Recipe Management

Recipe Management

A recipe is a chain of CyberChef operations. cyberchef_bake runs one directly; these ten tools let you save, validate and reuse them.

Tool	What it does
cyberchef_recipe_create	Save a named recipe
cyberchef_recipe_get	Fetch one by id
cyberchef_recipe_list	List saved recipes with their ids
cyberchef_recipe_update	Modify one
cyberchef_recipe_delete	Remove one
cyberchef_recipe_execute	Run a saved recipe against input
cyberchef_recipe_validate	Check a recipe without running it
cyberchef_recipe_test	Run it against expected output and report pass/fail
cyberchef_recipe_export	Serialise for sharing
cyberchef_recipe_import	Load an exported recipe

All ten are in the default tool surface.

The shape of a recipe

{
  "name": "decode-nested-payload",
  "description": "base64 -> gunzip -> pretty JSON",
  "operations": [
    { "op": "From Base64" },
    { "op": "Gunzip" },
    { "op": "JSON Beautify", "args": { "indent_string": "  " } }
  ]
}

op is the CyberChef operation name — From Base64, not cyberchef_from_base64. Argument names are the sanitised forms shown by cyberchef_describe_operation.

One argument name is renamed, and it catches people: 31 operations — including AES Encrypt and AES Decrypt — have an argument literally called Input. Since input is reserved for the tool's own data parameter, the server exposes it as input_arg. Passing input there gets you "Unknown argument".

Validate before you save

cyberchef_recipe_validate catches an unknown operation name, an unknown argument, or a nesting depth over the limit, without executing anything. cyberchef_recipe_test goes further: it runs the recipe against an input and an expected output, which turns a saved recipe into something with a regression test attached.

That matters more than it sounds. A recipe references operations by name, and upstream CyberChef does rename and remove operations between releases — a recipe that worked at v10 may not at v11.4.

Where they are stored

CYBERCHEF_RECIPE_STORAGE sets the location; CYBERCHEF_RECIPE_BACKUP controls backups. Limits are CYBERCHEF_RECIPE_MAX_COUNT, _MAX_OPERATIONS and _MAX_DEPTH.

In a Docker run with no volume mounted, storage is inside the container and disappears with --rm. Mount a volume if you want recipes to persist:

docker run -i --rm -v cyberchef-recipes:/data \
  -e CYBERCHEF_RECIPE_STORAGE=/data/recipes.json \
  ghcr.io/doublegate/cyberchef-mcp_v3:latest

Saved recipes are also resources

Every saved recipe is readable at recipe://{id} — see Prompts & Resources.