yet, you can create a new one on the spot.

Barcode Scanning

One of the most convenient features. When you get home from shopping:

1. Open the Pantry page.
2. Click the Scan Barcode button.
3. Point your device's camera at the barcode on a product.
4. Foodex looks up the product automatically and fills in the ingredient name, brand, and quantity.
5. Confirm or adjust the details and add it to your pantry.

Works on any device with a camera — phones, tablets, and laptops. Fastest on a phone since you can scan items as you unpack groceries.

Expiration Tracking

If you set expiration dates on pantry items, Foodex will warn you when something is about to expire or has already expired. This helps reduce food waste — plan meals around ingredients that need to be used up soon.

Merging Duplicates

Sometimes you might end up with two entries for the same ingredient (maybe one was scanned and another typed in). You can merge duplicate pantry entries to combine their amounts into one item.

Shopping Lists

How Items Get Added

There are two ways items end up on your shopping list:

1. From a recipe — When you view a recipe and see that you're missing some ingredients, add the missing ones to your shopping list with one click. The list remembers which recipe they're for.
2. Manually — Add items directly for things that aren't tied to a specific recipe.

Using Your Shopping List

Your shopping list can be viewed in two ways:

• Grouped by store — Items organized by which store has the best price. Helpful if you shop at multiple stores.
• Grouped by recipe — Items organized by which recipe needs them. Helpful for planning.

As you shop, check off items by tapping them. Checked items move to the bottom so you can focus on what's left. If prices have been entered, you'll see a running total of your estimated shopping cost.

Sharing Your Shopping List

Need someone else to pick things up? Generate a share link. Anyone with the link can view the list (but not edit it) — they don't even need a Foodex account. Perfect for texting to a partner or roommate.

Household Management

Your household is the hub that connects you with the people you cook with.

Inviting Members

To invite someone to your household:

1. Go to your Household page.
2. Generate an invite code.
3. Share the code with the person you want to invite.
4. They go to the join page and enter the code.

Invite codes expire after 7 days. If a code expires, just generate a new one.

Managing Tools

Your household has a list of kitchen tools (blender, stand mixer, baking trays, etc.). When you create a recipe, you can specify which tools are needed for each step. This way, if you're browsing recipes, you'll know if you have the right equipment. Go to the Household page to add or remove tools.

Managing Stores

Stores are the shops where you buy ingredients (like "Walmart", "Tesco", or "Local Farmer's Market"). Each store has a currency setting. Adding stores lets you:

• Track ingredient prices at each store.
• See which store is cheapest for each item on your shopping list.
• Organize your shopping list by store.

Ingredients & Prices

Foodex has a shared ingredient database. When you add an ingredient to a recipe or your pantry, you're picking from this database.

Browsing Ingredients

Go to the Ingredients page to see all available ingredients. You can search by name and page through the full list.

Adding New Ingredients

If an ingredient isn't in the database, you can add it:

• Name — What it's called (e.g., "All-purpose flour").
• Unit — The standard unit it's measured in (grams, milliliters, pieces, etc.).
• Density — Optional. Lets Foodex convert between weight and volume (e.g., how many cups equal 200g of flour).

Tracking Prices

On an ingredient's detail page, you can add prices:

• Pick a store from your household's store list.
• Enter the brand (optional — e.g., "King Arthur" vs. store brand).
• Enter the price and the amount you get for that price.

This price information powers the cost estimates on recipes and shopping lists.

Settings

Unit System

Foodex supports both metric (grams, milliliters, centimeters) and imperial (ounces, fluid ounces, inches) units. Go to your Profile page to choose your preference. All recipes and ingredient amounts will display in your chosen system.

Dark Mode

Click the dark mode toggle in the top navigation bar to switch between light and dark themes. Your preference is saved in your browser.

Tips & Tricks