Using RideTool with Claude

If you already use Claude, the AI assistant from Anthropic, you can connect it to RideTool and ask it about your rides. Not generic internet advice. Answers from your actual data.

"Am I getting fitter?" "Should I ride today?" "How was my fitness last month?" "What was my longest ride in March?"

You install RideTool as a Claude connector. Once it's set up, every new chat with Claude can reach into your rides, your fitness, your bikes, your weight log, whatever you've put in RideTool, and answer questions in plain English.

What you'll need

• A RideTool account (the $29/year plan).
• A Claude.ai Pro or Max plan. Anthropic limits custom connectors on the free tier, so a paid Claude plan is what makes this usable. Team and Enterprise plans work too, with the owner adding the connector once for everyone.
• A few minutes. There's nothing to install on your computer, no terminal, no config files, no API keys to copy and paste.

Install it on claude.ai (web)

1. Sign in at claude.ai.
2. Open Customize → Connectors from the Claude menu.
3. Click the + and choose Add custom connector.
4. Paste the RideTool server URL: https://mcp.ridetool.cc
5. Click Add. A window opens to sign in to RideTool, see the OAuth section below for what's happening there.
6. When it closes, RideTool is listed under your connectors with a green status. Start a new chat and ask "Am I getting fitter?" to confirm.

Seeing "Advanced settings" with OAuth Client ID / Client Secret boxes? Leave them blank. They're optional, only needed for MCP servers that don't support Dynamic Client Registration. RideTool does, so it registers Claude for you automatically; filling them in isn't required.

You only add RideTool once. Connectors sync across every Claude surface, web, desktop, and mobile, as long as you're signed in to the same account, so there's no separate setup for the desktop or mobile apps. For Team and Enterprise accounts, the owner adds it under Organization settings → Connectors and members authenticate individually from their own connector settings.

Anthropic keeps the install flow up to date in their own help docs, see Getting started with custom connectors if any of the menu names have moved.

How the sign-in works (OAuth)

You don't give Claude your RideTool password. The connector uses OAuth, the same protocol you use whenever you sign in to a site "with Strava" or "with Google."

Step by step, the first time you connect:

1. Claude opens a browser window pointing at RideTool's authorization page.
2. You sign in to RideTool the normal way, Strava, Wahoo, Garmin, or email.
3. RideTool asks you to confirm that Claude can read and write to your account on your behalf.
4. RideTool hands Claude a scoped access token (not your password) and the window closes.
5. From then on, Claude uses that token to talk to RideTool. You can revoke it anytime, from the connector list in Claude, or from your RideTool account settings.

Two things this means in practice: Claude never sees your password, and you can pull the plug instantly without changing anything else about your RideTool account.

What you can ask

How am I doing?

• "Am I getting fitter?"
• "How's my fitness compared to 3 months ago?"
• "What's my power-to-weight right now?"
• "Should I ride today?"
• "When am I going to be fresh enough to push?"

Your ride history

• "Show me my rides this week"
• "What was my hardest ride last month?"
• "How many miles did I ride in April?"
• "Tell me about my ride last Saturday"

Your bikes

• "What bikes do I have?"
• "Add a new bike called Levo Expert"
• "How many miles on my Stumpy?"
• "Set my gravel bike as the default"

Logging body data

• "Log my weight at 165 lbs"
• "What's my weight trend?"
• "I ate 2,200 calories today"
• "Drank 48 oz of water"
• "Log injury: sore left knee after yesterday's ride"

Calories from a photo

Snap a photo of your meal in Claude and say "estimate the calories in this and log it." Claude will guess and write it into your RideTool food log.

What it's not

• Not a coach. It won't write you a training plan or prescribe intervals.
• Not a replacement for the app. The weekly emails and your Me card still do the heavy lifting, Claude is a way to ask questions on top of what's already running.
• It's a conversation. Ask it the same things you'd ask a friend who happens to know your ride history by heart.