Plan meals and shop by talking to Claude.

What the connector is

Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic. Connectors let Claude use other services for you, and Hedgehog Chef's connector gives Claude 18 tools for your recipes, meal plan, shopping lists and pantry. It's Hedgehog Chef's own connector, which you add to Claude yourself as a custom connector; it isn't made by Anthropic.

You don't need Claude to use Hedgehog Chef: the AI planner is built into the app. The connector is for people who already spend time in Claude and would rather send a recipe or plan the week from the same chat.

One difference matters. The planner inside the app shows its plan as a card and changes nothing until you apply it. Claude, through the connector, does what you ask as you ask it. Asking Claude to show you a plan before adding anything is a good habit.

Step 1: connect Claude

In Claude on claude.ai or the Claude desktop app:

1. Open Settings → Connectors and choose Add custom connector.
2. Name it Hedgehog Chef, paste the connector URL below, and choose Add.
3. Choose Connect. You land on Hedgehog Chef's Allow Claude page: sign in if asked, check it's your kitchen, and choose Allow.

Once it's added there, it works in the Claude apps on your phone too. Custom connectors are a Claude feature, so which Claude plans can add them is up to Anthropic.

In Claude Code, run this command, then type /mcp and authenticate:

The same steps are in the app under Settings → Claude, with a few things to ask to get started.

Step 2: what to ask

Talk to Claude the way you'd ask a person. A few that work well:

Save recipes

• “Save this recipe to Hedgehog Chef”, followed by a pasted recipe, a photo of a cookbook page or one you dictate.
• “Import https://… into my Weeknight binder.” Video and social links work the same way as in the app.

Plan the week

• “What's on the meal plan next week?”
• “Plan dinners for next week from my favorites. We're out on Thursday.”
• “Put the chana masala on Wednesday, for six.”

Shop

• “Add the ingredients for chana masala to my shopping list.”
• “Add milk, eggs and coffee to the Costco list.”
• “I got the eggs and the milk. Check them off.”

Use the pantry

• “What can I make with what's in my pantry?”
• “I bought chicken thighs. Put them in the freezer, use by Friday.”
• “We used up the rice.”

A week of dinners in one conversation

Put together, planning and shopping for a week can be one short chat:

1. “Look at next week's plan and my favorites, and suggest five dinners, two of them vegetarian. Show me before adding anything.”
2. “Swap Tuesday for something quicker.”
3. “Good. Put them on the plan, Monday to Friday.”
4. “Add their ingredients to the shopping list for four servings each, and tell me what was skipped because it's in the pantry.”

Everyone in your kitchen sees the new plan and list in Hedgehog Chef straight away, so whoever shops has the list. More on that in how to share a grocery list with your household.

What Claude can't do through the connector

The connector covers the everyday jobs, not everything in the app:

• It adds meals to the plan but doesn't move or remove them. Rearrange the week in the planner.
• It checks items off the list but doesn't delete them.
• It doesn't see grocery prices or set reminders. The planner inside the app does both.
• It doesn't see your household's diet and allergy settings. Tell Claude about allergies in the chat, and check labels yourself.

Claude can get things wrong, like any AI. Glance at a saved recipe or a new plan before you rely on it.

Privacy, and turning it off

The connection uses OAuth, so Claude never sees your password, and it only reaches the kitchen you allowed. Claude sees what its tools return, such as the recipes it searches or the list it reads, and what it reads is handled by Anthropic under the terms of your own Claude account.

To stop it, disconnect Claude in Settings → Claude; that takes effect right away. Turning AI off in Settings → AI features also stops Claude from reading or changing your kitchen. More on how data is handled is on the security page, and the connector's full tool list is on the integrations page.