| name | recipe-taxonomy |
| description | Domain knowledge for assigning Mealie recipe categories and tags. USE FOR: classifying recipes; generating or reviewing tags; writing LLM prompts that assign taxonomy; migrating legacy category values; deciding which categories/tags to apply to a new or translated recipe. DO NOT USE FOR: general coding tasks; writing tests; documentation style. |
Recipe Taxonomy: Categories and Tags
Recipes are indexed across two orthogonal dimensions: categories (course / meal position) and tags (descriptive attributes).
Always read the authoritative vocabulary from docs/TAXONOMY.md — that file is the single source of truth.
The summary below is provided for quick reference.
Two Dimensions
| Field | Role | Cardinality |
|---|
categories | Course / meal position | Controlled list (~12 values) |
tags | Descriptive attributes | Open, extendable, multi-value |
Allowed Categories (controlled vocabulary)
breakfast · brunch · lunch · dinner · snack · dessert
appetizer · side · drink · condiment · bread · baked-goods
Migration: the legacy value main must be migrated to dinner.
Tag Dimensions
- Cuisine:
brazilian, italian, french, japanese, mexican, portuguese, …
- Main ingredient:
chicken, beef, pasta, cheese, egg, potato, …
- Dietary:
vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb, …
- Cooking method:
baked, fried, grilled, one-pot, slow-cooked, no-cook, …
- Flavor:
sweet, savory, spicy, creamy, smoky, tangy, …
- Effort:
quick (≤30 min), make-ahead, meal-prep, weeknight, weekend-project
- Specific dish:
pao-de-queijo, lasagna, brigadeiro, feijoada, …
Application Rules
- Assign at least one category before tagging.
- All values are lowercase; multi-word uses hyphens (
gluten-free, pao-de-queijo).
- Meal-position words (
breakfast, dinner, …) go in categories only, never tags.
- Reuse existing tags/categories before creating new ones.
- Specific-dish tags supplement dimensional tags — don't replace them.
- Normally one tag per dimension (one cuisine, one primary method, etc.) unless both genuinely apply.
LLM Prompt Contract
When generating tags with an LLM:
- Provide the full controlled category vocabulary and tag dimensions as context.
- Emit only values from the approved lists (or from the existing tag catalog in Mealie).
- Never put meal-position words into tags.
- Never emit categories as tags or vice-versa.
See tools/generate_tags.py for the reference implementation.
Worked Examples
Pão de queijo
categories: snack, bread, breakfast
tags: brazilian, pao-de-queijo, cheese, gluten-free, baked, quick
Chicken stir-fry (weeknight dinner)
categories: dinner
tags: chicken, stir-fried, quick, weeknight
Chocolate brigadeiro
categories: dessert, snack
tags: brazilian, brigadeiro, chocolate, sweet, quick, no-cook
For the full vocabulary, all worked examples, and migration notes see docs/TAXONOMY.md.
