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The BetterMenu Studio API turns a recipe into FDA-compliant nutrition data and labels. This quick start walks the full path: authenticate, create a recipe, resolve its ingredients to nutrition data, compute the nutrition facts, and generate a label — the same workflow the Studio app uses.

How do I authenticate a request?

Every request must include your API key as a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Keep the key server-side — it grants full access to your account's recipes and nutrition data. The examples below use the production host https://api.bettermenu.io.

curl https://api.bettermenu.io/studio/recipes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>"

If a request is missing or has an invalid key, the API responds with 401 Unauthorized. Use GET /entitlements/status to confirm your account's plan and access before building further.

How do I create my first recipe?

A recipe is the core aggregate in Studio — it holds ingredients, servings, and the nutrition computed from them. Create one with a POST to /studio/recipes. The response returns the new recipe id plus a version_id, which is your edit token for safe concurrent updates.

curl -X POST https://api.bettermenu.io/studio/recipes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "name": "Garden Salad" }'

When you later edit the recipe, send the latest version_id as an If-Match header. If someone else changed the recipe first, the API returns 412 Precondition Failed with current_version_id so you can refetch and retry. See Create Recipe for the full request and response schema.

How do I resolve ingredients to nutrition data?

Studio resolves the free-text ingredients on a recipe to backing nutrition records through a resolution session. Start a session, review the candidate matches it proposes, then confirm the ones you want.

1. Start a session — POST /studio/recipes/{recipe_id}/ingredient-resolutions
2. Confirm the matches — POST /studio/recipes/{recipe_id}/ingredient-resolutions/{session_id}/confirm

You can fetch the most recent session at any time with GET .../ingredient-resolutions/latest to resume where you left off.

How do I compute nutrition and generate a label?

Once ingredients are resolved, compute the recipe's nutrition and generate an FDA nutrition facts label for a serving. Computation is explicit so results stay reproducible.

1. Compute recipe nutrition — POST /studio/recipes/{recipe_id}/nutrition/compute
2. Read the analysis — GET /studio/recipes/{recipe_id}/nutrition/analysis
3. Compute serving nutrition facts — POST /studio/recipes/{recipe_id}/servings/{serving_id}/nutrition-facts/compute
4. Generate the label — GET /studio/recipes/{recipe_id}/servings/{serving_id}/nutrition-label

What should I explore next?

Browse the full Studio API reference for every recipe, serving, ingredient-resolution, nutrition, and label endpoint. For background on the concepts behind these calls — recipes, nutrients, allergens, and serving sizes — see the BetterMenu Guide.