How to connect Strava to Hermes Agent

Pairing is a two-step handshake: run hermes clawlink begin, approve the link in your browser, then run hermes clawlink finish. If you ran finish before approving, or the approval link expired, run hermes clawlink begin again to get a fresh link. Confirm the plugin was installed with --enable, then verify with hermes clawlink test.

Reconnect Strava from the dashboard, then start a fresh chat if the runtime still has the old tool catalog loaded.

Strava tool schemas load on demand the first time a tool runs and are cached after that, so this error usually clears on its own: wait a few seconds and retry the same request. If every Strava call keeps failing with it in a fresh chat, reconnect from the dashboard, and contact support if it still persists — that pattern points to a configuration problem on our side, not something you can fix by reconnecting again.

Two usual causes. The connected account may not have access to the specific workspace, inbox, store, or project in the request — check that first. If access looks right, the agent may have sent a placeholder value (like "YOUR_ID" or an example id from documentation) instead of a real one: ask it to run a list or search tool first, then retry the action with a real id from those results. Most failures at this stage are one of these two, not ClawLink bugs.

Strava's taught causes for a 403 are scope and app state: the OAuth grant lacks the scope the call needs, or the app is at the default limit of one connected athlete for an unapproved developer account. The scope distinction is the one that bites on this integration: activity:read covers public activities and activity:read_all also covers private ones, so a call on a private activity fails with a permissions error when only the narrow scope was granted. That can happen silently because a partial approval on Strava's consent screen leaves the connection looking healthy. The fix is to reconnect from the dashboard and approve the full scope set. The page's own cause completes the list: a placeholder id such as YOUR_ACTIVITY_ID reaching the API literally. Ask the agent which activity and which scope it was using before anything else.

Ask the agent to diagnose it:

Call strava_get_authenticated_athlete and tell me the athlete id, then try strava_list_athlete_activities and report how many activities are visible. Quote the exact error from the failed call. Do not retry it yet.

Strava's current documented limits, per developers.strava.com, are 200 requests per 15 minutes and 2,000 per day overall, with the read endpoints capped tighter at 100 per 15 minutes and 1,000 per day, and a 429 with a JSON error when exceeded. An agent that walks an athlete's whole activity history one page at a time, then streams for each activity, is the shape that meets the window. The response is to change the shape of the work: list once, keep the ids, and read streams or laps only for the activities you actually need, in batches across turns if needed. The limits reset on natural 15-minute windows and at midnight UTC; no reconnect changes them.

Ask the agent to diagnose it:

Tell me how many Strava calls you have made in the last 15 minutes and what you were enumerating. Quote the exact error text. Do not call Strava again until I reply.

Two failures share this symptom. If no Strava tools appear at all, the connection or pairing is incomplete: confirm the plugin was installed with --enable, that hermes clawlink begin and hermes clawlink finish both ran, and that Strava shows as connected in the dashboard. If most tools work and one name fails, the name is wrong rather than missing, and the error lists the closest real ones. There is also a first-call timing case: schemas load on demand, so the opening Strava call in a fresh session can arrive before the catalog and needs one retry. The frame search results use for this symptom, a connector not loaded in a client's config, belongs to local MCP setups and does not apply here.

Ask the agent to diagnose it:

List the Strava tools you actually have access to. If there are none, say so plainly and tell me whether Strava shows as connected. Do not guess tool names.

Try reconnecting Strava and complete the consent flow in the same browser session. Partial OAuth approvals or switching accounts mid-flow can leave the connection incomplete.

Yes. ClawLink is the fastest way to connect Hermes to Strava: link your Strava account once in the browser and Hermes Agent can call the Strava API through 33 ready-made tools — no custom code or token handling.

Install the plugin with hermes plugins install ClawLink-HQ/hermes-plugin --enable, then pair once: run hermes clawlink begin, approve the link in your browser, and run hermes clawlink finish. Connect Strava in the dashboard and Hermes can use it from the next message — no config files or API keys to manage.

About two minutes. Sign in, click Connect next to Strava in the dashboard, authenticate, and Hermes Agent can use it from the next chat message.

The alternative to ClawLink is usually manual OAuth app setup plus your own token handling, permission troubleshooting, and tool plumbing for Hermes Agent. That is fine if you want to build and maintain the integration yourself. Most teams just want Strava working from chat.

Strava's connector is their own hosted MCP server, subscriber-only and read-only, rolled out from June 2026, and it syncs training history into MCP clients. This page's route connects through hosted OAuth with no subscription requirement and exposes 33 tools, including the writes the connector deliberately does not have: strava_upload_activity, strava_create_an_activity, and the kudos and club tools. Both are hosted, both keep the 6-hour token expiry out of your hands. The choice is scope: read-only sync from Strava's own product, or an agent that can also act on the account through ClawLink.

Strava access tokens are short-lived, roughly 6 hours, and the manual routes document refresh-token rotation as a standing chore. The hosted OAuth connection here owns the refresh flow: you approve access once in the browser, and the token lifecycle is handled server-side, invisible to Hermes and to you. This is the main thing the manual setup pages do not tell you about, and it is exactly the kind of maintenance a hosted flow exists to remove.

The activity surface: list and read activities, upload new ones from a file, create activities, read streams, laps, zones, and comments, give and list kudos. The athlete and social surface: athlete stats, clubs and their members and activities, routes and GPX/TCX exports, segments, segment efforts, and equipment. The writes are the differentiator: uploading an activity from a file and creating activities are the tools the official read-only connector cannot offer.

The usual cause is scope, not the connection. The OAuth grant asks for the activity scopes, and the distinction that matters is activity:read versus activity:read_all: the first covers activities you made public, the second also covers private ones. If private activities are invisible to the agent, the connection was granted without activity:read_all. The fix is to review the connected app's permissions in Strava settings and reconnect, approving the full scope set on the consent screen.

Pairing is a two-step handshake: run hermes clawlink begin, approve the link in your browser, then run hermes clawlink finish. If you ran finish before approving, or the approval link expired, run hermes clawlink begin again to get a fresh link. Confirm the plugin was installed with --enable, then verify with hermes clawlink test.