16 KiB
Recipe (working title)
What This Is
A mobile-first meal planning app for a small household — pick recipes for the week, fill a calendar across five meal slots per day, and watch pantry gaps + shopping lists emerge from the plan. Kotlin Multiplatform targeting iOS primarily, with Android, Desktop, and Wasm as secondary targets. Built for me + my partner (shared household plan) with a handful of family/friends as authorized users on the same self-hosted backend.
Core Value
"My week is planned." I pick recipes, the calendar fills up, and I know what we're eating. Everything else — pantry tracking, shopping list, nutrition numbers — exists to reinforce that one moment.
Requirements
Validated
(None yet — ship to validate)
Active
Authentication & identity
- Users sign in via the user's self-hosted Authentik instance (OIDC)
- Sessions persist across app launches; offline access works with cached credentials
Household sharing
- Users can join a household: one plan, one pantry, one shopping list
- Changes by either user converge on all devices when online
Recipes (browse & detail)
- User can browse a curated recipe catalog with a grid view
- User can filter recipes by meal slot, tags, cooking time, and ingredients
- User can search recipes by title/tag
- User can open a recipe detail view with ingredients, steps, and nutrition per serving
Meal planner (hero feature)
- User can view a calendar of days and see planned meals per day
- User can add recipes to any of 5 slots/day (śniadanie, drugie śniadanie, obiad, przekąska, kolacja)
- User can remove or replace a meal entry
- User can adjust servings on a meal entry
- User can customize a meal entry: swap ingredients (substitutions), exclude ingredients, add extras, override amounts
- User can select a specific product (pack size) for an ingredient in a meal entry
- User can mark a meal slot as "skipped" for a day
- User sees daily nutrition totals (kcal, protein, fat, carbs) computed from the plan
Pantry
- User can view current pantry inventory grouped by category
- User can add/update quantities manually in the pantry
- User sees which ingredients fall short over a chosen planning horizon
- User can filter pantry by category and by shortfall status
Shopping list
- User can select days from the plan to generate a shopping list
- Shopping list aggregates ingredient needs across selected days minus pantry
- Shopping list groups items by category for an efficient store trip
- User can mark items as bought during a shopping session; marked items are removed from active needs and added to pantry
Offline + sync
- App is fully usable offline: read and write plans, pantry, shopping list
- Local changes sync to the backend when connectivity returns, without data loss
- Conflicts between two household members' concurrent edits resolve deterministically (last-write-wins for MVP; revisit if it hurts)
Polish UI foundation
- All user-facing strings are externalized into resource files (i18n-ready), even though v1 ships Polish only
- UI uses a Liquid-Glass-inspired visual language (translucent surfaces, blur, soft depth) implemented in Compose Multiplatform
- Visual hierarchy is less cramped than the mockup (more breathing room, calmer typography)
- iOS app feels iOS-idiomatic within Compose's constraints (tab bar placement, navigation patterns, safe areas, dark mode)
Out of Scope
For v1 (deferred to later phases / milestones):
- In-app recipe authoring — v1 seeds the DB manually; authoring in-app comes next phase
- Recipe sharing between users/households — future feature; households are isolated in v1
- Nutrition goal tracking (targets, streaks, deficits) — v1 shows numbers informationally only
- English and other language copy — code is i18n-ready but v1 ships Polish only
- True native iOS 26 Liquid Glass via SwiftUI interop — Compose approximation for v1; revisit only if real-device chrome feels clearly inadequate
- Desktop and Wasm as shipped products — Desktop useful for hot-reload dev; Wasm is a possible future target, neither is a v1 deliverable
- Sign in with Apple as a first-class button — user's Authentik handles auth; Apple can be federated upstream in Authentik if needed later
- Barcode scanning / receipt OCR for pantry updates — manual entry is fine for a 2-person household
- AI-generated recipes — curated catalog is the value
Permanently out of scope (explicit exclusions):
- Social features: comments, ratings, recipe feeds, public profiles — this is a private household app, not a community product
- Meal-plan marketplaces / paid plans — personal-use product
- Grocery delivery integrations (Instacart, etc.) — Polish market + small scope; not worth the integration cost
Deliberately not carried forward from the mockup:
- The mockup's seed data (~80 ingredients, ~30 recipes) — user chose to start the catalog fresh
- The mockup's visual design — full visual rebuild; mockup is functional reference only
- The mockup's localStorage data model — server-backed with local cache replaces it
Context
Codebase state. The ~/dev/repo/recipe directory is a freshly-generated Kotlin Multiplatform Compose template from IntelliJ with four modules: composeApp (Android + Desktop + iOS shared UI), iosApp (iOS bootstrap), server (Ktor, not yet written), and shared (common code). No app logic exists yet — this is effectively greenfield with the build infra in place.
