Mealie

Save recipes, plan meals, and organize your grocery lists.

Choose your deployment and the way you want to use Selfhost. The instructions below follow that choice.

Deployment Use Selfhost with

Set up Mealie

Editable Compose files in your own directory.

Start Mealie and complete its initial account setup before exposing it.
Set the public URL and registration policy for your household.

selfhost app --directory ./mealie init mealie

Initialization writes portable files and does not start the app. Review compose.yaml, the private .env and any files in files/, then start it:

selfhost app --directory ./mealie start

No Selfhost dashboard or background service is needed. You can also start these files directly:

cd mealie
docker compose -f compose.yaml up -d

Connect an existing installation

Use Existing apps → Link an app in the dashboard, or the CLI’s existing-app commands. Choose Mealie, its URL and, optionally, its exact Docker container on a connected server.

Save existing.json with your app URL. Add server_id and container for container inspection and actions.

{
  "profile": "mealie",
  "name": "Mealie",
  "url": "https://app.example.com"
}

selfhost existing link --file existing.json
selfhost existing list
selfhost existing inspect EXISTING_ID

Linking enables the existing-app profile’s supported inspection and actions. It does not import Compose or attach the new-deployment settings and onboarding profiles described below.

Existing app commands, permissions and unlinking

Before configuring integrations

OIDC can be configured with local login retained. PostgreSQL may be dedicated, shared or external.
Database connection changes do not migrate recipe data.
Group and household permissions remain under Mealie administration.

Mealie integrations

Compose service: mealie. These operations use the profile saved when this deployment is created.

Native settings

Changes use the app’s Compose environment. Unrelated settings are preserved.

Supported fields (10)

Public URL public-url: string
Allow account registration signup: stringChoices: true, false
OpenID Connect oidc-enabled: stringChoices: true, false
OIDC client ID oidc-client: string
OIDC discovery URL oidc-discovery: string
Login provider label oidc-name: string
Allow new OIDC users oidc-signup: stringChoices: true, false
Automatic OIDC redirect oidc-auto: string · advancedChoices: true, false
Administrator group claim value oidc-admin-group: Every member of this IdP group becomes an administrator. Leave unset until group membership is reviewed. string · advanced
OIDC client secret (for confidential clients) oidc-secret: secret · advanced

Save a JSON map of the field IDs you want to change as changes.json. Replace FIELD_ID with an ID from the supported fields above, and use its declared value type. Review the plan and replace REVIEWED_REVISION with the revision it returns.

{
  "FIELD_ID": "YOUR_VALUE"
}

selfhost app --directory ./mealie config mealie
selfhost app --directory ./mealie plan mealie changes.json
selfhost app --directory ./mealie apply mealie changes.json --revision REVIEWED_REVISION

Saved changes need service recreation to become active. Existing interpolated environment values stay under your control in .env or Compose.

Database placement

This recipe supports postgres. Workspace projects can choose a dedicated database, a shared source with a separate database and account, or an existing external database before their first start.

Standalone directories use the generated Compose and environment files directly. Configure the database there before first start. Selfhost’s source provisioning commands belong to workspace projects and are optional.

Database setup, CLI commands and backups

App configuration reference

Versions and updates

This deployment uses the following images. Existing projects retain their saved recipe and images. A new catalogue version does not silently update them.

mealie: ghcr.io/mealie-recipes/mealie:v3.27.0

Review compatibility and back up app data before an update. Choose an image version and review the change.

Keep control of your setup

Selfhost remains optional. Your app runs using ordinary Compose files, its own settings and persistent data. Keep the Compose project name and volumes to preserve storage. Configuration exports and setting backups do not include application data.

Standalone CLI guide · Backups and removal · Mealie documentation