Nisteia
Nisteia (Νηστεία)
A mobile web app that helps Orthodox Christians navigate fasting during Holy Week. Scan supermarket products, browse traditional Greek recipes, and get personalised meal suggestions, all without needing to already know the rules.
Status: Live · Deployed on Vercel · Holy Week 2025
The App
Five tabs. One purpose each.
Built and shipped end-to-end during Holy Week 2025. Open it and immediately know what you can eat today. Clear rules, real recipes, and a barcode scanner for when you're standing in the supermarket aisle unsure about a product.
Key Features
Daily Fasting Rules
Covers Palm Sunday through to Holy Saturday. Tap any day and get the exact fasting rules: a grid showing meat, dairy, fish, oil and wine status, alongside the story of what the Church is commemorating that day. Auto-detects today's date so it always opens to the right day.
Barcode Scanner
Point the camera at any supermarket product and get an instant fasting verdict. Powered by Quagga2 for fast retail barcode detection. If a product isn't in the Open Food Facts database, an AI fallback via Claude checks it on the spot by name. Torch button included for dark supermarket aisles.
AI Meal Suggestions
Pick ingredients you enjoy from a grid and Claude returns three personalised fasting meal ideas built around your preferences and today's fasting restrictions. Results also switch to Greek when Greek mode is active.
Greek Recipe Library
Six traditional Greek fasting recipes: Fasolada, Fakes, Taramasalata, Lagana, Spanakorizo, and Halva, with numbered steps and the Greek name for each. Automatically filters to only show what's permitted on the selected day.
Beginner's Guide
A plain-language FAQ for anyone who has never fasted before. What is Orthodox fasting? What can I eat? Do I have to be perfect? Why is Good Friday the hardest day? All answered without assuming any prior knowledge of the tradition.
Greek / English Toggle
One tap switches the entire app between English and Greek. Every screen, label, recipe name, fasting verdict, and FAQ question and answer. Built specifically so older community members can use it fully in Greek without any friction.
Tech Stack
Frontend
Next.js with App Router and TypeScript throughout. Styled with Tailwind CSS. Deployed as a PWA that installs directly to iPhone and Android home screens straight from the browser, no App Store required.
AI Integration
Anthropic Claude API powers two features: personalised fasting meal suggestions based on the user's ingredient preferences, and a product ingredient check fallback when a barcode isn't found in the Open Food Facts database.
Scanning & Deployment
Quagga2 for fast retail barcode detection. Open Food Facts API for product lookups. Custom React Context for full English and Greek localisation. Auto-deployed to Vercel on every git push to main.