As title says, cell forge has no recipe in the latest 1.19.2 version.

Recent version adds a completely reimagined and fully fleshed out version of the Cell Crafter!

looking at the data file you have the type set to "type": "minecells:cell_forge_recipe",

So my assumption is Minecells is not compatible with REI hence me not seeing recipe,. and also, how is one supposed to craft a cell forge in a cell forge?

Hi, the Cell Forge is not available in survival yet. Sorry for not making it clear 😅

I still have to sort some things out before making it usable, like REI compatibility. And I have to figure out if the Cell Forge is actually the best approach, or if I should do something different in its place.

I can change the name to "Cell Forge (creative only)" until it's ready / replaced

Ah this makes sense. i imagine "cells" are also not yet ready? not seeing any at all

You can turn on the minecells.mobsDropCells gamerule to make them drop! But for now they're disabled, because without the cell forge they have no use