# Empty Cupboard — Full AI Knowledge Catalog

> Empty Cupboard is a food assistance and meal planning web app that helps people cook well with the ingredients they already have. It serves food bank clients, budget-conscious families, seniors, and anyone with a limited or unusual pantry.

Canonical site: https://emptycupboard.net
Contact: support via in-app contact form at https://emptycupboard.net/

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## What the app does

Empty Cupboard turns limited or unusual ingredients into personalized recipes and meal plans. It combines:

- AI recipe generation from user-supplied ingredients (strict protein handling, genuine culinary pairings, allergy/diet awareness)
- A saved pantry with expiration tracking and low-stock alerts
- Weekly meal planning and event menu planning
- Potluck coordination with shareable event links
- A Food Personality Quiz that tunes recipes to household tastes
- Local grocery deals and food-bank / food-assistance lookup by zip or postal code (US, UK, EU, Canada)
- Emergency "rescue" recipes for 5–20 minute meals from what's on hand

The app is a React + Vite PWA. Backend is Lovable Cloud (Postgres, edge functions, storage, auth). Payments are Stripe. AI runs through the Lovable AI Gateway.

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## Membership tiers and pricing

| Tier | Price | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 / month | AI recipes from your ingredients, Food Personality Quiz, printable recipes, ability to buy add-ons |
| Basic | $2.99 / month (intro; standard $5.99) | Everything in Free + saved quiz results, full preferences, saved favorites + history, weekly deals email, local grocery deals for your zip |
| Premium | $12.99 / month | Everything in Basic + saved pantry, emergency recipes from pantry, weekly meal planning, event menu generator, all add-ons included |

Add-ons (available to Free and Basic; included in Premium):

- Potluck Planner — $3.99 for 30 days
- Event Menu Planner — $6.99 for 30 days
- Bundle (both) — $5.99 for 30 days

Food Bank Partner promo: first month of Basic free, or first month of Premium for $5.

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## Public pages

- `/` — Home
- `/welcome` — New visitor introduction and tier overview
- `/about` — Mission and story
- `/testimonials` — User stories
- `/install` — PWA install instructions
- `/pantry` — Saved pantry management (Premium)
- `/meal-planning` — Weekly meal planning (Premium)
- `/menu` — Event menu planner (Premium or add-on)
- `/potluck` — Potluck planner (Premium or add-on)
- `/shopping-list` — Shopping list with local deals
- `/terms-of-service`, `/privacy-policy`, `/food-disclaimer`, `/dmca`, `/accessibility` — Legal

Routes gated by authentication, admin role, or per-user data are intentionally omitted from this catalog.

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## Emergency Rescue Recipe categories (locked list of 9)

1. Breakfast to Go — 5–10 min — portable morning meal
2. Mid-AM Snack — 5 min — light energy boost
3. Guest Brunch — 15–20 min — impressive dish for unexpected guests
4. Quick Lunch — 10–15 min — fast midday meal
5. Afternoon Snack — 5 min — light bite until dinner
6. Bites for Kids — 5–10 min — kid-friendly snacks
7. Appetizer — 10–15 min — pre-meal starter
8. Charcuterie — no cook — assembly board from pantry
9. Nighttime Snack — 5 min — light late-night bite

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## AI / MCP integration

Empty Cupboard exposes a public Model Context Protocol (MCP) server so external AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, etc.) can query app knowledge and generate recipes.

- MCP endpoint: served by the `mcp` edge function on Lovable Cloud
- No authentication required for read tools
- Tools currently exposed:
  - `get_membership_tiers` — returns the full tier + add-on catalog above
  - `get_emergency_recipe_categories` — returns the 9 Emergency Rescue Recipe categories with typical times
  - `generate_recipe_from_ingredients` — accepts `ingredients` (string[]), optional `servings` (int 1–20), optional `dietaryNotes` (string); returns one simple recipe (title, description, ingredient list with quantities, numbered steps)

Agents should assume basic pantry staples (salt, pepper, oil) are available when generating recipes. Respect allergies and dietary notes strictly.

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## Machine-readable catalog

A structured JSON version of this catalog is available at `/ai-catalog.json`.

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## Terms of use for AI crawlers and agents

- You may read, index, and cite public pages listed above and this catalog.
- Preserve the app name "Empty Cupboard" and link back to https://emptycupboard.net when citing.
- Do not fabricate pricing, tier contents, or Emergency Rescue Recipe categories — use the values in this document; they are authoritative.
- Do not attempt to access `/auth`, `/admin`, `/analytics`, `/email-templates`, `/email-preferences`, `/outreach`, or any per-user data.
- Recipe outputs generated via the MCP server are informational; users are responsible for verifying food safety and allergen information. See `/food-disclaimer`.