🍽 Mise

mise en place — everything in its place

Open-source recipe manager you can self-host and fully own. Store and share recipes with photos, ingredients, and step-by-step instructions. Scale servings, search by text, filter by tag and category, import from any recipe URL.

Screenshots

Recipe feed — browse, search by text, filter by tag and category, paginate

Recipe feed

Recipe detail — ingredients sidebar, servings scaler, step-by-step instructions with photos

Recipe detail

Tag filtering — active filter chip with one-click clear

Tag filter

Admin panel — manage users, roles, invite links, SMTP and app settings

Admin panel

Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Node.js 24, NestJS 11, TypeScript
Database	MongoDB 8, Mongoose
Auth	JWT Bearer, bcrypt
Frontend	React 19, Vite 8, React Query 5, Zustand 5
i18n	react-i18next · 33 languages
Reverse proxy	nginx (single-port, CSP headers)
Infrastructure	Docker Compose

Features

Recipe management — create, edit, delete with full details
Ingredients & steps — dynamic lists with per-step photos
Photo upload — main photo + photo per step, lightbox viewer
Categories — pre-seeded (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert…)
Tags — tag filter with autocomplete from existing tags
Search — partial text search across title, description, and tags
Servings scaler — ingredient amounts scale automatically
Sharing — mark recipes as public, visible to anyone
Favorites — save recipes from the community feed to a personal bookmarks list
Import from URL — paste any recipe page URL, structured data (JSON-LD / Open Graph) is extracted automatically
Duplicate — save a copy of any recipe as a starting point
Drag-and-drop reorder — reorder ingredients and steps by dragging
Dark / light theme — toggle in the navbar, respects system preference
Print view — clean print layout via CSS @media print
Admin panel — user management, invite links, SMTP, password reset
Email verification — new users verify their email before signing in; direct link shown when SMTP is not configured
33 languages — EN, UK, RU, BG, CS, DA, DE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HI, HR, HU, ID, IT, JA, KO, LT, LV, NL, NO, PL, PT, PT-BR, RO, SK, SV, TH, TR, VI, ZH, ZH-TW

Running locally (development)

Run in this order: MongoDB first → API → Frontend.

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Download
Git	any	https://git-scm.com
Node.js	24+	https://nodejs.org (LTS)
Docker Desktop	any	https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop

Step 1 — Clone

git clone https://github.com/lopatnov/mise.git
cd mise

Step 2 — Start MongoDB

docker compose up -d

MongoDB runs on localhost:27017. Data is stored in the Docker-managed volume mise_mongo_data and survives docker compose down — only docker compose down -v wipes it. You will never need to restart MongoDB unless you explicitly stop it.

Step 3 — Start the API

cd api
npm install        # first time only
npm run start:dev  # watch mode — restarts on file changes

API: http://localhost:3000/api
Swagger: http://localhost:3000/api/docs

Step 4 — Start the frontend

cd web
npm install        # first time only
npm run dev        # Vite HMR — updates instantly on save

App: http://localhost:4200

Open the app, go to /setup to create the first admin account, then register users.

Configuration files

File	Committed	Purpose
`api/.env`	✅	NestJS dev config — MongoDB localhost, placeholder secret
`web/.env`	✅	Vite dev config — API URL for local development
`.env.prod`	✅	Production secrets — edit `APP_URL` and `JWT_SECRET` before deploying

api/.env and web/.env are used in development only. .env.prod is used only when running with docker-compose.prod.yml.

Deploying

Requirements

Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose
One open port (default 80, configurable in docker-compose.prod.yml)

Option A — Pre-built images (recommended, no build required)

Pull ready-made images from GitHub Container Registry — no Node.js, no source code needed.

Step 1 — Create a working directory and configure

mkdir mise && cd mise

Create .env.prod:

APP_URL=http://YOUR_SERVER_IP   # include port if not 80, e.g. http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8080
JWT_SECRET=<long random string> # openssl rand -hex 32
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=7d

Step 2 — Create `docker-compose.yml`

services:
  mongodb:
    image: mongo:8
    container_name: mise-mongodb
    volumes:
      - mise_mongo_data:/data/db
    environment:
      MONGO_INITDB_DATABASE: mise
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "mongosh", "--eval", "db.adminCommand('ping')"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  api:
    image: ghcr.io/lopatnov/mise-api:latest
    container_name: mise-api
    depends_on:
      mongodb:
        condition: service_healthy
    env_file: .env.prod
    environment:
      MONGODB_URI: mongodb://mongodb:27017/mise
      PORT: 3000
    volumes:
      - ./data/uploads:/app/uploads
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "wget", "-qO-", "http://localhost:3000/health"]
      interval: 15s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 20s

  web:
    image: ghcr.io/lopatnov/mise-web:latest
    container_name: mise-web
    ports:
      - "80:80"   # change the first 80 to another port if needed
    depends_on:
      api:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  mise_mongo_data:

Step 3 — Start

docker compose up -d

Go to /setup to create the admin account on first run.

SMTP — configure smtpHost, smtpPort, smtpUser, smtpPass, smtpFrom in the admin panel to send email verification and password-reset links. Without SMTP, links appear directly in the API response — useful for self-hosted installs without a mail server.

Updating to a new release

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Option B — Build from source

Step 1 — Clone

git clone https://github.com/lopatnov/mise.git
cd mise

Step 2 — Configure

Open .env.prod and set:

APP_URL — your server’s URL (used in email links)
JWT_SECRET — long random string (openssl rand -hex 32)

If port 80 is taken, change 80:80 in docker-compose.prod.yml to your port (e.g. 8080:80).

