What is a .cook file?

A .cook file is a plain-text recipe written in the Cooklang markup language. Ingredients are tagged with @, cookware with #, and timers with ~. Several recipe apps and editors export this format because it is human-readable and trivially diffable in source control.

Which apps export to .cook?

CookCLI, the official Cooklang Mac/iOS app, Tandoor (export), and a number of self-hosted recipe tools all read and write .cook files. The format is open and unencumbered, so any text editor can produce one.

Will my metadata, ingredients, and timers be preserved?

Yes. We support both the canonical >> key: value metadata style and YAML frontmatter. Ingredients are extracted with their quantities and units. Timers are inlined into the instruction text so the prep timing carries over to PDF and JSON outputs.

Can I upload a whole collection?

Yes — zip up your .cook files and upload the .zip. Every .cook file inside will be parsed independently and bundled into your chosen output format.

.cook files and .zip collections supported

Convert Cooklang recipes

Cooklang is a plain-text recipe markup. We parse the spec — frontmatter or >> key: value, @ingredient{qty%unit}, #cookware{}, ~timer{} — and emit PDF, JSON, CSV, Markdown.

100% free. Open-source parsing. No account required.

What we parse

Both metadata styles and every inline marker the spec defines.

.cook Supported

A single Cooklang recipe. We extract ingredients, cookware, timers, and metadata from either YAML frontmatter or canonical >> lines.

.zip Supported

A zip archive of many .cook files — for example, a CookCLI cookbook/ directory zipped up. Every .cook file inside is parsed independently.

How to export from a Cooklang tool

1

CookCLI: zip your cookbook directory

CookCLI stores recipes as plain .cook files in a directory you choose. Zip the directory and upload the .zip here.

2

Cooklang Mac/iOS app: share a recipe

Open a recipe and use the share sheet to export the underlying .cook file.

3

Tandoor: export as Cooklang

Tandoor can export individual recipes as .cook. For batches, export each recipe and zip them, then upload the .zip.

4

Hand-written .cook files

Cooklang is plain text — any editor works. Drag the .cook file in here and convert.

Why convert Cooklang?

Cooklang is a brilliant format for cooks who like plain text — your recipes are diffable, scriptable, and work with any editor. But not every kitchen wants to read a markup file. Sometimes you want a printable PDF card, a CSV for a spreadsheet, or schema.org JSON to drop into a website.

We export your .cook files to all of those — and we are also one of the few converters that output .cook for round-tripping in the other direction.

Export to any format

Get your recipes in formats that work for you

{ }

JSON

Schema.org compliant

PDF

Print-ready cards

CSV

Excel-friendly

MD

Markdown

Plain text

.cook

CookLang

For developers

DB

SQLite

Portable database

ORF

Open Recipe

YAML format

Convert your Cooklang collection

Drop a .cook file or zip above and pick the output format you want.