Bring! Shopping Lists

Manage Bring! shopping lists via the unofficial REST API. Requires curl and jq.

Agent Setup Guide

When a user asks you to set up or use Bring for the first time, follow these steps:

Step 1: Check if already configured

Run scripts/bring.sh lists first. If it works, setup is already done — skip to usage.

Step 2: Set up credentials

Bring! requires an email + password. If the user doesn't have an account yet, they can create one for free at getbring.com or in the Bring! app.

If they signed up via Google/Apple: They need to set a direct password first in the Bring! app (Settings → Account → Change Password) before the API works.

Ask the user how they'd like to provide their credentials:

"I need your Bring! email and password. You can either share them here in chat (I'll write them to a config file and never mention them again), or if you prefer to keep them out of the chat entirely, I can give you a terminal command to enter them privately. Which do you prefer?"

Option A — via chat (convenient): User shares email + password in chat. Write them directly to the config file using jq for safe JSON encoding (prevents injection via special characters) and do not echo them back:

mkdir -p ~/.config/bring
jq -n --arg e "USER_EMAIL" --arg p "USER_PASSWORD" '{email: $e, password: $p}' > ~/.config/bring/credentials.json
chmod 600 ~/.config/bring/credentials.json

After writing, confirm: "Done — credentials saved securely. I won't repeat them."

Option B — via terminal (more private): Give the user this command to run in their own terminal. Credentials never appear in chat:

mkdir -p ~/.config/bring
read -rp "Bring! Email: " BEMAIL
read -rsp "Bring! Password: " BPASS && echo
jq -n --arg e "$BEMAIL" --arg p "$BPASS" '{email: $e, password: $p}' > ~/.config/bring/credentials.json
chmod 600 ~/.config/bring/credentials.json
unset BEMAIL BPASS

Tell the user: "Run that in your terminal, then come back and I'll continue the setup."

⚠️ Do NOT use scripts/bring.sh setup — it requires an interactive terminal (TTY) which agents don't have. Always create the credentials file manually as shown in Step 3.

Step 3: Save credentials and test login

mkdir -p ~/.config/bring
jq -n --arg e "USER_EMAIL" --arg p "USER_PASSWORD" '{email: $e, password: $p}' > ~/.config/bring/credentials.json
chmod 600 ~/.config/bring/credentials.json
scripts/bring.sh login

If login fails: double-check email/password. The user may need their Bring! password (not Google/Apple SSO — Bring requires a direct account password).

Step 4: Show existing lists and ask for a default

scripts/bring.sh lists

This shows all the user's Bring! lists. The user may have multiple lists, e.g.:

• Einkaufsliste (main grocery list)
• Drogerie (drugstore items)
• Baumarkt (hardware store)
• A shared list with a partner/family

If the user has NO lists: Tell them to create one in the Bring! app first. The API does not support creating or deleting lists — this must be done in the app. Once they've created a list, continue with setup.

Ask the user which list should be the default. This lets them skip typing the list name every time.

If they have only ONE list: set it as default automatically and inform them. If they have MULTIPLE lists: show the list names and ask which one to use as default. Explain they can still target other lists by name (e.g., "Put nails on the Baumarkt list").

Step 5: Set default list

Update the credentials file to include the chosen default:

# Read existing config and add default_list
jq --arg list "CHOSEN_LIST_NAME" '. + {default_list: $list}' ~/.config/bring/credentials.json > /tmp/bring_conf.json && mv /tmp/bring_conf.json ~/.config/bring/credentials.json
chmod 600 ~/.config/bring/credentials.json

Step 6: Confirm setup

Show the user their current list content to confirm everything works:

scripts/bring.sh show

Tell them: "All set! You can now say things like 'Put milk on the list' or 'What's on the shopping list?'"

Important: Lists can only be managed in the app

The Bring! API does not support creating or deleting lists. If the user asks to create a new list or delete one, tell them: "Lists can only be created and deleted in the Bring! app. Once you've made the change there, I can immediately work with the new list."

Handling shared lists

Bring! lists are often shared between family members or partners. Changes made by the agent sync instantly to all devices sharing that list. Inform the user:

• "Any items I add will show up immediately on all phones that share this list."
• This is usually desired (e.g., partner sees the updated grocery list), but worth mentioning.

Setup (manual / reference)

Credentials via env vars BRING_EMAIL + BRING_PASSWORD, or config file ~/.config/bring/credentials.json:

{"email": "[email protected]", "password": "secret", "default_list": "Einkaufsliste"}

Interactive setup (TTY required): scripts/bring.sh setup

Commands

All commands accept a list name (partial match) or UUID. If default_list is configured, the list argument can be omitted.

# List all shopping lists
scripts/bring.sh lists

# Show items on a list (or default list)
scripts/bring.sh show
scripts/bring.sh show "Einkaufsliste"

# Add item (with optional specification/quantity)
scripts/bring.sh add "Milch" "fettarm, 1L"
scripts/bring.sh add "Einkaufsliste" "Milch" "fettarm, 1L"

# Add multiple items at once (use "item|spec" for specifications)
scripts/bring.sh add-multi "Brot" "Käse|Gouda" "Butter|irische"

# Complete/check off item (moves to recently purchased)
scripts/bring.sh complete "Milch"

# Complete multiple items at once
scripts/bring.sh complete-multi "Milch" "Brot" "Käse"

# Move item back from recently to purchase list
scripts/bring.sh uncomplete "Milch"

# Remove item entirely
scripts/bring.sh remove "Milch"

# Remove multiple items at once
scripts/bring.sh remove-multi "Milch" "Brot" "Käse"

Targeting specific lists

When the user has multiple lists, they can target a specific one by name:

• "Put nails on the Baumarkt list" → scripts/bring.sh add "Baumarkt" "Nails"
• "What's on the Drogerie list?" → scripts/bring.sh show "Drogerie"

List names support partial case-insensitive matching, so "einkauf" matches "Einkaufsliste".

If no list is specified, the default_list from the config is used.

JSON Output

Append --json to lists and show for raw JSON:

scripts/bring.sh lists --json
scripts/bring.sh show --json
scripts/bring.sh show "Einkaufsliste" --json

Notes

• Specifications are the small description text under an item (e.g., quantity, brand)
• complete moves items to "recently purchased" (like checking off in the app)
• remove deletes items entirely from the list
• Token is cached at ~/.cache/bring/token.json and auto-refreshed
• Changes sync instantly to all devices sharing the list
• Item names with special characters (quotes, umlauts, emoji) are fully supported
• Bring! requires a direct account password — Google/Apple SSO logins don't work with the API
• country in credentials.json controls the item catalog language (default: DE)
• When showing items to the user, consider only showing the "TO BUY" section unless they specifically ask for recently completed items — the recently list can be very long
• If remove fails with "not found", suggest the user check the exact item name with show
• Creating/deleting lists is not supported by the Bring! API — users must manage lists in the Bring! app