Pantry Management

A pantry file is a short list of what you have on hand: staples, spices, what is in the fridge and freezer. Once it exists, every shopping list you generate subtracts it, and CookCLI can tell you what is running low, what is about to expire, and which recipes you could cook tonight without going to the shop.

Pantry tracking currently works in CookCLI and the cook server web UI. The mobile app does not read pantry.conf yet.

What you need

CookCLI 0.35 or newer
A recipe folder. cook seed ~/recipes gives you a sample collection with a pantry file already in place.

Run everything from inside the recipe folder:

cd ~/recipes

1. Create the pantry file

The pantry lives at config/pantry.conf next to your recipes and uses TOML. Sections are storage locations; each line is one ingredient. Start small: the staples you never want to see on a shopping list.

[fridge]
butter = { quantity = &#34;250%g&#34;, expire = &#34;2026-10-15&#34; }
eggs = { quantity = &#34;12&#34;, bought = &#34;2026-09-07&#34; }
milk = { quantity = &#34;2%l&#34; }

[pantry]
flour = { quantity = &#34;1%kg&#34;, low = &#34;200%g&#34; }
&#34;olive oil&#34; = { quantity = &#34;750%ml&#34; }
&#34;tinned tomatoes&#34; = { quantity = &#34;4%tins&#34; }
rice = &#34;2%kg&#34;

[&#34;spice rack&#34;]
salt = { quantity = &#34;1%kg&#34; }
&#34;black pepper&#34; = { quantity = &#34;200%g&#34; }
&#34;smoked paprika&#34; = { quantity = &#34;some&#34; }

Format rules:

Names with spaces need quotes, both for items ("olive oil") and sections (["spice rack"]). Names are matched case-insensitively against recipe ingredients, so use the same wording your recipes do.
Quantities use Cooklang notation: "250%g", "2%l", "12" for a plain count. "some" and "unlim" are accepted for things you never run out of, such as tap water or garden herbs.
A bare string is shorthand for { quantity = "..." }. Use the table form when you want more attributes.
Optional attributes: low (threshold that flags the item as running out), expire and bought (dates as YYYY-MM-DD).

You can also let CookCLI write the file. cook pantry add creates config/pantry.conf and the section if they are missing:

cook pantry add fridge milk --quantity &#34;2%l&#34; --low &#34;500%ml&#34;
cook pantry add pantry flour --quantity &#34;1%kg&#34; --low &#34;200%g&#34;
cook pantry add &#34;spice rack&#34; &#34;smoked paprika&#34; --quantity &#34;50%g&#34;

2. Check what CookCLI sees

cook pantry list

Pantry Items:
=============

FRIDGE:
  • butter - 250%g (expires: 2026-10-15)
  • eggs - 12 (bought: 2026-09-07)
  • milk - 2%l

PANTRY:
  • flour - 1%kg
  • olive oil - 750%ml
  • tinned tomatoes - 4%tins
  • rice - 2%kg
...

To see how much of your recipe collection the pantry already covers:

cook doctor pantry

Scanned 14 recipes, found 76 unique ingredients

28 ingredients from recipes are in your pantry:
  ✓ arborio rice
  ✓ black pepper
  ✓ butter
  ...

Ingredients that show up in recipes but not in the pantry are the candidates for step 1.

3. Generate a shopping list that skips the pantry

Nothing extra to do. As soon as config/pantry.conf exists, cook shopping-list subtracts it:

cook shopping-list &#34;Neapolitan Pizza&#34; &#34;Breakfast/Easy Pancakes&#34;

The sample pantry holds water and olive oil, so neither appears in the output even though both recipes need them. The subtraction is quantity-aware: 125 g of flour against 1 kg in the pantry disappears, but 1.5 kg against 1 kg would leave 500 g on the list.

Units have to match. A recipe that needs 250%ml of milk is not compared with a pantry entry of 2%l; CookCLI prints Unit mismatch for 'milk' and leaves the milk on the list to be safe. Write pantry quantities in the unit your recipes use, or use bare counts for things like eggs.

To see the full list regardless of the pantry, or to point at a pantry file kept elsewhere:

cook shopping-list --ignore-pantry &#34;Neapolitan Pizza&#34;
cook shopping-list --pantry ~/holiday-house.conf &#34;Neapolitan Pizza&#34;

4. Keep it current

The pantry is only useful if it is roughly right. Two habits keep it that way.

After shopping, update quantities. Only the flags you pass change:

cook pantry update fridge milk --quantity &#34;3%l&#34;
cook pantry update pantry &#34;tinned tomatoes&#34; --quantity &#34;6%tins&#34; --bought 2026-09-09
cook pantry remove fridge &#34;sour cream&#34;

Before shopping, ask what is running out. Items at or below their low threshold, and items with a quantity of zero, are flagged:

cook pantry depleted

Depleted or Low Stock Items:
============================

PANTRY:
  • tinned tomatoes (0)

SPICE RACK:
  • ground cumin (50%g)
  • smoked paprika (50%g)

Items without a low threshold are judged by a heuristic, so set thresholds on the things you care about.

Expiry dates get their own check:

cook pantry expiring --days 14

Items Expiring Within 14 Days:
==============================

Expiring Soon:
  • butter - 2026-09-15 (in 6 days) [fridge]

5. Cook from the pantry

The reverse question is often more useful on a weeknight: what can I make right now?

cook pantry recipes

Recipes You Can Make with Pantry Items:
========================================

✓ Complete Matches (all ingredients available):
  • Easy Pancakes

Loosen the match to see recipes that are one shop away:

cook pantry recipes --partial --threshold 60

⚠ Partial Matches (60%+ ingredients available):
  • Mexican Style Burrito (60% available)
    Missing: tortillas, cheddar cheese, fresh red chilli, lime
  • Pizza Dough (60% available)
    Missing: fresh yeast, oil

cook pantry plan goes one step further and ranks ingredients by how many of your recipes they unlock, which is a good way to decide what to stock.

Machine-readable output

Every cook pantry command takes -f json or -f yaml before the subcommand, handy for a home dashboard or a script that nags you about expiring food:

cook pantry -f json expiring --days 7

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
`Cannot parse pantry quantity for 'x': some`	Harmless. Words like `some` are accepted but cannot be subtracted from; the item still counts as "in stock".
Pantry item keeps appearing on shopping lists	Check the name matches the recipe ingredient exactly (spaces, plural) and that the units match.
`cook pantry` finds no file	It looks in `./config/pantry.conf` then `~/.config/cook/pantry.conf`. Run from your recipe folder or pass `-b <path>`.
TOML parse error	Quote names containing spaces, and put every item under a `[section]` header.