Step 3 — Start

docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --build

Go to /setup to create the admin account on first run.

Updating to a new release

git pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --build

Stopping

# Stop containers (data is preserved)
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml down

# Stop and wipe ALL data including database
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml down -v

Data and backups

Data	Location	Notes
MongoDB	Docker volume `mise_mongo_data`	Managed by Docker, survives `down`
Uploaded photos	`./data/uploads/` on the host	Plain files, easy to copy

Back up MongoDB:

docker run --rm \
  -v mise_mongo_data:/data/db \
  -v $(pwd)/backup:/backup \
  mongo:8 mongodump --out /backup

Restore MongoDB:

docker run --rm \
  -v mise_mongo_data:/data/db \
  -v $(pwd)/backup:/backup \
  mongo:8 mongorestore /backup

Back up uploads:

cp -r ./data/uploads /your/backup/location/

Analytics & Tracking

Add any analytics script to web/index.html inside the <head> tag, before </head>.

<!-- Google Analytics example -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());
  gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX');
</script>

<!-- Privacy-friendly alternatives: Plausible, Umami, Matomo (self-hosted) -->

The script is embedded in the static HTML and fires on every SPA page. Rebuild the Docker image after editing (docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --build).

API

Swagger UI: http://localhost:3000/api/docs (dev) · http://YOUR_SERVER_IP/api/docs (prod)

All endpoints are prefixed with /api:

POST /api/auth/register          Register (checks allowRegistration + inviteToken)
GET  /api/auth/verify-email      Verify email address via token from registration email
POST /api/auth/login             Login → JWT (requires email verification)
GET  /api/auth/me                Current user
POST /api/auth/forgot-password   Request password reset link
POST /api/auth/reset-password    Set new password via token

GET    /api/admin/setup          Check if admin exists (public)
POST   /api/admin/setup          Create first admin (public)
GET    /api/admin/settings       App settings
PATCH  /api/admin/settings       Update settings (admin only)
GET    /api/admin/users          List users (admin only)
PATCH  /api/admin/users/:id      Update role/status (admin only)
DELETE /api/admin/users/:id      Delete user (admin only)
POST   /api/admin/invites        Create invite link (admin only)
GET    /api/admin/invites        List active invites (admin only)
DELETE /api/admin/invites/:id    Revoke invite (admin only)

GET    /api/recipes              List recipes (q, tag, category, mine, page, limit)
POST   /api/recipes              Create recipe
GET    /api/recipes/:id          Get recipe (public if isPublic=true)
PATCH  /api/recipes/:id          Update recipe
DELETE /api/recipes/:id          Delete recipe
POST   /api/recipes/:id/photo    Upload main photo
POST   /api/recipes/:id/steps/:order/photo  Upload step photo
POST   /api/recipes/import-url   Import recipe data from URL (JSON-LD / Open Graph)
GET    /api/recipes/public       Public recipes (no auth)
GET    /api/recipes/tags         All distinct tags (no auth)
POST   /api/recipes/:id/saved    Save recipe to favorites
DELETE /api/recipes/:id/saved    Remove recipe from favorites

GET  /api/categories             List categories

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`Cannot connect to Docker daemon`	Docker Desktop not running	Open Docker Desktop and wait for the whale icon
API exits immediately	Missing `api/.env`	Create the file as shown in Step 2
`MongoNetworkError`	MongoDB not started	`docker compose up -d` from repo root
Frontend network errors	Wrong `VITE_API_URL`	Check `web/.env`
500 on login	User created before `isActive` field existed	`docker exec -it mise-mongodb mongosh mise --eval 'db.users.updateMany({isActive:{$exists:false}},{$set:{isActive:true}})'`
Images not loading in Docker	Old named volume for uploads	The volume should be a bind mount — see `docker-compose.prod.yml`
`npm error ECONNRESET` during `--build`	Transient network drop from npm registry	Re-run `docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --build` — the error is intermittent and usually clears on retry

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

Bug reports → open an issue
Security vulnerabilities → GitHub Security Advisories (do not use public issues)
Questions → Discussions
Found it useful? A star on GitHub helps others discover the project

Mise - Open-source recipe manager

🍽 Mise

Screenshots

Stack

Features

Running locally (development)

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Clone

Step 2 — Start MongoDB

Step 3 — Start the API

Step 4 — Start the frontend

Configuration files

Deploying

Requirements

Option A — Pre-built images (recommended, no build required)

Step 1 — Create a working directory and configure

Step 2 — Create `docker-compose.yml`

Step 3 — Start

Updating to a new release

Option B — Build from source

Step 1 — Clone

Step 2 — Configure

Step 3 — Start

Updating to a new release

Stopping

Data and backups

Analytics & Tracking

API

Troubleshooting

Contributing

License

🍽 Mise

Screenshots

Stack

Features

Running locally (development)

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Clone

Step 2 — Start MongoDB

Step 3 — Start the API

Step 4 — Start the frontend

Configuration files

Deploying

Requirements

Option A — Pre-built images (recommended, no build required)

Step 1 — Create a working directory and configure

Step 2 — Create docker-compose.yml

Step 3 — Start

Updating to a new release

Option B — Build from source

Step 1 — Clone

Step 2 — Configure

Step 3 — Start

Updating to a new release

Stopping

Data and backups

Analytics & Tracking

API

Troubleshooting

Contributing

License

Step 2 — Create `docker-compose.yml`