Sparky Cooks helps you create, organize, edit, share, and cook from your recipes. You can use the Cooking Assistant to format recipe text, ask cooking questions, create grocery lists from selected recipes, manage recipe photos, and share recipes privately or with public read-only links.

Open the Cooking Assistant from the purple sparkle button and choose Create a Recipe. You can paste recipe text, paste a recipe URL where importing is permitted, or start from the recipe editor and use the formatting tools directly.

The Cooking Assistant can help format recipe text, answer cooking questions, search your account recipes when you choose that option, and start grocery-list creation from selected recipes. You can turn off the startup Cooking Assistant prompt in Settings.

Start Cooking creates a focused guide with Plan, Gather, Prep, and Cook phases. It can show the ingredients, equipment, temperatures, and timers relevant to each step while leaving the saved recipe unchanged.

Sparky Cooks may need to prepare a cooking guide the first time you use Start Cooking or after cooking-related recipe content changes. A current guide is reused until the recipe changes again.

No. Gather, Prep, ingredient, and current-step progress belongs only to your cooking session. It is kept separate from both the saved recipe and its generated cooking guide.

You can add photos directly in the recipe editor by pasting or dropping a supported image, or by using the plus menu where you want the image and choosing an image upload option. Images are stored with your Sparky Cooks photos.

Yes. You can paste or drop supported image files into the recipe editor. Pasted images use the same upload and validation path as regular image uploads. Some browser and device formats may vary; if a HEIC photo is not supported on your device, export it as JPEG or PNG first.

Yes, you can embed photos hosted on another website or cloud storage by choosing Embed from the image dialog. Make sure you have permission to use the image. If the original hosted image is removed or blocked, it will no longer display in your recipe.

No. Imported recipes from external websites do not include source-site photos. Add your own photo after you make the dish, paste a supported image into the recipe, upload an image file, or embed an image URL if you have the rights to use it.

Not every recipe website allows automated importing. If a site blocks imports with paywalls, robots.txt, or other technical restrictions, Sparky Cooks respects those rules. In those cases, describe the recipe in the Create Recipe input box and the Cooking Assistant will attempt to create something similar.

Sparky Cooks provides two default templates, one for recipes and one which provides examples of the various types of formatting you can use. You can create additional templates and save them for later use.

Yes. You can share a recipe with a registered Sparky Cooks user or create a public read-only link for anyone. Public links can be copied from the recipe share dialog and managed later in the Sharing Center.

Yes. You can share a folder with another registered Sparky Cooks user. Recipes added to that folder or its subfolders later are included in the folder share.

You and account admins can update recipes you own. Shared recipes are read-only for recipients; they can save a copy if they want to make their own changes.

You can create grocery lists from selected recipes, add items manually, or import a pasted list, plain-text file, or CSV file. Review imported items before choosing an existing list or creating a new list. You can also check items off while shopping, duplicate lists, delete lists you own, and share lists with other registered users. Grocery lists have offline support, so recently synced lists can still be used when your connection is unavailable and changes sync later.

A passkey lets you sign in using Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, or your device's screen lock instead of typing a password. Sparky Cooks stores only the public verification record; the private passkey stays on your device or in your device account's passkey sync service.

Yes. Password sign-in remains available, and we recommend keeping your password as a backup in case you lose access to your device or need to sign in somewhere that does not yet support passkeys.

Once you're signed in, go to the user menu from your picture or person icon and open Settings. From there you can add a new passkey on your current device or remove existing passkeys linked to your account.

Open the user menu from your picture or person icon. Profile is where you manage your name, phone number, profile picture, and default folder. Settings is where you manage passkeys, password changes, Cooking Assistant startup behavior, search behavior, and notification preferences.

The widescreen view in Sparky Cooks optimizes the display of recipes on larger screens with a layout that shows Ingredients, Directions, and Images side by side. This view facilitates easier reading and interaction, especially on larger devices.

To ensure your recipe displays correctly in widescreen view, make sure it includes a header for 'Ingredients' and one for 'Directions' or 'Instructions'. Widescreen view assumes that anything between these headers are ingredients, and anything after is directions. If you are still having issues, please contact support.

Sparky Cooks supports importing recipes and documents in formats including plain text, Markdown, HTML, and—where permitted—directly from a recipe URL.

Sparky Cooks offers versatile export options, allowing you to save and share your recipes in formats such as PDF, plain text, rich text, and HTML.