Use RunBuddy with Claude
RunBuddy is an MCP server. Add it to Claude as a connector, and Claude can read your workouts and manage your plan with the same tools as the built-in coach. It’s free on every account.
Updated · 8 min read
What Claude can do
Claude works from your logged data, not guesses. Once connected, it can:
- Read your workouts, splits, weekly volume, personal records and fitness trend
- Check your readiness from HRV, resting heart rate and sleep
- Build a training plan, and move, add or change sessions on it
- Track your goals and shoe mileage
- Browse the exercise library and put together strength sessions
- Remember facts you tell it, like an old injury or your goal race
Connect in the Claude app
This works on claude.ai and in Claude Desktop. In Claude, open Settings → Connectors, choose Add custom connector and paste this URL. Claude sends you to RunBuddy to sign in and approve access. There’s no token to copy or store.
https://runbuddy.cloud/mcpConnect in Claude Code
Add the server from your terminal, then run /mcp inside Claude Code and choose RunBuddy to sign in:
claude mcp add --transport http runbuddy https://runbuddy.cloud/mcpOther AI apps
Any app that speaks MCP can connect to https://runbuddy.cloud/mcp. If it can’t sign in with OAuth, create a static token instead: in Settings → AI / MCP, give the client a name and choose Create client. RunBuddy shows the token once, with ready-made setup snippets. The app sends it as an Authorization: Bearer header. For apps that only run local servers, like Claude Desktop without connectors, bridge it with mcp-remote:
{
"mcpServers": {
"runbuddy": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://runbuddy.cloud/mcp",
"--header", "Authorization: Bearer <token>"]
}
}
}Things to ask
Ask the way you’d ask a coach. Claude looks up your data before it answers:
- How did my long run on Sunday compare with last month’s?
- Is my weekly distance going up too fast?
- Build me a 12-week half marathon plan, four runs a week.
- Move Thursday’s tempo session to Friday.
- Which of my shoes is closest to needing a replacement?
What Claude can’t do
A plan Claude builds starts as a plan preview, and it goes live only when you tell Claude to activate it. Claude can correct a recorded workout, such as a wrong distance from an import, but it can’t delete one. Delete workouts in the app.
Disconnect
Go to Settings → AI / MCP and choose Revoke next to the app under Authorized apps, or next to its static token. A revoked app loses access within the hour and has to ask for your approval again to reconnect.
Server details
For developers and anyone setting up a client by hand:
- Endpoint: https://runbuddy.cloud/mcp. The older /api/mcp works the same.
- Transport: Streamable HTTP, stateless. Each request stands on its own, with no session to keep alive.
- Sign-in: OAuth 2.1, or a static bearer token from Settings → AI / MCP.
- Price: free on every account. The MCP server is never behind Coach Pro.
How sign-in works
RunBuddy is its own OAuth 2.1 authorization server, so clients that support MCP authorization set themselves up:
- A request without a token gets 401 with a WWW-Authenticate header that points to the protected resource metadata.
- Discovery follows RFC 9728 and RFC 8414, under /.well-known/.
- Clients identify themselves with a Client ID Metadata Document, an HTTPS URL as client_id. PKCE is required, and dynamic client registration is off.
- You see a consent screen that names the app’s host before you approve.
- A token is bound to the exact URL it was issued for (RFC 8707), so a token for /mcp isn’t accepted on /api/mcp.
- Static tokens go in an Authorization: Bearer header and only work on the MCP endpoint.
Tools
These are the same tools the built-in coach uses, and each one only reaches your own data. Tools that read are marked read-only, so Claude can call them without asking. Tools that overwrite or remove something are marked destructive, so Claude asks you to confirm each call.
| Tool | What it does | Access |
|---|---|---|
| getDashboardSummary | Get dashboard summary | Reads |
| getWeeklyVolume | Get weekly volume | Reads |
| getMetricSeries | Get health metric series | Reads |
| getWorkouts | List workouts | Reads |
| getWorkoutDetail | Get workout detail | Reads |
| updateWorkout | Correct a logged workout | Changes data |
| getTrainingGuidance | Look up training guidance | Reads |
| getActivePlan | Get active training plan | Reads |
| getUpcomingSessions | List upcoming sessions | Reads |
| getPlanAdherence | Get plan adherence | Reads |
| getWorkoutFeedback | Get workout feedback | Reads |
| createTrainingPlan | Create draft training plan | Changes data |
| activateTrainingPlan | Activate training plan | Changes data |
| discardTrainingPlan | Discard draft training plan | Changes data |
| updateSession | Update a session | Changes data |
| addSession | Add a session | Changes data |
| deleteSession | Delete a session | Changes data |
| batchUpdateSessions | Batch add/update/delete sessions | Changes data |
| pausePlan | Pause the training plan | Changes data |
| resumePlan | Resume the training plan | Changes data |
| rememberFact | Remember a fact | Changes data |
| recallFacts | Recall saved facts | Reads |
| forgetFact | Forget a saved fact | Changes data |
| getFitnessFreshness | Get fitness, fatigue & form | Reads |
| getReadiness | Get training readiness | Reads |
| getPersonalRecords | List personal records | Reads |
| getGoals | List goals | Reads |
| createGoal | Create a goal | Changes data |
| deleteGoal | Delete a goal | Changes data |
| getShoes | List shoes | Reads |
| createShoe | Add a shoe | Changes data |
| updateShoe | Update a shoe | Changes data |
| listExercises | Browse exercise library | Reads |
| getExerciseDetail | Get exercise detail | Reads |
| proposePlanChange | Propose a plan change | Changes data |
What the server tells Claude
On connect, RunBuddy sends instructions that make Claude act as your running coach: back every claim with a tool call, check the training guidance before prescribing a session or changing your plan, and look up what it remembers about you early in a conversation. Your wishes come first unless safety is at stake. Text you typed yourself, like a custom exercise name, is marked as your data so it can never act as instructions.
Self-hosted RunBuddy
A self-hosted server is an MCP server too, with the same tools. In single-user mode, connect with a static token from Settings → AI / MCP.
Self-host RunBuddy