Skip to content

Usage Overview

All operations go through a single entry point:

.\Invoke-MealieSync.ps1 -Action <action> -Type <type> [options]

Actions

Action Description
List Display items currently in Mealie
Export Save items from Mealie to JSON files
Import Add items from JSON, optionally updating existing ones
Mirror Full sync: add, update, and delete to match JSON exactly

Data Types

Type Description Examples
Foods Ingredients with aliases and labels tomato, garlic, soy sauce
Units Measurements with abbreviations tablespoon (tbsp), gram (g)
Labels Color-coded food categories Vegetables, Meat, Dairy
Categories Recipe categories Main course, Appetizer
Tags Recipe tags Vegetarian, Quick meals
Tools Kitchen equipment Oven, Wok, Blender

Smart Matching

MealieSync prevents duplicates through comprehensive cross-matching. For each item being imported, it checks against all existing Mealie items in this order:

Import Item                    Mealie Items
───────────                    ────────────
   name        <───────────>   name
   name        <───────────>   pluralName
   name        <───────────>   aliases[]
   pluralName  <───────────>   name
   pluralName  <───────────>   pluralName
   pluralName  <───────────>   aliases[]
   aliases[]   <───────────>   name
   aliases[]   <───────────>   pluralName
   aliases[]   <───────────>   aliases[]

Match priority:

  1. ID. Exact UUID match (highest priority, safest for renames)
  2. Name to Name. Direct name match
  3. Name to PluralName. Cross-match (e.g., importing "tomatoes" finds existing "tomato")
  4. Name to Alias. Import name matches an existing item's alias
  5. Alias to Name. Import alias matches an existing item's name

This ensures that renaming an ingredient (with the same ID) works correctly, and that items are not duplicated even if the name/plural relationship is reversed.

Understanding the Output

MealieSync uses colors to help you quickly scan results:

Color Meaning
Green Success, new values, created items
Yellow Warnings, updates, matched items
Red Errors, conflicts, blocking issues
Gray Skipped, unchanged, old values
Cyan Headers, item names, structure
Dark Red Destructive actions (deletions)

In change displays, old values appear in gray and new values in green: 

description : 'old value' → 'new value'
              ↑ gray        ↑ green

Listing Items

The simplest way to see what is in your Mealie instance:

.\Invoke-MealieSync.ps1 -Action List -Type Labels

name                    color
----                    -----
Aardappelen & Knollen   #8D6E63
Bakproducten            #D7CCC8
Fruit                   #8BC34A
Groente                 #4CAF50
Kruiden & Specerijen    #7B1FA2
Vlees                   #E53935
...

Total: 29 labels

.\Invoke-MealieSync.ps1 -Action List -Type Foods

name                            pluralName                      label
----                            ----------                      -----
aalbes                          aalbessen                       Fruit
aardappel                       aardappelen                     Aardappelen & Knollen
aardappelzetmeel                aardappelzetmeel                Bakproducten
aardbei                         aardbeien                       Fruit
...

Total: 1312 foods