Reference implementation. The user built a working PWA at ~/dev/repo/recipe-mockup/ (vanilla JS + Tailwind CDN + nginx/Docker). It implements the same four views (Recipe List, Meal Planner, Pantry, Shopping List) and has mature logic worth mining as a functional spec — particularly planner entry customization (substitutions, amount overrides, product selection), shortfall computation over a horizon, and shopping-list aggregation with "bought" session tracking. The mockup's UI design is not being carried forward; the user is redesigning visuals around a Liquid-Glass-inspired language.
Users. Authorized users only, behind the user's Authentik. Primary user is the author; secondary is their partner (household sharing from day 1); a handful of family/friends may use their own household accounts. Not an App Store public launch — personal / close-circle use.
Infra. User runs a homelab. Authentik is already installed. The Ktor backend will run on the same server (containerized). No managed cloud dependencies planned.
Language & platform. Polish-only UI for v1 (strings externalized for future i18n). iOS is the primary daily driver; Android deployed later for friends; Desktop useful for development (hot reload); Wasm is aspirational.
Liquid Glass decision. True iOS 26 Liquid Glass (refractive material, specular highlights, morphing chrome) is a SwiftUI-native feature that Compose on iOS cannot reproduce exactly (Compose uses Skia, not Metal-native glass material). The v1 plan is: Compose-only approximation (blur + translucency + gradients) everywhere, measure real-device performance and visual quality, and only selectively add SwiftUI interop for the chrome (tab bar, nav bar) if the approximation feels insufficient. This avoids upfront interop complexity for 90%+ of the UI.
Constraints
- Tech stack: Kotlin Multiplatform + Compose Multiplatform for UI, Ktor for server, Authentik OIDC for auth — Locked; aligns with user's skills + self-hosted infra
- Primary platform: iOS — Must feel good here first; other platforms are secondary
- Hosting: Self-hosted on user's existing homelab (alongside Authentik) — No managed cloud; implies containerized deploy, self-managed DB, reverse proxy
- Offline: Full offline read/write is required — User will use the shopping list in-store where signal is unreliable; online-only is unacceptable
- Audience size: ~5–10 authenticated users total — Don't over-engineer multi-tenancy, rate limiting, or horizontal scaling
- Language: Polish UI for v1, i18n-ready code — All strings must be externalized from day 1 to avoid costly retrofit later
- Data seeding: Catalog starts empty; user will author recipes directly in DB for MVP — Need admin-friendly seeding path (SQL migrations, JSON fixtures, or CLI tool)
- Visual direction: Liquid-Glass-inspired (Compose approximation) — Bright mockup palette is being replaced; design needs to be reworked as part of the rebuild
Key Decisions
Product & scope
| Decision | Rationale | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| KMP with Compose Multiplatform for UI | iOS-primary + Android secondary + Desktop/Wasm optional; single codebase for 90%+ of UI | — Pending |
| Household-sharing from day 1 (me + partner share one plan) | Core use case is cooking together; per-user + later-sharing would force data-model rewrite | — Pending |
| Authentik OIDC as sole auth provider for MVP | User already runs Authentik; self-hosted == aligned; Apple Sign-in likely not required for App Store since Authentik is user's own IdP, not a third-party social login | — Pending |
| Server lives on user's homelab alongside Authentik | Existing infra, zero managed-cloud cost, same ops surface | — Pending |
| Offline-first with last-write-wins sync | Grocery-store usage demands offline; conflict resolution overkill for a 2-person household | — Pending |
| Compose-only Liquid Glass approximation for v1 | Real iOS 26 Liquid Glass requires SwiftUI interop; approximation keeps single codebase; revisit only if chrome feels inadequate on real device | — Pending |
| Polish-only strings, i18n-ready infrastructure | Single-language content for v1 speed; externalized strings prevent future rewrite | — Pending |
| Start catalog fresh (don't port mockup seed data) | Mockup data is a reference, not production content; user wants to re-curate | — Pending |
| Nutrition is informational only in v1 | Keep scope tight; tracking/goals are a natural v2 if usage patterns justify | — Pending |
| Mockup is functional spec only, not visual spec | Visual direction is changing (Liquid Glass); logic is mature and worth mining | — Pending |
Client tech stack (composeApp)
| Decision | Rationale | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
Navigation: Jetpack Navigation Compose (CMP port) — org.jetbrains.androidx.navigation:navigation-compose:2.9.x |
JetBrains-official recommendation on kotlinlang.org; type-safe routes via @Serializable; works across Android/iOS/Desktop/Wasm; skill transferable to Android |
— Pending |
