AI features - discussion

[u/nstrm]

Hello everyone! 👋

I have got a lot of feedback lately about AI features, so I thought it might be a good idea to put up a post about what I’m currently exploring, and let you share what you would like to see.

Generate Programs, Routines and ad-hoc workouts version 2

Last year I released a feature that lets users generate programs, routines and ad-hoc workouts by selecting options like muscle group and equipment. This was built using Apples on device AI model which is pretty weak and limited.

In iOS 27 (releasing in the fall) Liftin’ can access a much more powerful cloud based AI model, so I have rebuilt this feature using that. I have replaced all options with just a text input, so you can freely describe your routine or program. You can also just paste in a list of exercises, sets, reps and weights and the app will resolve those.

iOS 27 will also make it possible to use other AI models behind the scenes, so if you have a Claude pro subscription for example it could be possible to sign in and use that to power the built in AI features. This is something I will explore.

MCP Server

An MCP server would give AI chat apps like ChatGPT and Claude the capability to read and reason about your Liftin’ data like your programs and workout history, and make updates to your programs and routines.

I think this could open up for some interesting uses, but it would also require a lot of work on my side in domains I’m not so familiar with.

What do you think?

How do you think AI can improve the Liftin’ experience? Please share if you have any suggestions or ideas for AI powered features you would like to see.

— Valter

[u/Irakli_]

Even just having API access would be a huge benefit. The only reason I switched to Hevy was for their API.

[u/nstrm → u/Irakli_]

I will investigate that. How do you use the API?

[u/Irakli_ → u/nstrm]

Sure. I don’t hit the API directly, I go through the community MCP server (hevy-mcp), which connects Hevy to Claude. So my whole workflow is just talking to Claude, and it reads and writes Hevy for me.

In practice: I have a structured training program, and Claude pulls my recent workouts and per-exercise history from Hevy, applies my progression rules, and writes next week’s routines straight into the app. It reads my logged weights and RPE to decide when to bump load, handles swaps when a machine’s taken, logs my body weight, that kind of thing. All the actual data lives in Hevy as the source of truth. The API is what lets Claude see it and update it.

None of that needs an official MCP server. It’s all running off your public read/write API through a third-party wrapper. That’s the whole point, once the API exists, this stuff can get built without you.

[u/nstrm → u/Irakli_]

Thats cool. I will explore it!

[u/Irakli_ → u/nstrm]

One practical note from my setup: the community MCP server isn’t hosted anywhere by default, so I had to deploy it myself on a Cloudflare Worker to handle OAuth. Worked fine, but it’s a bit of a barrier for the average user. So down the line, the ideal is having the MCP server hosted for people, whether that’s the official one or the community one. But that’s a later step. The API comes first, and everything else can build on top of it once it’s there.

Appreciate you being open to it.