Garmin MCP server: hosted or self-hosted
A Garmin MCP server is what lets an AI assistant read your Garmin Connect data: activities, sleep, heart-rate variability, training load. There are two kinds: open-source servers you install and run on your own computer, and hosted servers such as garmlink, which you add by pasting one address. Both read the same Garmin data. They differ in where they run, which assistants can reach them, and who keeps them working.
Setting it up
- Run it yourself
- Install the server and what it runs on (usually Python or Node), then declare it in your assistant’s configuration file.
- Hosted: garmlink
- Paste one address into your assistant, then sign in to Garmin once.
Which assistants can use it
- Run it yourself
- Desktop apps and code tools that start a server on your computer, such as Claude Desktop, Cursor or VS Code. A web assistant needs a public address, which you would have to host.
- Hosted: garmlink
- Web assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Le Chat, as well as code tools and agents: any client that can add a remote MCP server.
Your Garmin sign-in
- Run it yourself
- Your Garmin credentials or tokens stay on your computer.
- Hosted: garmlink
- Your password is used once and never stored; garmlink keeps the access tokens, encrypted.
Your history
- Run it yourself
- Depends on the project: read live from Garmin Connect, or kept on your computer.
- Hosted: garmlink
- Synced ahead of time and kept up to date, so a question over several months reads garmlink’s copy instead of asking Garmin.
Keeping it working
- Run it yourself
- You update it when Garmin changes how it signs in or serves its data.
- Hosted: garmlink
- garmlink keeps it working; there is nothing to update on your side.
The code
- Run it yourself
- Open source: you can read and change every line.
- Hosted: garmlink
- Closed source and read-only by design. The privacy page says what is stored and which providers receive it.
Run your own when
- you want your Garmin credentials and synced data stored on your computer only;
- you only use desktop apps or code tools that start local servers;
- you are happy to install the server and keep it updated.
garmlink fits when
- you ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Le Chat on the web;
- you would rather paste an address than install anything;
- you want months of history synced for you and kept fresh.
Going hosted? Pick your assistant and connect it. The other projects, by name: Garmin and AI assistants: every way to connect them. Other questions: Questions about garmlink.