Quick Start¶
This guide walks you through adding your first pantry item and getting a recipe suggestion. No LLM backend needed for these steps.
1. Add an item by barcode¶
Open the Inventory tab. Tap the barcode icon or click Scan barcode, then point your camera at a product barcode. Kiwi looks up the product in the open barcode database and adds it to your pantry.
If the barcode isn't recognized, you'll be prompted to enter the product name and details manually.
2. Add an item manually¶
Click Add item and fill in:
- Name — what is it? (e.g., "Canned chickpeas")
- Quantity — how many or how much
- Expiry date — when does it expire? (optional but recommended)
- Category — used for dietary filtering and pantry stats
3. Upload a receipt¶
Click Receipts in the sidebar, then Upload receipt. Take a photo of a grocery receipt or upload an image from your device.
- Free tier: the receipt is stored for you to review; line items are entered manually
- Paid / BYOK: OCR runs automatically and extracts items for you to approve
4. Browse recipes¶
Click Recipes in the sidebar. The recipe browser shows your pantry match percentage for each recipe — how much of the ingredient list you already have.
Use the filters to narrow by:
- Cuisine — Italian, Mexican, Japanese, etc.
- Meal type — breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack
- Dietary — vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, etc.
- Main ingredient — chicken, pasta, lentils, etc.
5. Get a suggestion based on what's expiring¶
Click Leftover mode (the clock icon or toggle). Kiwi re-ranks suggestions to surface recipes that use your nearly-expired items first.
Free accounts get 5 leftover-mode requests per day. Paid accounts get unlimited.
6. Save a recipe¶
Click the bookmark icon on any recipe card to save it. You can add:
- Notes — cooking tips, modifications, family preferences
- Star rating — 0 to 5 stars
- Style tags — quick, comforting, weeknight, etc.
Saved recipes appear in the Saved tab. Paid accounts can organize them into named collections.