Side project · 2025 – 2026
Νηστεία (Nisteia)
A Greek Orthodox fasting companion. Scan a barcode in the supermarket, look the product up in Open Food Facts, and find out straight away whether it fits the fasting rules. Claude suggests meal ideas, in Greek or English.
The problem
Orthodox fasting rules change day by day through Holy Week: meat, dairy, fish, oil and wine are each allowed or not depending on the day. If you didn't grow up with it, it's hard to keep track, and standing in a supermarket aisle reading ingredient labels doesn't help.
I built Nisteia so anyone can open it and immediately know what they can eat today, and so older members of the community can use the whole thing in Greek.
Features
Daily fasting rules
Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday. Each day shows a grid of meat, dairy, fish, oil and wine status, plus what the Church commemorates that day. It opens on today's date automatically.
Barcode scanner
Point the camera at a product for an instant verdict. If the product isn't in Open Food Facts, Claude checks it by name instead. There's a torch button for dark aisles.
AI meal suggestions
Pick ingredients you like and Claude returns three meal ideas that fit today's restrictions, in whichever language is active.
Greek recipe library
Six traditional fasting recipes (Fasolada, Fakes, Taramasalata, Lagana, Spanakorizo and Halva), filtered to what's allowed on the selected day.
Beginner's guide
A plain-language FAQ for people who have never fasted before, written without assuming any knowledge of the tradition.
Greek / English toggle
One tap switches every screen, label, recipe, verdict and FAQ answer between English and Greek.
How it's built
Front end
Next.js App Router and TypeScript, styled with Tailwind. Installs to iPhone and Android home screens as a PWA, with no app store needed.
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Tailwind
Scanning and data
Quagga2 handles retail barcode detection, and the Open Food Facts API provides the product lookups.
- Quagga2
- Open Food Facts
AI and localisation
The Claude API powers meal suggestions and the fallback product check. A custom React Context handles all the Greek and English strings.
- Claude API
- React Context