Set a mealplan

Use this action to plan a meal on a specific date in Mealie. You can plan either a recipe or a meal note.

This action can optionally return the created meal plan in a response variable, which you can use in later steps of the same automation or script.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To set a meal plan from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. From the search box, search for and select Mealie: Set a mealplan.
6. Select the Mealie instance you want to use, and fill in the options you want.
7. Select Save.

This action does not support targets. In the UI, you are not prompted to choose an area, device, entity, or label. You select the Mealie instance instead.

Options in the UI

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required. For how an automation or a script is built in YAML, refer to Automations in YAML and Scripts.

In YAML, refer to this action as mealie.set_mealplan. A basic example looks like this:

action: mealie.set_mealplan
data:
  config_entry_id: YOUR_MEALIE_CONFIG_ENTRY_ID
  date: "2025-06-01"
  entry_type: dinner
  recipe_id: roasted-tomato-soup

This plans the roasted-tomato-soup recipe for dinner on the given date.

Options in YAML

Good to know

• Provide either a recipe to plan (recipe_id) or a meal note (note_title, optionally with note_text).
• To plan a random recipe instead, use the mealie.set_random_mealplan action.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Settings > Tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] without writing a line of YAML.

Still stuck?

To test the action on its own, run it in the automation editor with Run action, and check the message that it shows. To see what the action did when the automation ran, open the trace of that run. For details, refer to Testing automations. For common problems and their solutions, refer to Troubleshooting automations.

If that doesn’t help, the Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

Explore related actions:

• Set random mealplan: Plan a random recipe on a specific date in Mealie.

• Get mealplan: Get the Mealie meal plan for a specified date range.

• Delete a mealplan: Delete an existing meal plan in Mealie.

• Update a mealplan: Update an existing meal plan in Mealie.

• Get recipes: Search Mealie for recipes that match your search terms.