AI recipe scanning

If you already have written recipes — a binder of handwritten cards, a PDF cookbook, a printed sheet on the line — AI recipe scanning lets you upload them and have Rinvy fill in ingredients, quantities, units, and instructions automatically. You review and adjust before saving.

What you'll need

  • A photo (PNG or JPG) or PDF of the recipe. Clear text, even handwriting if legible.
  • An output product in mind (or the willingness to create one during review).
  • One available recipe slot — AI scanning doesn't bypass tier limits.

How it works

  1. Open the Recipes page and tap Scan with AI.

  2. Upload the photo or PDF.

  3. Rinvy sends the image to Claude (Anthropic's model) and extracts ingredients, quantities, units, and instructions. This takes a few seconds.

  4. You land in the regular recipe modal with the fields pre-filled. Review every line — confirm ingredient matches, quantities, and units.

  5. Set the output product and yield (these aren't always extractable from a recipe card).

  6. Save.

What the AI extracts well

  • Ingredient names and quantities, when the recipe is typed or cleanly handwritten.
  • Standard units (cup, tbsp, lb, oz, gallon).
  • Multi-step instructions, paragraph by paragraph.

What you'll want to double-check

  • Ingredient matching. The AI extracts ingredient names as text; matching them to your product catalog is best-effort. If an ingredient doesn't match, the modal lets you search or create the missing product.
  • Unit choice. If the recipe says "a pinch" or "to taste", the AI can't quantify it — it'll either skip the line or guess. Review and override.
  • Yield. Recipe cards often say "serves 4" rather than "makes 4 quarts." The AI doesn't always pick the right yield number. Set it explicitly.
  • Sub-recipes. If a recipe references another recipe ("add 1 cup of marinara"), the AI lists marinara as an ingredient but can't match it to your existing marinara recipe automatically. Pick the right product (or sub-recipe output product) in review.

Costs and limits

  • AI scanning is gated to Standard tier and above.
  • Each scan uses Claude API credits paid by Rinvy. There's no per-scan charge to you.
  • Scans are subject to the same supplier limits on rate and size as direct uploads — very large PDFs may time out.

Common mistakes

Skipping the review step

AI extraction is fast, not infallible. A wrong unit on a single ingredient can throw off food cost by 10×. Always read the ingredient list before saving.

Trying to scan a photo of a screen

Photographing a recipe on someone else's phone or laptop screen often produces glare and pixel artifacts that confuse OCR. Use the original image or PDF if you can.

Expecting yield and output product to be auto-detected

Recipe cards rarely state yield in your output product's units. Set yield and output product manually after the AI populates everything else.

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