Recipes

A recipe teaches baker a stack: how to install it, how to recognize it, what agents should know about it, and which MCP servers and skills it needs.

Where recipes come from

Lookup order, first match wins:

<project>/.baker/recipes/<name>/: a project-specific recipe
~/.baker/recipes/<name>/: your own recipes, or overrides of built-in ones
Built-in (embedded in the binary): generic, laravel

So to make the Laravel recipe match your taste, copy assets/recipes/laravel/ to ~/.baker/recipes/laravel/ and edit it.

Folder layout

laravel/
├── recipe.toml      metadata, installer, detection, facts, MCP servers
├── agents.md        template for the managed recipe block in AGENTS.md
├── notes.md         optional: extra starter text for the user-owned Project notes
└── skills/          optional: skills/<name>/SKILL.md (Agent Skills format)

recipe.toml

name = "laravel"
version = 1                    # bump when agents.md changes; shown in the block marker
description = "Laravel application"

[install]                      # optional; skipped by --bare and by `baker init`
run = "composer create-project laravel/laravel {{.Name}}"   # runs in the parent dir, must create {{.Name}}

[detect]                       # used by `baker init` to pick a recipe
file = "composer.json"
contains = "laravel/framework"

# Facts are read from project files after install, then used in templates.
[[facts]]
name = "php_version"
file = "composer.json"
json_path = "require.php"      # dot path into JSON
format = "version"             # "version": ^8.4 → 8.4   "major": ^13.0 → 13

[[facts]]
name = "test_runner"
file = "composer.json"
if_contains = "pestphp/pest"   # or: test whether the file contains a string
then = "Pest"
else = "PHPUnit"

# MCP servers are registered for every enabled agent, optionally only when a package is present.
[[mcp]]
name = "laravel-boost"
command = "php"
args = ["artisan", "boost:mcp"]
when_file = "composer.json"
when_contains = "laravel/boost"

gitignore = []                 # extra lines for the baker .gitignore block

Templates

agents.md, notes.md and install.run are Go text/templates. They can use:

Field	Value
`{{.Name}}`	project name
`{{.Facts.<name>}}`	a resolved fact (empty string if missing)

Laravel{{with .Facts.laravel_version}} {{.}}{{end}} on PHP {{.Facts.php_version}}. Tests: {{.Facts.test_runner}}.
{{- if not .Facts.boost}}
Tip: install Laravel Boost…
{{- end}}

What goes in agents.md

The recipe block is loaded in every session, so keep it short and specific:

Stack: versions and key packages (from facts)
Commands: exactly how to run, test, format and migrate
Conventions: the 5–10 rules an agent would otherwise get wrong

Don’t put long docs here; link them or make a skill. Codex truncates AGENTS.md past 32 KiB.

agents.md is managed by baker. If a user edits the block in their project, baker sync leaves it alone. Put anything users should customize in notes.md, which is written once and then belongs to them.

Skills

Recipe skills are copied to .agents/skills/ and mirrored to .claude/skills/. Use the Agent Skills format:

---
name: laravel-migration
description: Create or change database tables safely. Use for any schema change.
---
# Steps…

Testing a recipe

mkdir /tmp/try && cd /tmp/try
baker new demo --recipe myrecipe --bare   # skip the installer
cat demo/AGENTS.md

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