Runspector — AI running coach for Garmin
A free, open-source AI running coach for Garmin watches. Runspector syncs your Garmin Connect data -
HRV, sleep, Body Battery, resting heart rate, training load and every run - into a file on your own
computer, decides each day whether to go hard, keep it easy or rest, and lets Claude explain why and plan
your week: in a small local web app, or as a Garmin MCP server in Claude Code and Claude Desktop. No cloud,
no API key needed - your own Claude Code sign-in is enough.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0b4d7d86-5ab7-439b-82cb-89a004b71405
The 90-second demo, with voice-over: the synthetic demo athlete, rebuilt from this repo by scripts/video.py
(file). No player above? The GitHub mobile app shows no videos:
▶ play the demo in the browser.
The built-in synthetic athlete (runspector serve --demo). Every image is regenerated by
python scripts/screenshots.py, and the coach card is an unedited agent run against that same
demo database, kept in demo-card.json so the picture cannot
drift from the app — the decision it explains (EASY, a day after a hard session) is the one on the Today tab
beside it. docs/screenshots/ has each of the five tabs full-length, in both
themes — e.g. today.png and
today-light.png.
I came to running late, and for a long time my VO2max would not move. I had always trained a lot,
and it had never really shown up in that number — so I assumed more of the same would eventually
work. It did not. I was training wrong, in ways the watch on my wrist had the data to show me and
never did: Garmin collects everything and explains nothing.
That was the idea. The data is already there; let an AI read it and coach — with the training aimed
squarely at raising VO2max rather than at collecting kilometres, and with the decision rules written
down so the coach explains them instead of improvising. This repository started as that tool for one
athlete. It is now installable for anyone with a Garmin watch and Claude Code (a Claude plan is enough).
No cloud backend, no API key needed, no Docker. One Python package that syncs your Garmin data into a
SQLite file on your machine, shows it in a small web app, and lets Claude act as your coach —
with a deterministic readiness engine underneath, so the AI explains decisions instead of inventing them.
If you came for the engineering rather than the running, the five decisions this repository is
actually about — each with the measurement behind it — are in
Design decisions. The short version: the verdict is
pure code and only the explanation is AI · the agent runs on
an allowlist, not a denylist (--tools "", one MCP server, empty temp cwd) ·
prompts are regression-tested by an LLM-as-judge suite whose last run is
in the repo · quantities that exist in two languages are pinned by
executing the shipped JavaScript against the Python · and the
release gate scans binaries too, with a false-positive counter-case. CI runs lint,
1674 tests, 151 frontend tests and that gate on three operating systems and two Python versions, with every
action pinned to a commit SHA — and a second job that builds the wheel, installs it as a user would and
drives the installed executable through this quick start on all three systems,
because the suite proves the code and only an install proves the package.
Formerly runcoach-ai: same project, renamed in v0.5.0. Old links redirect here. Coming from it: three steps to switch over, and your data moves by itself.
Not affiliated with Garmin. Uses the unofficial
python-garminconnect library against your own account.
This is a training tool, not medical advice.
Quick start
# 1. install (needs uv: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/)
uv tool install runspector
# without uv: pipx install runspector
# 2. look around without any account
runspector serve --demo
# 3. the real thing
runspector serve # first start: checks Garmin and Claude, opens http://127.0.0.1:8765 -
# sign in to Garmin right there (Setup → Sign in to Garmin; only a
# session token is stored) - and syncs the last 30 days in the background
Garmin is signed into on the page itself (Setup → Sign in to Garmin, or Sign in again when the
session has expired): e-mail, password and Garmin's code if your account uses one, and the sync starts
right after. runspector login does the same from any terminal, and a running app picks it up on ↻ - no
restart. Claude is only needed for the coach cards: see Connecting Claude.
runspector doctor tells you what is missing — it checks the Garmin session by actually
using it, and reports the data age, because a token that quietly expired is how this kind of app dies.
Use runspector doctor --offline to skip the Garmin call. Exit 1 means something needs fixing, so
runspector doctor || notify-me works in a cron; a missing Claude CLI is reported but does not set it,
since everything except the coach cards works without it.
Garmin MCP server for Claude Code and Claude Desktop
The same data, and the same rules, as an MCP server with 18 tools - among them today's readiness verdict, recovery,
training load, recent runs, intensity distribution, the VO2max history, what the coach has learned about
you, a Garmin sync, a check-in when you say you are ill or hurt - and propose, change, apply and undo
for the workouts on your watch.
claude mcp add runspector -- runspector mcp
# then just ask: "should I train today?"
# or: "plan me an easy 40 minutes for tomorrow" - you see the session, and it goes
# on your watch only after you say yes ("take it back off" undoes it)
In Claude Desktop, or any MCP client with a JSON configuration (sign in once first: runspector login):
{ "mcpServers": { "runspector": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["runspector", "mcp"] } } }
Keep it fresh without the app (cron / Task Scheduler): runspector sync. For the morning:
runspector today --sync prints today's call in a few lines - GO / EASY / REST with its sentence, the
signals behind it, today's planned session with its easier option - and exits 3 when there is nothing
from today yet, so a cron and any notifier can tell "not synced" from "rest day".
Later on:
uv tool upgrade runspector # the newest release; your data and Garmin session stay where they are
uv tool uninstall runspector # removes the program only - delete ~/.runspector yourself if you want the data gone
uv tool install runspector takes the latest release from PyPI (runspector==0.10.0 pins one; pipx install runspector
and pipx upgrade runspector do the same without uv);
uv tool install git+https://github.com/edxleon/runspector takes whatever is on main.
Connecting Claude
runspector does not connect to Claude itself and never asks for a Claude password or key. The coach runs on
Claude software you sign into with your own account, through Anthropic's own sign-in.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
