Plugin: Kaper Recipe Manager

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Is this project open source? No
Is this project completely free? Yes
Is this project vibe-coded beyond the author’s ability to comprehend how it works? No
Community Directory: Link

Kaper — Recipes that live in your vault

A markdown-native recipe manager. No cloud, no account, no second app to babysit.

Kaper recipe preview

Hey all — long-time Obsidian user, first-time poster here. I just shipped Kaper, a plugin that turns plain .md files in your vault into a real recipe manager.

If you’ve ever tried to keep recipes in Obsidian, you know the trade-off: free-form markdown is easy to write but rough to cook from (no structured ingredients, no time/servings, no clean preview), while a separate recipe app gives you structure but breaks the “everything in one folder” promise. Kaper splits the difference — your recipes stay as ordinary markdown files, but a fenced ```kaper block inside them is rendered as a structured recipe view, right inline in Live Preview.

What it does

  • Recipes are just .md files. Add kaper: true to frontmatter and a YAML block in the body. Anything outside the block is normal markdown — intros, notes, photos, links, whatever.

  • Inline preview in Live Preview. The kaper block renders as a real recipe widget inside the editor itself — same pipeline as headings and embeds. No separate panel, no modal.

  • Form editor for the YAML-shy. Title, servings, prep/cook time, tags (chip input), ingredient groups (drag to reorder), steps with notes and durations. Auto-saves on every change.

  • Themed by Obsidian. Uses your accent color and surface palette. Looks at home in whatever theme you’ve installed.

  • Cook Mode handoff. Click Cook mode and the recipe opens at kaper.me in a big-text, hands-free view designed for the stove. The web app reads your files locally via the File System Access API — there’s no upload, no server, no account.

Form editor

Why I built it

I wanted recipes to be in the same place as everything else I care about — searchable, version-controlled, backupable, future-proof. Markdown got me 80% of the way. The remaining 20% (structured ingredients, a clean cooking view, drag-to-reorder when I’m iterating) needed something extra, but I didn’t want a database or a sync layer.

Kaper’s whole job is to add that structure without taking your files hostage. The same .md file works in Obsidian (this plugin), the kaper.me web app, and the desktop app I’m finishing now. Move the folder via iCloud, Dropbox, Syncthing, git, USB stick — whatever you already use. There’s no Kaper server. I literally cannot read your files.

Editing a recipe

What’s new in 1.1.0

Just dropped this version — it lines the plugin up with the file format that kaper.me writes after you open a vault there:

  • Recognises the new kaper: r_<id> frontmatter (stable recipe IDs that survive renames/moves).

  • Preserves the recipe ID through edits so favorites and cook history stay attached.

  • Tolerates recipes without a title (renders empty, fill in from the form).

  • Round-trips unknown YAML keys — future kaper-app metadata won’t get clobbered on save.

  • Chip-based tag input replaces the old comma-separated text field.

  • Friendlier empty-state nudge in the preview for brand-new recipes.

1.1.0 is in review for the registry now. If you install today through Settings → Community plugins, you’ll get the previous version and auto-update once review wraps. Manual install of 1.1.0 is also available on the GitHub releases page if you’d like it sooner.

Install

Community Plugins (recommended): Settings → Community plugins → Browse → search Kaper → Install → Enable.

Manual: Grab main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release, drop them into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/kaper/, then enable under Community plugins.

Links

Would love feedback — feature ideas, theme compatibility issues, recipe edge cases that break the parser, anything. This is the first thing I’ve shipped for the Obsidian community, so I’m especially keen to hear how it lands.