pdf2mela 0.1.1

Convert PDF recipes to .melarecipe format using Mistral OCR

pdf2mela

Convert scanned PDF recipes to Mela format using Mistral OCR.

• Single PDF → .melarecipe (JSON)
• Multiple PDFs → .melarecipes (ZIP)

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• A Mistral API key

Installation

Install as tool with uv (recommended):

uv tool install pdf2mela

Or with pip:

pip install pdf2mela

Or run it directly without installing:

uvx pdf2mela --inputs recipe.pdf

Usage

# Single file
pdf2mela --inputs recipe.pdf

# Multiple files
pdf2mela --inputs recipe1.pdf recipe2.pdf

# Whole directory
pdf2mela --inputs ./scans/

# Custom output directory
pdf2mela --inputs ./scans/ --output ./mela/

# Explicit API key
pdf2mela --inputs recipe.pdf --api-key YOUR_KEY

The Mistral API key is read from the MISTRAL_API_KEY environment variable by default.

Pricing

Mistral OCR costs $2 per 1,000 pages. The tool prints an estimated cost at the end of each run, including what it would have cost with the 50% batch discount. See Mistral's pricing page for up-to-date rates.

Notes

• Recipes are extracted in their original language — no translation is applied.
• All PDFs in a run are processed concurrently.
• Failed requests are retried up to 3 times with exponential backoff.
• Set LOGLEVEL=DEBUG to see raw OCR responses.