gousto_skill

Overview

This skill provides fast search and full-recipe browsing for 9,000+ Gousto recipes via the official Gousto API. It builds a local cache for instant title searches and fetches detailed recipe data (ingredients, steps, nutrition) on demand. Scripts automate cache updates, searching, and retrieving full recipe instructions.

How this skill works

A background script pulls paginated recipe metadata from the Gousto listing endpoint and stores it in a local JSON cache for instant lookups. Search uses a local jq-based filter against that cache, while a separate call to the single-recipe endpoint retrieves full ingredients and step-by-step instructions. HTML in steps is normalized to plain text and the cache is gitignored so you update it locally after cloning.

When to use it

• Quickly find Gousto recipe titles and slugs without repeatedly hitting the API.
• Retrieve full ingredient lists and step-by-step cooking instructions for a specific Gousto recipe.
• Build local tools or integrations that need a searchable index of Gousto recipes.
• Work offline for fast search after the initial cache build.
• Automate recipe fetching for meal planning, testing, or data analysis workflows.

Best practices

• Run the cache update script after cloning and periodically to keep metadata current (about 3 minutes to rebuild).
• Use the local search for instant title queries and only fetch single-recipe endpoints when you need full details.
• Respect the API by avoiding unnecessary repeated recipe fetches; prefer the cached metadata whenever possible.
• Strip and sanitize any external HTML in recipe steps before displaying or processing them.
• Keep the cache file out of version control (it is gitignored) and store it per environment to avoid large commits.

Example use cases

• Search for 'chicken' or 'beef curry' locally to browse matching Gousto recipe titles and slugs instantly.
• Fetch 'honey-soy-chicken-with-noodles' to display the full ingredient list and step-by-step cooking instructions.
• Integrate the cache into a meal-planning tool to filter recipes by prep_time or rating without API latency.
• Archive or analyze rating, prep_time, and other metadata across the full set of ~9,300 recipes.
• Create a command-line workflow that prints shopping lists by aggregating ingredients from selected recipes.