FridgeChef

A stateless, mobile-first web app that turns a photo of your fridge or pantry into recipe suggestions. Upload an image, an LLM (Google Gemini) identifies the ingredients, then suggests recipes you can make with them. Nothing is persisted — no accounts, no database, no stored images.

Built with Next.js 15 (App Router) + TypeScript, deployed on Vercel.

Local setup

npm install
cp .env.local.example .env.local
# edit .env.local and set GEMINI_API_KEY
npm run dev

App runs at http://localhost:3000.

Get a free Gemini API key at https://aistudio.google.com.

Required environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Notes
GEMINI_API_KEY	Yes	—	Server-side only. Never commit it, never expose it to the client. Get one free at https://aistudio.google.com.
GEMINI_MODEL	No	gemini-2.5-flash	Override to use a different Gemini model.

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY/CLAUDE_MODEL are present in .env.local.example for an easy revert to the previous provider (see lib/claude.ts), but are not required for the app to run today.

Env vars are read only through the central config module (see ARCHITECTURE.md) — never accessed directly via process.env elsewhere in the codebase.

Testing

npm run test       # Vitest unit tests
npm run test:e2e   # Playwright E2E tests

npm run test:e2e builds the app and boots a production server automatically (see playwright.config.ts) — no need to start npm run dev first.

Deployment (Vercel)

1. Import the repo into Vercel.
2. In the Vercel dashboard, set GEMINI_API_KEY (and optionally GEMINI_MODEL) under Project Settings → Environment Variables. Never commit real values to the repo.
3. Vercel runs the standard Next.js build/start (next build / next start) — no custom build command needed.

Data privacy

FridgeChef stores nothing. Uploaded images are processed in-memory only and are never written to disk or logged. Ingredient lists and recipe contents returned by the LLM are never logged either. Structured request logs record only metadata (timestamp, route, status, duration, request ID) — never image data, ingredients, recipes, or the API key. There are no user accounts, so no userId is ever logged.

Docs

• docs/specs/SPEC-01-fridgechef.md — product/feature spec
• ARCHITECTURE.md — architecture decisions and system design