Cooklio

Inspiration

We're ambitious software developers passionate about building applications that solve real problems. Coincidently, we're both actively getting into cooking and we've fallen victim to the same disorganized recipe chaos that Eitan described. When we came across this hackathon and heard his search for a solution, we knew we had found the perfect opportunity. Recipes scattered across cookbook pages, saved TikTok videos, and random screenshots was a frustration that we have lived through. So we started building Cooklio.

What it does

Cooklio is an application for saving, organizing, and actually getting you to cook your saved recipes.

Saving — Cooklio supports multiple input methods. Users can manually enter recipes or upload photos, links, and TikTok videos containing recipe content. Cooklio extracts the recipe from any of these sources and saves it to the user's library.

Organizing - Users can sort recipes into folders like "Favorites," "Want to Cook," or any custom folder they create. They can also define custom tags (e.g., "breakfast," "Italian," "quick meals") and assign multiple tags to a single recipe for easy filtering.

Cooking - Two features reduce the gap between saving a recipe and actually making it:

Calendar - A built-in calendar lets users assign recipes to specific days, making weekly meal planning effortless. Shopping List — Beyond a standard grocery list, users can pull all or select ingredients directly from their saved recipes with one tap.

How we built it

We started by brainstorming core features, then validated our direction with LLMs like Claude and Gemini to ensure we were addressing the problems Eitan outlined. From there, we used AI development tools like Cursor to move fast, alongside Google Firebase for its ready-made backend tooling such as authentication, database, and storage out of the box.

Challenges we ran into

Limited Time - We joined the hackathon a week late, which cut into both development and testing. Several features we planned didn't make it into the final build, and we weren't able to get user feedback before submitting.

Input Method Complexity - While our current inputs (HTML links, TikTok links, and photos) cover the majority of use cases, we wanted them to be even faster and smoother. We explored YouTube links, Instagram links, and full video uploads, but couldn't get them production-ready in time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Given the compressed timeline, we're proud that we shipped a complete, usable app. Every detail such as the typography, button placement, interaction patterns, and overall UX were heavily considered . The road wasn't smooth since we revamped the entire UI mid-project, cut features we'd invested significant time in, and made tough tradeoffs due to time constraints. But in three weeks, we were able to build out a polished app with working input extraction, organized recipe management, and meal planning.

What we learned

This project deepened our understanding of the mobile development lifecycle from ideation to submission. We gained hands-on experience integrating RevenueCat for subscription management and learned hard lessons about scoping in a hackathon setting. For example, knowing when to cut a feature you've invested in is just as important as knowing what to build.

What's next for Cooklio

Our immediate priorities are getting multiple users eyes on it to have them provide feedback and have them vocalize any other features that they want. With their feedback, we plan on fixing any remaining bugs, refining the overall user flow, polishing the UI. Beyond that, we're excited to expand our input methods to support YouTube links, Instagram posts, and full video uploads which will make it even easier to save recipes from wherever users find them. On the grocery side, we're exploring an Instacart API integration so users can go from shopping list to doorstep delivery in one tap. Most importantly, we want to make the entire input-to-cooking pipeline as fast and frictionless as possible.

One of our the biggest features we did not get to implement was an AI bot known as Basil. Basil would eventually be able to do a number of things such as guide you through your recipe cooking, provide small tips and tricks when it comes to beginners learning cooking, developing new recipes, and even having a live chat functionality that could mimic any voice you want while you cook. (So image Gordan Ramsey talking to you as you cook). One of the biggest pain points that Basil would have addressed was that Eitan's target audience is beginner to intermediate cookers, and thinking back to your initial days of cooking, there many small tips and tricks that helped with cooking but simply weren't mentioned in the recipe. This is something that Basil would help with!

Built With

• fireauth
• firebase
• firebasestorage
• firestore
• javascript
• node.js
• revenuecat
• swift
• swiftui