What is Ration?
Ration is a pantry and meal operations app: you track what you have (Cargo), keep recipes (Galley), plan the week (Manifest), and build a shopping list (Supply). Optional AI helps with receipt scanning, recipe ideas, weekly planning, and importing recipes from the web.
Under the hood, those four surfaces share one household data model. You can work the same kitchen from the web and mobile apps, from Ask Ration (in-app Copilot), or from external AI tools over MCP (Model Context Protocol). Ration is built to be your kitchen memory for AI—inventory, meals, plan, and supply stay consistent no matter which modality you use.
Who it is for
- Households and small teams who want one shared inventory and coordinated meal planning.
- People who want less waste (expiry awareness, cook-from-pantry matching) and faster shopping (supply list synced from the plan).
- Anyone who wants a durable kitchen memory their AI assistants can read and update—not a separate chat-only pantry that drifts from the app.
Where it runs
Ration is hosted on Cloudflare (global edge). The product website and app are served over HTTPS. Your data is stored in managed databases and object storage tied to your organization (group), not scattered across anonymous devices.
How you control it
Same org-scoped Cargo, Galley, Manifest, and Supply—different ways in:
| Modality | What it is | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Web / iOS app | Full hub UI | Day-to-day pantry ops, planning, shopping, credit-gated AI features |
| Ask Ration (Copilot) | First-party in-app chat | Natural-language help against your live kitchen; searches this guide and runs the same org tools |
| MCP | Protocol for external agents (Cursor, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT desktop, and other MCP clients) | Drive the kitchen from your own AI tools via OAuth or API keys |
Ask Ration and MCP share the same organization-scoped tool logic. Copilot authenticates as the signed-in user; MCP uses delegated OAuth or organization API keys. Details: Ask Ration vs reading the guide and MCP overview.
What makes Ration different
- One data model, many modalities — app, Copilot, and MCP all operate on the same household kitchen; you are not maintaining parallel pantries.
- Semantic matching links recipe ingredient names to pantry items even when wording differs (e.g. “whole milk 2%” vs “2% milk”).
- Credits pay for certain AI operations (including Ask Ration usage); they belong to the whole group so any member can use them fairly. MCP tool calls themselves do not consume AI credits—see AI credits explained and MCP overview.
- Crew Member subscription unlocks higher limits, invitations, and sharing—see the subscription article in this hub.
If anything here conflicts with what you see in the app, trust the app and contact support.