Add ingredient

Use this action to add an ingredient to Mealie.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To add an ingredient from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. Select what you want to control. Under By target (see Targets), select the Mealie shopping lists you want to add the ingredient to.
6. From the actions shown for that target, under Mealie, select Add ingredient.
7. Enter the ingredient you want to add. You can provide a Food ID and Unit ID available from the responses of the Get recipe or Parse ingredient actions, or supply a note only.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required. For how an automation or a script is built in YAML, refer to Automations in YAML and Scripts.

In YAML, refer to this action as mealie.add_ingredient.

action: mealie.add_ingredient
target:
  entity_id: todo.YOUR_MEALIE_SHOPPING_LIST
data:
  food_id: "A_VALID_FOOD_ID"
  unit_id: "A_VALID_UNIT_ID"
  quantity: 2
  note: "Good brand"

This adds the food, note, unit, and quantity to the shopping list. If the food ID or unit ID is invalid, an error will be raised.

Options in YAML

Targets of the action

This action requires a target. The target is the object of the action. You can point the action at a single entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more], a device, an area, a floor, or a label, and Home Assistant will run the action on every matching todo entity behind that target.

• Entity: one specific todo entity, such as todo.living_room.
• Device: every todo entity that belongs to a device.
• Area: every todo entity in a room or area.
• Floor: every todo entity on a floor.
• Label: every todo entity that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one action. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same action to run the action on both of them at once.

To learn which entities Home Assistant includes for a device, area, floor, or label, and how it handles several entities, refer to Automation targets.

To leave out some of these entities, refer to Excluding targets. For example, you can leave out one todo entity in an area.

Good to know

• If the food ID or unit ID is invalid in Mealie, the action fails with the message “An error occurred adding an item to YOUR_GROCERY_LIST.”
• If neither a food ID nor a note is specified, the action fails with the message “Provide a food ID or a note to add an ingredient.”

Still stuck?

To test the action on its own, run it in the automation editor with Run action, and check the message that it shows. To see what the action did when the automation ran, open the trace of that run. For details, refer to Testing automations. For common problems and their solutions, refer to Troubleshooting automations.

If that doesn’t help, the Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

Explore related actions:

• Get recipe: Get a Mealie recipe by its ID or slug.

• Get shopping list items: Get the items on a Mealie shopping list.

• Parse ingredient: Parses an ingredient from Mealie attempting to match food items, quantity, and units.

• Add to-do list item: Adds a new item to a to-do list.