Cookodex

May 2026 / Systems

Min-maxing applied to dinner. A systems-first cooking app with game feel, and the clearest proof that the way I think is not specific to audio or visuals.

Min-maxing, applied to dinner

Cookodex treats food the way a deck builder treats a deck. You maximise nutrition, variety and portions; you minimise time, cost, effort and waste; all under real constraints like budget, equipment, skill and allergies. It is not a tracker, not a recipe box, not a meal-prep app. It is a system for the whole cycle.

The pipeline

The spine is one connected pipeline, and every stage also stands on its own with no lock-in.

Plan

Recipes, CIQUAL-powered (3484 foods), into a synergy-optimised weekly planner.

Shop

An auto-generated shopping list, by aisle, with pooled community prices.

Cook

A parallelised prep session with timers and a real workflow.

Track

Inventory into daily tracking into adaptive goals into a contextual Codex.

Game feel, not gamification

Deck-builder vocabulary on the inside, additive glow rather than nags, no XP, no levels, no streaks. The science is real (CIQUAL macros, recalculated per parametric variation), the feel is a game's. Honest paid, radical transparency, no dark patterns.

Why it is in this Log

Because it carries the same DNA as everything else here: systems first, one person owning the stack, OKLCH tokens, a bet on human craft. It is the same operating system pointed at a completely different domain. If the method only worked for audiovisual, this app would not exist.

Two sections are yours to write, in your voice, because they are real decisions you own: the no-GenAI / human-art stance (presented factually, as a Cookodex product call with a payoff you do not yet know), and your sister as founding illustrator and art director. Keep it show-don't-tell, no manifesto. App captures go in the slot below.

Screens Cookodex planner / prep session / Codex card. Pierre: drop 2 or 3 real captures.
Systems Game Feel CIQUAL Cookodex