Settings Reference

All Recipe Box settings live under Settings → Recipe Box, organized into the sections below. Defaults are shown in italics.

Notes & Storage

Setting	Default	What it does
Meal plan note path	Meal Plan.md	Where Recipe Box reads/writes your meal plan note. Supports Moment.js format tokens for dated notes. See Setting Up Meal Plan and Grocery Notes.
Grocery list note path	Grocery List.md	Where Recipe Box reads/writes your grocery list note. Supports Moment.js format tokens.
Ingredients heading	Ingredients	The heading Recipe Box looks for to find a recipe’s ingredient list.
Instructions heading	Instructions	The heading Recipe Box looks for to find a recipe’s cooking steps.
Notes heading	Notes	The heading Recipe Box looks for to find a recipe’s optional notes section.

Recipe Library

Setting	Default	What it does
Recipe folders	["Recipes"]	Folder(s) Recipe Box scans for recipes. Requires at least one entry; use / to search the entire vault. Deleting the last entry restores the default. Recipe Box warns if / is set with no recipe type value, since that combination treats every vault note as a recipe.
Recipe type value	(empty)	Frontmatter type value that marks a note as a recipe (e.g. recipe). When blank, folder location alone determines detection - no frontmatter required.
Enable dashboard	On	Shows the single Recipe Box dashboard ribbon icon. When off, the separate grocery list / meal plan / gallery ribbon icons are shown instead, and the Open recipe dashboard command isn’t registered. See Dashboard.
Open gallery when clicking a recipe folder	Off	Clicking a configured recipe folder’s name in the file explorer opens the Gallery View filtered to that folder, instead of expanding/collapsing it. Marked folders get a distinct underline.
Also apply to subfolders	Off	Only shown when the setting above is on. Extends the same click behavior to subfolders, filtering the gallery to the specific subfolder clicked.

Recipe View

Setting	Default	What it does
Strip duplicate title and hero image from body	On	Removes a leading # Title from the body if it matches the note title, and removes an inline image if it matches the image frontmatter property. One combined toggle.
Use first image in note when frontmatter image is empty	On	When the image frontmatter property is unset, the recipe view uses the first image found in the note body as the hero image instead.
Default recipe image	Recipe Box’s built-in placeholder image	Shown in the recipe view and gallery when a recipe has no frontmatter or body image. Accepts a vault path, wikilink, or URL - same format as the image property. Leave blank to fall back to the plain placeholder instead. Never used on public shares.
Rating property	rating	Frontmatter property storing a recipe’s 1-5 star rating.
Cross off while cooking	On	Automatically checks off ingredient list items as you tap them during cooking.
Show tags in header	On	Displays the note’s frontmatter tags above the badge row in the recipe header.
Tag prefix	On	Prefixes each displayed tag with #.
Tag format	Last segment	Show tags as only the last segment of a nested tag path (e.g. italian rather than cooking/italian). Toggle off to show the full path.
Auto-open recipe view	On	Automatically switches a matching note into the Recipe View when opened.
Desktop recipe layout	Two column	Layout style for the desktop recipe view: Two column (hero image and ingredients on the left, instructions on the right, with a draggable resizing divider) or Classic (single-column, ingredients above instructions). Mobile is unaffected.
Reset two-column split	(button)	Restores the default 50/50 column split for the two-column layout.

Recipe Timers

Setting	Default	What it does
Enable timers	On	Detects duration phrases in instructions and shows clickable timer buttons.
Auto-start timers	Off	Starts the countdown immediately when a timer button is clicked.
Default to compact timers	Off	New timers open in compact (time-only) mode.
Timer range default	Max	For ranges like “10-15 minutes”, whether the timer uses the high (Max) or low (Min) end.
Timer increment (minutes)	1	How many minutes the +/- steppers adjust by.

See Recipe Timers.

Shopping

Setting	Default	What it does
Grouping	Category	Default grouping for the Shopping Assistant: Category, Recipe, Source, or None.
Auto-collapse completed sections	Off	Collapses a group automatically when its last unchecked item is checked off.
Auto-add ingredients on sync	Off	When syncing the grocery list from the meal plan, automatically add ingredients from newly-discovered recipes.
Auto-add ingredients tag	(empty = all recipes)	Restricts auto-add-on-sync to recipes carrying this tag (without the leading #).

See Shopping Assistant and Meal Planning.

Categories

Setting	Default	What it does
Category source	Dictionary	Where item categories come from: built-in Dictionary, recipe Tags, or Tag-then-dictionary.
Auto-sort categories	On	Sorts category groups alphabetically; ignores manual category order when on.
Category order	see below	Manual category ordering, used when auto-sort is off.
Category overrides	(none)	List of match substring → category rules, checked before tags/dictionary, longest match first.

Default category order: Produce, Herb, Meat, Seafood, Dairy, Cheese, Egg, Bread, Pasta, Grain, Canned, Broth, Sauce, Condiment, Oil, Seasoning, Baking, Nuts & Seeds, Snack, Frozen, Beverage, Alcohol, Household, Other.

See Categorizing Grocery Items.

