tectec documentation

tectec is a recipe app for people who cook. It captures recipes from anywhere (websites, Instagram, YouTube, photos), turns them into structured ingredients and steps, and helps you while you cook. Recipes you share are readable without an account.

Importing a recipe

Type /import followed by a link in the search bar or the chat (the + menu fills it in for you). Imports run in the background and save themselves: leave the page or quit the app mid-import and the recipe still lands in your library. The source URL and author are preserved.

  • Websites: works on most recipe blogs and aggregators. TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, and X aren't supported (the recipe text isn't in the page); import the recipe-site link or a screenshot instead.
  • Instagram and YouTube: tectec reads the post caption and comments (Instagram) or the video title and description (YouTube). When the recipe is behind a "link in bio" or a description link, it follows the link and extracts from there. With no usable link, it watches the video itself and reconstructs the steps, using the caption or description for exact amounts. If the link points to a hub of many recipes, Olive gives you the link to browse: pick a recipe and /import it.
  • Photos: a cookbook page, a handwritten card, a screenshot. Attach from the + menu or paste into the bar; multiple photos work for a two-page spread. If the photo isn't a full recipe, Olive says what she actually saw and switches to writing the recipe with you instead of inventing one.
  • Text: type or paste into the new-recipe screen; structure and formatting are handled on save.
  • From another app (mobile): with the tectec app installed, tectec appears in the system share menu. Share a link or photos from any app — the browser, Instagram, your gallery — and the import starts right away.

The browser extension

On any recipe page in Chrome or Firefox, click the olive icon and hit Import this recipe. The page is captured from your own tab, so it works behind logins, paywalls, and cookie walls that tectec's fetcher can't reach. The import runs on the server: close the popup or the tab, and reopen the popup later for progress and a link to the saved recipe. It uses your existing tectec session; Instagram and YouTube tabs behave exactly like /import-ing the link.

What happens on save

  • Formatting: titles, descriptions, and step text are normalized without changing the meaning.
  • Ingredient parsing: each line becomes a quantity, unit, and name (200g spaghetti → 200 / g / spaghetti), keeping the original text for display. Section headers like Sauce: become group labels.
  • Resolution: parsed names are matched to a shared catalog with densities and average unit weights. This is what powers unit conversion and clean scaling.
  • Step linking: each step learns which ingredients it references, rendered as subtle highlights. This pass runs in the background and lands a few seconds after save.

Cooking a recipe

  • Scale: change the serving count and every quantity recomputes, sensibly even for things like "1 egg".
  • Convert: set your unit system (metric or imperial) and temperature unit (°C or °F) in settings; quantities and step text auto-convert.
  • Scratch: swipe a step or ingredient right to strike it through while you cook. Progress is per-recipe and per-device, remembered across sessions.
  • Pull a line into the chat: swipe a step or ingredient left to attach it as context, add as many as you want, then ask ("can I swap this?"). The chips clear when you send.
  • Ask Olive: she always knows which recipe you have open, so "how do I scale this to 6?" needs no explanation of which recipe you mean.
  • Screen stays on: while a recipe is open the screen won't dim or lock, so you can cook with messy hands.

Editing and archiving

From the ⋯ menu on a recipe:

  • Edit: the add-recipe form, pre-filled. Your text is kept exactly as written (the tidy-up pass only runs on brand-new recipes); ingredients are re-resolved and steps re-linked on save. Changes show inline as a diff: old text struck through, new text in green.
  • Archive: hides the recipe from your library and search. It isn't deleted.

Editing with Olive

Ask Olive for a change in plain language ("make this vegan", "halve the salt", "convert the sauce to grams") and her edit lands in the form as an inline diff. Nothing is persisted until you press save, so you can stack her edits with your own tweaks. This works from the reading view too: ask while reading (or swipe lines into context first) and she opens the editor with the change already applied, conversation and all.

She can also write a recipe from scratch: ask from the home screen ("make me a vegan lasagna") and she opens a fresh draft to review and save. While editing, she can search the web or read a URL you give her to inform a change.

