Strava MCP Server

A small, read-only Model Context Protocol server that gives Claude live access to your personal Strava data — activities, splits, heart-rate/pace streams, zones, and lifetime totals — so it can coach off your real training instead of manual exports.

Runs in Strava "single-player mode": it only ever connects your own account.

What it exposes

All tools are reads. The server never creates, edits, or deletes anything on Strava.

Related MCP server: Strava MCP Server

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+

• A Strava account with an active subscription (required to create an API app)

Setup

1. Create a Strava API application

1. Go to https://www.strava.com/settings/api.

2. Create an app. Set Authorization Callback Domain to localhost.

3. Note your Client ID and Client Secret (keep the secret private).

2. Install

git clone <your-repo-url> strava-mcp-server
cd strava-mcp-server
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure credentials

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env: set STRAVA_CLIENT_ID and STRAVA_CLIENT_SECRET

4. Authorize (one time) to get a refresh token

python scripts/get_token.py

This opens your browser, catches the redirect on localhost, exchanges the code, and prints a STRAVA_REFRESH_TOKEN=... line. Paste it into .env.

5. Register the server with Claude

Claude Code — copy mcp.example.json to .mcp.json in the repo root (adjust the python path to your venv, e.g. .venv/bin/python, if needed), then start Claude Code from this directory. Approve the server when prompted.

Claude Desktop — add the strava block from mcp.example.json to your claude_desktop_config.json under mcpServers, using absolute paths:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "strava": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/strava-mcp-server/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "strava_mcp.server"],
      "cwd": "/absolute/path/to/strava-mcp-server"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see the Strava tools appear.

6. Sanity check

python -m strava_mcp.server   # should start and wait on stdio; Ctrl-C to exit

Security model

• No secrets in git. .env, .strava_tokens.json, and key files are gitignored. Only .env.example is tracked.

• Read-only scope. The app requests read, activity:read_all, and profile:read_all — no write scopes. The server issues only GET requests to data endpoints.

• Token hygiene. Access tokens (6-hour lifetime) are refreshed automatically from your refresh token. Strava rotates the refresh token on each exchange; the server persists the current one to .strava_tokens.json (chmod 600, gitignored).

• Rate limits. Honors Strava's 200 req / 15 min and 2,000 / day limits with automatic backoff on HTTP 429.

• Revoking access. Remove the app anytime at https://www.strava.com/settings/apps. Delete .strava_tokens.json and .env to purge local credentials.

Publish to GitHub

From the repo root (secrets are already gitignored, so this is safe):

The GitHub repo already exists at https://github.com/esowder22/strava-mcp-server, so just wire up the remote and push:

git init
git add .
git status                     # confirm .env / .strava_tokens.json are NOT listed
git commit -m "Initial commit: read-only Strava MCP server"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin git@github.com:esowder22/strava-mcp-server.git
git push -u origin main

Prefer HTTPS over SSH? Use git remote add origin https://github.com/esowder22/strava-mcp-server.git instead.

If the GitHub repo was created with a README/license and the push is rejected, run git pull --rebase origin main once, then push again. Keep the repo private — even though no secrets are committed, there's no reason to make it public.

Compatibility note

Written for the current mcp 2.x SDK (where FastMCP is MCPServer), with a fallback import so it also runs on mcp 1.x. No code change needed either way.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.