01The connector won't connect, or keeps asking me to sign in
Remove the connector and add it again with exactly https://nutrition-mcp.com/mcp — the /mcp part is required. In Claude, open Customize → Connectors, disconnect Nutrition and connect it again; in ChatGPT, use Settings → Apps. Sign in with the same email and password, or the same Google account, you used before: your data belongs to your account, not to the connection, so reconnecting loses nothing. Once connected, it stays connected as long as you use it at least every 90 days; if it stops working, reconnecting the same way fixes it.
02The sign-in page shows {"error":"session_expired"}
The sign-in page is only valid for 10 minutes, and it also resets whenever the server restarts for an update. Go back to the sign-in page and reload it, or start connecting again from your AI app, then sign in without a long pause. If it shows session_mismatch instead, the sign-in was finished in a different browser from the one that opened it: start again from your AI app and finish in that same browser.
03I can't sign in, or I forgot my password
Use Sign in for an account you already have: a wrong email or password there shows "Wrong email or password" and never creates a new account. Create account is only for your first visit. Check the email for typos. If you created your account with Continue with Google, use that button again. There is no self-service password reset yet: email anton@nutrition-mcp.com from the address on your account and I will reset it.
04I reconnected and my history is gone
Each email address is a separate account, so signing in with a different email starts an empty one — nothing was deleted. Disconnect and sign in again with the address you used originally. If you are not sure which one that was, email anton@nutrition-mcp.com.
05The AI answers but doesn't log anything
Make sure the connector is switched on for this conversation — in Claude, check the tools menu in the message box — and ask directly, for example "log my breakfast in Nutrition". If your app asks for permission to use a tool, approve it.
06My meals show up on the wrong day
Days are counted in your timezone, and if you have never set one, UTC is used. Ask "what timezone do I have set?" (get_profile) and, if it is wrong, "set my timezone to Europe/Berlin" (set_timezone). Everything you have logged is then grouped by your local day, past entries included. The one exception is an entry you gave a specific time of day while the timezone was wrong: it keeps the moment it was saved as, so it can still sit an hour or a day off — ask the AI to move it to the right date and time (update_meal). Set your timezone before importing history, too: imported meals keep the moment they were placed at, and importing another app's file again after changing the timezone adds them a second time. A Nutrition MCP export is recognized and not duplicated.
07I only see text, no charts or cards
The visual cards need an app that supports interactive MCP Apps panels, such as Claude or ChatGPT; other clients get the same information as text. If you turned widgets off, ask to turn them back on (set_widget_display) and start a new conversation — an open chat keeps its old setting until it reconnects. The small card after logging a meal only appears once you have set daily goals (set_nutrition_goals).
08The importer won't open, or says it can't save
The importer panel needs an app that shows interactive panels and has widgets turned on. If it says This host does not let this view write to your log, or it does not appear at all, ask the AI to import the file itself: attach or paste the CSV and it will use bulk_import_meals, which checks every row and skips duplicates, so re-sending is safe as long as your timezone has not changed in between. Set your timezone before the first import: re-importing another app's file after a change adds the rows again. If you use the importer panel and want an alcohol column kept, turn alcohol tracking on first — the panel skips that column while tracking is off, and re-importing later will not fill it in.
09I see "Rate limit exceeded" or "Too many failed authentication attempts"
Each account can make 60 requests a minute, and each tool call counts as at least one. Wait for the number of seconds the message gives, then carry on. For backfilling many meals, use the importer rather than logging them one by one. Sign-in pages allow 30 requests a minute per network. After 20 rejected connection attempts in a row from one network — usually an old, disconnected connector still retrying — connections from that network are paused for 5 minutes, and repeat pauses grow to at most an hour. Removing the old connector and adding it again stops the retries.