| Architecture: ViewModel + StateFlow + method-per-action | Standard modern pattern; matches JetBrains/Google samples; lowest ceremony; upgrade individual screens to sealed-event onEvent only when they grow complex | — Pending |
DI: Koin — koin-core, koin-compose, koin-compose-viewmodel |
De facto KMP standard; smoothest koinViewModel() integration with Jetpack Nav back-stack scoping; no codegen; small surface to learn |
— Pending |
| Local DB: SQLDelight 2.x | Most mature KMP DB; Wasm-ready (hedge for future Compose-for-Web target); raw SQL is a transferable skill; clear migration story via .sq files | — Pending |
| HTTP client: Ktor Client | Same team as server; first-class KMP; shared serialization config | — Pending |
| Serialization: kotlinx.serialization (JSON) | Standard; works everywhere; pairs with Ktor and SQLDelight | — Pending |
| Date/time: kotlinx.datetime | Standard; SQLDelight adapters available | — Pending |
| Logging: Kermit (Touchlab) | KMP-native logger; simple API; optional Crashlytics/Sentry bridges | — Pending |
Image loading: Coil 3 (io.coil-kt.coil3:coil-compose) |
First-class Compose Multiplatform support; modern API | — Pending |
Key-value settings: com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings |
Small prefs (last tab, theme toggles) that don't belong in SQLDelight | — Pending |
Glass/blur effects: Haze (dev.chrisbanes.haze:haze) |
Purpose-built for glass UI in CMP; handles content capture + efficient re-blur; multiplatform | — Pending |
| Mobile OIDC: AppAuth (Android) + ASWebAuthenticationSession wrapper (iOS), exposed via KMP interface | Platform-native OAuth flows; no cross-platform auth library mature enough yet for this in 2026 | — Pending |
Server tech stack
| Decision | Rationale | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Server framework: Ktor Server 3.x | Same team as client HTTP; Kotlin-native; fits homelab deployment; coroutines throughout | — Pending |
| Database: Postgres | Homelab-friendly (Docker); JSONB for meal-entry extras; room to grow; standard skill | — Pending |
| SQL: Exposed DSL | Kotlin-backend standard; type-safe SQL builders; JSONB first-class; strong tutorial trail with Ktor. Avoid Exposed's DAO (active record) API | — Pending |
| Migrations: Flyway | Industry-standard numbered V__.sql files; auto-apply on startup; works with any JDBC-backed stack |
— Pending |
Token validation: io.ktor:ktor-server-auth-jwt |
Built-in JWKS support with caching + rotation; direct integration with Authentik's OIDC endpoint | — Pending |
Sync
| Decision | Rationale | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
Strategy: last-write-wins with server-assigned updated_at per row |
Household of 2 has negligible concurrent-edit risk; simplest to implement and debug; upgradeable per-table to op-log later if hurt | — Pending |
| Transport: HTTP polling (20–30s when foreground) + pull-to-refresh + debounced push after local writes | Sufficient freshness for a household; SSE is a v2 enhancement if polling feels laggy | — Pending |
API shape: REST, versioned /api/v1, two sync endpoints (POST /sync/push, GET /sync/pull?since=...) plus catalog + households/invites CRUD |
Versioning leaves room to evolve; minimal surface area; read-mostly catalog is heavily cached on client | — Pending |
Server-side data model: users, households, memberships, invites + household-scoped tables carrying household_id, updated_at, deleted_at |
Supports household sharing + invites, JIT user provisioning from OIDC sub, soft deletes for sync |
— Pending |
Build & module structure
| Decision | Rationale | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
Gradle version catalog (gradle/libs.versions.toml) |
Single source of truth for versions; standard KMP practice | — Pending |
Convention plugins (build-logic/ module) from day 1 |
Centralizes Kotlin/Compose/test config; educational payoff; small upfront cost | — Pending |
Keep template modules: composeApp/, iosApp/, server/, shared/ — no feature modules in v1 |
Feature modules don't pay off until ~10 features or multiple devs; flat is clearer at this scale | — Pending |
shared/commonMain holds: domain models + API DTOs only (no UI, no HTTP, no DB) |
Keeps shared dep graph minimal; both client and server depend on shared/ |
— Pending |
composeApp/commonMain package layout: app/ navigation/ ui/{theme,components,screens/{recipes,planner,pantry,shopping}} data/{local,remote,repository} domain/ |
Groups by UI concern + data layer; resists premature modularization | — Pending |
Evolution
This document evolves at phase transitions and milestone boundaries.
After each phase transition (via /gsd-transition):
- Requirements invalidated? → Move to Out of Scope with reason
- Requirements validated? → Move to Validated with phase reference
- New requirements emerged? → Add to Active
- Decisions to log? → Add to Key Decisions
- "What This Is" still accurate? → Update if drifted
After each milestone (via /gsd-complete-milestone):
- Full review of all sections
- Core Value check — still the right priority?
- Audit Out of Scope — reasons still valid?
- Update Context with current state
Last updated: 2026-04-24 after initial tech-stack discussion