A recipe book kept in git. The recipes are written by an AI and tested by a human, and every correction is kept — including the failures.
This repo is rendered read-only at recipes.andythomas.me. The site rebuilds on every push; nothing is authored there.
- main is the book.
recipes/<slug>/recipe.mdon main is the current version of a recipe. - A branch is a cooking session.
new/<slug>births a recipe;attempt/<slug>/<descriptor>is a repeat attempt at one (e.g.attempt/short-ribs/crispier-skin). An open branch means dinner is in progress. - Every branch merges. Attempts land on main via PR with a true merge commit — even failed ones. A failed attempt merges its journal and verdict without touching the recipe. Squash and rebase merges are disabled; the offshoot shape is the record.
- Every change states its reason, commit-message style: "Cut sugar to 1 tbsp — sauce was cloying".
- Branches outside
new/andattempt/are ignored by the site.
recipes/<slug>/recipe.md the current version
recipes/<slug>/attempts/<NN>-<descriptor>.md one journal per attempt
recipes/<slug>/photos/ process photos, referenced from the markdown
---
title: Gochujang short ribs
lede: One sentence, at most 40 words.
eyebrow: SUNDAY / BRAISE
tags: [sunday, braise]
serves: "4"
total_time: "4h 20m"
hero: photos/hero.jpg
satiety: 4
serving: "1 plate (about 14 oz)"
macros: { calories: 640, protein: 45, carbs: 38, fat: 33 }
---
## Ingredients
### For the braise
- 4 lb | bone-in beef short ribs
- flaky salt, to taste
## Method
### Salt early
One to three sentences. Say the number: 300°F, 90 seconds a side.
> note: any blockquote inside a step is a cook's note.Rules the site's parser enforces:
- Ingredients are
- quantity | name, split on the first pipe. The quantity is what 1×/2× scaling multiplies; a line with no pipe ("- flaky salt, to taste") never scales.###subheadings inside Ingredients group components. - Borrowed photos are credited, not passed off: when the hero isn't ours,
hero_credit: "not our photo — via <source>"renders over the image. Replace borrowed photos with our own at the next cook. - Nutrition facts are optional frontmatter, always approximate and always per serving:
satietyis 1–5 (1 a snack, 5 won't need seconds),servingis plain words with a US-customary weight,macrosis{ calories, protein, carbs, fat }— calories in kcal, the rest in grams (the macros exception to the units rule). Estimate honestly from the ingredient list; revise when a cook proves otherwise. - Steps are one
###heading each under## Method. Images are standard markdown images pointing intophotos/. Blockquotes are notes. - A recipe that fails to parse is dropped from the site with a warning, never a broken deploy. The history keeps the mistake either way.
Each attempt PR adds attempts/<NN>-<descriptor>.md and edits recipe.md as the cook informed:
---
date: 2026-07-24
branch: attempt/short-ribs/crispier-skin
summary: 12h dry brine, hotter finish
verdict: Merged — the skin finally shattered. Brine stays.
---
Notes from the session, with photos as ordinary markdown images.A commit that corresponds to an actual cooking session carries a git trailer:
Open attempt/short-ribs/crispier-skin — dry brine 12h
Cooked: 2026-07-24
The site counts attempts by distinct Cooked: dates and shows the most recent as "last cooked". A recipe enters the book cooked once: its add commit counts as attempt one even without a trailer. If the first cook happened on a different day than the commit, put a Cooked: trailer on the add commit.
When a recipe feels canonical, tag the merge commit <slug>/v1, <slug>/v2, … Tags are namespaced per recipe; bare v1 is never used.
Two Claude skills drive the whole flow so the format never drifts:
/new-recipe— interview about the dish, writerecipe.md, open thenew/<slug>PR./new-attempt— open the branch, scaffold the journal, record the cook, open the PR.