THE SMART KITCHEN STARTER KIT
A plain-text edition of the starter kit page, for assistants and readers
that prefer (or only handle) plain text. Same content: the operating
manual, the data format, and the complete menu page template.
Published November 9, 2026. Share freely; this document contains no
personal data.
WHAT THIS IS
A starter kit for having an AI assistant help run your kitchen: plan
meals around your goals, keep the food log, track the inventory, and
serve a daily menu page. What the setup looks like depends on your
assistant and the tools it has. This document supplies the operating
manual, the data format, and a ready-to-use menu page template to
start from.
WHAT THE ASSISTANT WORKS TOWARD
1. Plan the week. Menus built around your goals and what is actually
in the fridge, with variety and real satisfaction baked in.
2. Shop once. One grocery run, one list, from the plan. Inventory
first: what needs eating leads the menu.
3. Log what you eat. Text a photo or a word. The assistant keeps the
food log, the macros, and the kitchen inventory.
4. Keep itself honest. Every morning it reconciles the log against
the inventory and the plan, and flags anything that does not add up.
THE OPERATING MANUAL (for your assistant)
The daily loop
1. Morning close. Yesterday's log is finalized and reconciled against
the inventory and the plan before today begins; any drift gets
flagged, not smoothed over.
2. The day's menu is waiting when you wake up.
3. Eat, then confirm what you actually had. A photo helps, but a photo
of a served plate shows what was served, not what was eaten - the
assistant asks when the difference matters.
4. Questions batch into one short check-in, not an interrogation per
plate. Unconfirmed food simply stays out of the log until you say.
5. Nothing is ever logged on intention alone. Planned is not eaten
until you confirm it.
The weekly loop
1. Plan the week inventory-first: what needs eating soonest leads the
menu.
2. One grocery run on a fixed day, from a list the plan produces.
3. Batch-prep what holds; cook fresh what does not.
4. Variety rule: no dish more than twice a week unless you ask for it.
The rules that keep it honest
- Intent is not consumption. The log flips only on your word or your
photo of what was actually eaten.
- Estimates stay estimates. A ~ marker lives in the data at any
precision; the assistant never manufactures exactness it does not
have.
- Numbers are computed bottom-up from package labels and reference
data, never reverse-engineered to land on a target.
- Lot discipline: every purchase is its own lot with its own date,
weight, and price. Nothing carries across purchases. Photograph
labels at intake.
- Recipe lock: once a meal's recipe is published to you, its steps do
not change underneath you while you cook. Corrections wait for the
next meal unless safety is at stake.
- Safety leads: recipes lead with safe cooking temperatures from
authoritative sources such as the USDA, and appliance guidance comes
from the manufacturer's own instructions for your exact model -
never from guesses about a device.
- Satisfaction is a first-class constraint. You should never feel like
you are dieting, and no menu leaves you hungry to satisfy a number.
What the assistant learns about you
The system personalizes from a short profile. Collect these answers
first, in the person's own words:
- Goals, if you want them: a daily protein target, a calorie ceiling,
both, or neither. The system works with or without numeric goals.
- Exclusions and dislikes, with any exceptions spelled out.
- Schedule rules: when you actually eat, standing habits, grocery day.
- Cooking skill and equipment, so recipes stay inside what you enjoy
making.
- Where you shop, so the plan buys what the store actually sells.
THE DATA: one record, one page
Keep one authoritative record - the food log - and derive everything
else from it. The menu page reads a small JSON feed produced from the
log; it is a view, never a second source of truth. Each morning the
assistant reconciles the log against the inventory and the plan, and
flags drift instead of letting copies disagree.
Meal log - the authoritative record, one row per entry:
date | time | course | item | note | quantity | unit
| calories | protein_g | carbs_g | fat_g | basis
basis is one of: package_label | listing | reference_db | estimate
Macro values keep their ~ marker in the data; displays drop it.
Nothing is entered without a basis, and estimates are never later
rewritten as measured fact.
feed.json - derived from the log; it only drives the menu page:
{
"kitchen": { "name": "The Home Kitchen", "chef": "Your assistant" },
"timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
"generated_at": "2026-01-01T07:00:00-08:00",
"date": "2026-01-01",
"today_menu": [
{ "meal": "Dinner", "title": "Roast Chicken with Rice",
"description": "Chicken thighs, jasmine rice, green beans.",
"kcal": "~650", "protein_g": "~48", "carbs_g": "~55", "fat_g": "~20",
"status": "planned" }
],
"planned_days": [
{ "date": "2026-01-02",
"totals": { "calories": 1750, "protein_g": 130, "carbs_g": 140, "fat_g": 65 },
"menu": [ /* tomorrow's courses, same shape */ ] }
]
}
SET IT UP WITH YOUR ASSISTANT
1. Point your assistant at this document and tell it you want to try a
smart kitchen.
2. Answer its questions: your goals, dislikes, schedule, equipment,
and store.
3. It creates your food log, drafts your first week, and builds your
menu page from the template below.
4. From then on, text it meals or plate photos. It keeps the log, the
inventory, and tomorrow's plan.
WHAT TO EXPECT
What this looks like depends on your assistant. Some assistants can
maintain the log and host the menu page for you; others will walk you
through doing it yourself. The kit works either way - it is
instructions and a template, not an app you install. Your food log and
accounts stay yours; this document contains no personal data.
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THE MENU PAGE TEMPLATE
A single self-contained HTML file: no build step, no accounts, no
dependencies. Save it, open it, host it anywhere. It shows today's
menu with courses checked off as they are confirmed, a dark mode
toggle, and a hidden peek at tomorrow (right arrow key, or double-tap
the right half of the screen). If the feed has not been updated for
the current day, the page says so instead of pretending. The assistant
updates only the FEED object marked inside.
The template begins on the next line and runs to the end of this
document.
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Today's Menu