Searching and tagging

Recipes carry tags, short slugs like weeknight or pasta, and the home grid is organized by them. In the search bar:

  • # filters the grid by tag, with your existing tags suggested as you type.
  • / opens shortcuts: /import <link>, /image, /olive <question>.
  • + holds the quick actions: new recipe, create book, import from url or photos, add image.
  • Anything else filters recipes by title and tag, or asks Olive if it reads like a question.

Olive

Olive is the chat agent. The panel opens from the round olive button in the bottom-right and follows you around the app; a small pill above the input shows what she currently sees ("viewing" the recipe you have open, or "editing" the one in the form) so you know what "make this vegan" will apply to. While she works on something that needs the screen, the panel steps aside into a progress pill; a dot on the button means she finished something while you were elsewhere. Quick actions start a fresh conversation.

She can:

  • Search your library: "do I have something with chickpeas?" returns matching recipes as cards.
  • Search the web: she prefers actual recipe pages over listicles and videos; preview a result and save it through the normal import pipeline.
  • Import for you: "import this link", "save the first one", or attach a photo and ask what to cook.
  • Answer questions about the recipe you're viewing: substitutions, scaling, technique, timing.
  • Write or edit recipes: see "editing with Olive".
  • Look up ingredient data: densities, unit weights, and aliases from the shared catalog.

Every library result really is in your library and every web result is a real URL; she doesn't invent them, and she never changes anything without you asking.

Sharing

Every recipe has a private share link (tectec.app/r/<your-username>/<short-code>) that renders a clean public view anyone can read without an account. Signed-in readers get a "save to library" button. Remove the share and the link 404s. Nothing is public until you share it.

Books

A book is a collection of recipes shared with specific people; every member gets their own copy to read and cook from. Roles:

  • owner: created the book. Exactly one, can't be removed, and only the owner can delete the book.
  • admin: manages members and invites, renames the book, changes the cover.
  • reader: reads and cooks, doesn't manage.

Create a book from the + menu (or Olive's quick actions), or name a new one right inside "add to book" on a recipe; the recipe lands in it in the same gesture. Add your own recipes from the ⋯ menu, or from the book page itself with + add recipe (owner and admins), which opens a searchable picker of your library. Only the recipe's owner can add it, and the recipe moves out of your home grid and lives under the book.

A recipe someone else added appears in your own grid only after you open it; until then, the book tile is the way in, showing an unread dot when there's something new. Cooking progress in a shared recipe is yours alone. Adding a recipe or changing the title or cover floats the book to the top of everyone's grid.

Each book gets a cover color or image. Invite people by email: the link works for whoever opens it (treat it like a shared secret), expires after seven days, and creates an account if needed. To remove recipes or members, tap Edit on the book page, then the − badge, then Done. A removed recipe returns to its owner's grid, and members who only had it through the book lose access. If the owner archives a recipe that's in a book, it disappears for everyone until restored.

Notifications

The notifications tab lists activity in your books: someone added a recipe, someone joined. Each entry links to the book or recipe it's about; opening it marks it read. Opening a book clears its notifications and its unread dot. Clear entries one at a time or all at once; read ones are pruned after seven days.

Settings

At tectec.app/settings:

  • Username: shown on your share links; changeable anytime.
  • Unit system: metric (g, ml) or imperial (oz, fl oz).
  • Temperature unit: Celsius or Fahrenheit.
  • Keep screen on: whether the screen stays awake while a recipe is open. On by default; stored per device.
  • Conversation history: past Olive conversations with their token and tool usage. View-only; a conversation goes quiet after three hours (or via the "new" button in the chat) and your next question starts a fresh one.
  • Delete account: immediate and permanent. Recipes, photos, books you own, memberships, conversations, and share links are all removed. Asks for confirmation first.

Privacy

Your library is private. Olive only sees the recipes you ask about and has no write access to your data. The browser extension acts only when you click it: the page it sends is used for that one import and deleted when it finishes; nothing runs in the background and nothing goes to third parties. Full policy at tectec.app/privacy.

Getting help

Ask Olive, or write to hello@tectec.app. To report a bug or suggest something, pick send feedback from the ⋯ menu; it reaches the team along with the page you sent it from, up to five messages an hour.