Cooking & Tracking

Setting	Default	What it does
Show mark as cooked button	On	Shows a “Mark as cooked” button in the recipe view’s action bar.
Ask for date when marking cooked	Off	Prompts for a date instead of using today when marking a recipe cooked.
Track last made	On	Stamps the date into lastMade when a recipe is marked cooked. Derived automatically from cook history when cook history is enabled.
Last made property	lastMade	Frontmatter property name used to record the last-made date.
Track cooked count	On	Keeps cookedCount in sync with the number of cook history entries.
Track cook history	On	Enables full cook history - adds a structured cookHistory frontmatter array and a managed ## Cook History section in the note body. Enables the Cook History tab on mobile and the Cook History modal on desktop.
Cook history heading	Cook History	Heading name for the cook history section in the note body (case-insensitive match). Content under this heading is managed by the plugin and will be overwritten on every write.
Cook history property	cookHistory	Frontmatter property name for the structured cook history array.
Prompt for notes when marking cooked	On	Shows a notes field in the mark-as-cooked dialog; the text is stored in that cook history entry.
Track photos	Off	Shows an image picker in the mark-as-cooked dialog; the selected photo is saved as a vault attachment and embedded in the cook history section.

See Cook History.

Nutrition

Setting	Default	What it does
Nutrition display	Per-serving	Whether the recipe view shows nutrition/servings as per-serving or recipe totals.
Nutrition source	Per-serving	Whether the values stored in frontmatter represent a single serving or the recipe total (Recipe Box converts as needed for display).
Calories property	calories	Frontmatter property for calories.
Protein property	protein	Frontmatter property for protein (g).
Fat property	fat	Frontmatter property for fat (g).
Carbs property	carbs	Frontmatter property for carbs (g).

Meal Plan

Setting	Default	What it does
Meal type notation	Tag	How meal type (Breakfast, Dinner, etc.) is written in the meal plan note: as a #tag/slug, a [field:: value] Dataview field, or plain (text).
Meal type field name	meal	The tag or field name used for meal type (e.g. meal produces #meal/dinner in tag notation).

Meal Recommender

Setting	Default	What it does
Modes	3 built-in modes	Named sets of filters and scoring rules. Each mode produces a different ranked list. Click a mode’s pencil icon to edit it, the copy icon to duplicate it, or the trash icon to delete it (custom modes only). Set one mode as the default using the radio button. See Meal Suggestions.

The result count (5, 7, 10, or 14) is now a selector inside the suggester dialog rather than a global setting. Cooldown logic is expressed as a filter inside each mode (e.g. lastMade → “not within last 14 days”).

Export

Setting	Default	What it does
Export folder	Recipe Exports	Default vault-relative folder for Markdown recipe exports. Can be overridden per-export in the export dialog.
Default format	Markdown (plain)	Format pre-selected when the export dialog opens. Options: Markdown (plain), Markdown (importable), JSON, JSON-LD.
Include cook history by default	On	Pre-checks “Include cook history and other sections” in the export dialog.
Include images by default	On	Pre-checks “Include images” in the export dialog.

See Recipe Export.

Health & Safety

Setting	Default	What it does
Show meat temperature warnings	On	Shows USDA safe minimum internal temperatures next to recognized meat/fish/shellfish ingredients.
Allergens property	allergens	Frontmatter property holding a recipe’s allergens (CSV text or YAML list).
My allergens	(none)	Allergens you want to be warned about.
High GI warnings	Off	Master toggle for high glycemic-index ingredient badges.
GI dictionary	built-in default	Editable regex dictionary (one pattern per line, # comments) used to flag high-GI ingredients (GI ≥ 70).

See Health and Safety Warnings.

Recipe Import

Setting	Default	What it does
Import folder	(empty = first recipe folder)	Vault-relative folder where imported recipes are saved.
Import template note	(empty = built-in default)	Vault-relative path to a note used as the template for imported recipes.

Recipe Box also downloads the recipe’s hero image into your vault automatically on import (best-effort, non-blocking) - there’s no settings-tab toggle for this yet. See Importing Recipes from the Web.

Sharing

Sharing a recipe has no dedicated settings section - expiry (7/30/90 days) is chosen per-share in the Share dialog, not set globally. See Sharing a Recipe.

The gallery’s folder-click settings above live under Recipe library, not a separate settings section. See Gallery View. The Dashboard’s cooking activity chart range (2/4/8/12 weeks) is remembered automatically and has no settings-tab control - it’s changed from the chart’s own dropdown. See Dashboard.

Commands

Recipe Box registers these commands (search “Recipe Box” in the Command Palette):

Command	What it does
Open grocery list	Opens the Shopping Assistant view.
Open meal plan	Opens the Meal Plan view.
Open recipe gallery	Opens the Gallery View.
Open recipe dashboard	Opens the Dashboard. Only registered when Enable dashboard is on.
Import recipe	Opens the recipe import dialog (from URL or pasted text). See Importing Recipes from the Web.
Add grocery item	Opens the add-item dialog.
Toggle current recipe in meal plan	Adds or removes the active recipe note from the meal plan (opens the Add to meal plan dialog to add; removes all its entries to take it off).
Open current file as recipe	Switches the active note into the Recipe View, if it isn’t already.
Open current file as Markdown	Switches the active note back to plain Markdown.
Export current recipe	Opens the recipe export dialog for the active recipe note. See Recipe Export.
Share this recipe	Opens the share dialog for the active recipe note, or manages/revokes its existing link. See Sharing a Recipe.
Suggest a meal	Opens the meal suggestion dialog. See Meal Suggestions.

Actions like syncing the grocery list from the meal plan, clearing the meal plan, and exporting the grocery list are buttons inside the Shopping Assistant and Meal Plan view toolbars rather than separate commands.