10A barcode isn't found, or its numbers look wrong
Barcode data comes from Open Food Facts, a community database, so some products are missing and some entries are out of date. Make sure all 8–14 digits under the barcode were read correctly. If the product is not there, the AI can estimate from the name or from a photo of the nutrition label, and you can correct any figure afterwards. Adding the product on openfoodfacts.org helps everyone. Open Food Facts has no caffeine data, so caffeine comes from the label or typical amounts.
11The AI says "USDA data is unavailable until …"
Generic-food lookups go to USDA FoodData Central with one API key shared by every user of this server, and USDA caps how many requests that key may make each hour. The server stops calling USDA in three cases: after USDA reports its limit is reached, which pauses calls for 60 minutes; while the key's remaining hourly allowance is nearly used up; and once you have made 30 USDA lookups in the last hour. The message gives the time USDA opens again, in your profile timezone (UTC when none is set). Search results are not stored, so searches wait until then. A food looked up in the last 30 days is kept on the server, so it still works during a pause, and fetching a stored food does not count toward your 30 an hour. USDA names are English only, so search in English. Packaged products are not affected: look them up by barcode instead.
12Yesterday isn't in Apple Health yet
Apple Health sync sends only finished days. A day counts as finished at 05:00 the next morning in your timezone, so yesterday arrives with the first sync after 05:00 today, and today never shows in Health until tomorrow. A sync runs when one of the shortcut's automations fires (opening the Health app, stopping your alarm) or when you run Nutrition MCP Health in the Shortcuts app and choose Sync now. A missed morning catches up on its own: every sync looks back over the last 7 days. Days follow the timezone on your profile (get_profile), or the one your iPhone reported when you connected if you never set one (meals on the wrong day). Days before you connected are only sent if you chose to bring back up to 7 earlier days while connecting.
13Apple Health shows more than my chat
Apple Health can add to a value but can never lower one it already holds. A meal you add to a day that was already sent follows as a small extra entry at 12:01, 12:02 and so on, as long as the day is within the last 7 days. A meal you delete or make smaller after its day was sent leaves Health higher, and the shortcut shows a notice saying by how much. To fix it, open the Health app, go to Browse → Nutrition, open the type (for example Dietary Energy), tap Show All Data, delete that day's entries from Shortcuts and enter the right total by hand. Never use Delete All Data from Shortcuts: it also removes what your other shortcuts logged. If every day looks doubled, another app writes the same types too and Health adds the two together: switch one of them off under Sharing → Apps in the Health app.
14Apple Health sync stopped
Open the Shortcuts app and run Nutrition MCP Health by hand: it says what went wrong. If it asks you to connect again, the connection has ended (after 90 days without a sync, 365 days after connecting, or after Disconnect): run it, sign in on the page it opens with the same account as in your AI app, and finish within 30 minutes. If it syncs when you run it but not on its own, check that its automations in the Shortcuts app's Automation tab are on and set to Run Immediately. If a notice says a day did not reach Apple Health, let Shortcuts write every nutrition type under Sharing → Apps → Shortcuts in the Health app, then run it again. Connecting a new iPhone replaces the old one's connection.
15My export download link doesn't work
Export links expire after 60 minutes, and each new export replaces the previous file. Ask for a fresh export (export_all_data) and download it right away. If the export reports 0 meals when you expected your history, you are probably signed in with a different email — see history is gone.
16How do I delete my account?
Ask the AI to delete your Nutrition MCP account (delete_account). It will ask you to confirm, then permanently delete your meals, saved meals, water, weight, body measurements, goals, settings, the record of which tools your AI app used, any export file, your sign-in and the account itself. This cannot be undone, so export your data first if you want a copy. Then remove the connector from your app. Signing in again with the same email later creates a new, empty account.
17How do I report a bug or a security issue?
Report bugs on GitHub Issues: say which app you use (Claude, ChatGPT, …), what you asked, what happened and roughly when. Never include your password. Please do not report security problems publicly: report them privately through GitHub private vulnerability reporting or by email, as the security policy describes. For anything else, email anton@nutrition-mcp.com.