A small Python client for reading data from Garmin's Personal API. It is a concrete example of how to query Garmin data using Personal API authentication, and other projects can reuse its parts independently:

• PersonalApiAuthenticator caches bearer tokens and exchanges a Personal API key for a new token when needed.
• GarminPersonalApiClient makes authenticated GET requests with any bearer token and provides convenience wrappers for Personal API data sets.
• gc-personal is a command-line interface built on those same wrappers. Its direct commands work in scripts and one-off queries, and an optional interactive menu is included for demonstrating and exploring the data.

You need Python 3.12 or newer and a Garmin Connect Personal API key. The package installs requests automatically.

Create a virtual environment, activate it, and install the package:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install garmin-connect-personal-api-python

On Windows, create and activate the environment with:

py -3 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m pip install garmin-connect-personal-api-python

The base package supports authentication, data access, and direct CLI commands. Install the optional interactive extra to add rich, which interactive mode requires:

python -m pip install 'garmin-connect-personal-api-python[interactive]'

To install without PyPI, run one of these commands from a clone of this repository:

python -m pip install .                 # library and direct CLI commands
python -m pip install '.[interactive]'  # adds interactive mode
python -m pip install -e '.[dev]'       # editable, with interactive mode and dev tools

The package does not create Personal API keys. Create a key on Garmin Connect.

gc-personal reads the key from one of these sources:

1. Key file: ~/.config/garmin/connect-personal-api-key, or another path passed with --api-key-file. On Windows, ~ is your user profile folder (%USERPROFILE%). The file should contain only the API key; surrounding whitespace, including a trailing newline, is ignored.
2. Environment variable: GARMIN_PERSONAL_API_KEY.
3. Command-line argument: --api-key.

If more than one source is provided, precedence is:

1. Explicit key: --api-key.
2. Explicit key file: --api-key-file, even if it names the default path.
3. Environment variable: GARMIN_PERSONAL_API_KEY.
4. Default key file, when neither explicit option nor the environment variable supplies a key.

A missing, unreadable, or empty explicitly selected file is an error, not a reason to fall back to the environment or default file. An empty explicit key or environment variable is also an error. A key passed with --api-key may be exposed through shell history or the process list.

# Use the default key file.
gc-personal profile-settings

# Use a key file at another path.
gc-personal --api-key-file ~/my-garmin-key profile-settings

# Use the environment variable.
export GARMIN_PERSONAL_API_KEY='your-personal-api-key'
gc-personal profile-settings

# Pass the key directly (exposed to shell history and the process list).
gc-personal --api-key 'your-personal-api-key' profile-settings

obtain_token() requires an explicit key and doesn't discover one itself; see Explicit API key. To opt into key discovery, pass the result of resolve_api_key() to obtain_token(); see Key discovery. An explicit api_key takes precedence over key_file=, which takes precedence over GARMIN_PERSONAL_API_KEY. When neither argument is supplied, discovery checks the environment variable and then the default key file.

The authenticator exchanges the API key for a bearer token and caches it by default in ~/.config/garmin/connect-personal-api-bearer-token.json. Use --bearer-token-cache-file in the CLI, or bearer_token_cache_file in Python, to choose another location:

gc-personal --bearer-token-cache-file /path/to/bearer-token-cache.json profile-settings

A cached token is reused only when it was issued for the current API key and has more than one hour remaining before expiration, based on the JWT exp claim. Otherwise, the authenticator obtains and caches a new token. Each direct command, interactive session, and obtain_token() call checks the cache this way, so expired tokens are replaced automatically. The cache can't be disabled.

Rarely, a token stops working before it expires, for example because it was revoked. Requests then fail with 401, and the client doesn't retry them. To recover, obtain a new token:

• Direct commands: run gc-personal refresh-token, or delete the cache file, then rerun the command.
• Interactive mode: choose Reload Bearer Token from the menu.
• Python: call obtain_token(api_key, force_refresh=True), then pass the new token's access_token to client.update_bearer_token().

The bearer-token cache, and the key file if you use one, hold plain-text credentials. Keep them readable only by your user and out of version control. On POSIX systems, the package logs a warning, but continues, when either file is readable by group or other users. This check isn't performed on Windows.

• Key file: Applies only when you provide the key through a key file rather than the environment variable or an explicit argument. You create this file, and it must contain only the key. Restrict its permissions yourself, for example with chmod 600.
• Bearer-token cache: The authenticator creates this file with 0600 permissions on POSIX systems, so you don't need to set them yourself. An existing cache file keeps its current permissions.

Use --help to list every command and shared option, or add it after a command to see that command's options and defaults:

gc-personal --help
gc-personal steps --help

Run gc-personal with a command to retrieve data, download an activity file, or replace the cached bearer token:

gc-personal profile-settings
gc-personal sleep --date 2026-08-24
gc-personal steps --start-date 2026-08-20 --end-date 2026-08-24
gc-personal activities --start 0 --limit 20 --start-date 2026-08-01
gc-personal activity 123456789
gc-personal activity-workouts 123456789
gc-personal activity-download 123456789
gc-personal activity-download 123456789 -o ./run.zip
gc-personal refresh-token
gc-personal --api-key-file /path/to/key --timeout 20 --quiet profile-settings

Most date options default to today when omitted. Shared options such as --api-key-file and --timeout go before the command. Use --quiet to suppress request logs for non-interactive commands; interactive status lines remain visible.

Data commands print JSON to stdout. Request logs, status messages, and errors go to stderr, so output can be piped to other tools, such as jq. The command exits with a non-zero status on failure.

activity-download saves a ZIP file as activity-ID.zip in the current directory unless -o PATH is given, and doesn't replace an existing file unless you pass --force. Use -o - to write the ZIP bytes to stdout; the command refuses to write them to a terminal.

Interactive mode is a demonstration and data-exploration tool. Run gc-personal without a command to open its menu. Interactive mode requires the interactive extra. It loads the token through the same cache-aware authentication path as direct commands, reuses it for the session, and can force a new token to be obtained and cached from the menu.

gc-personal

Select an activity in the activity browser to view its details or workouts, or choose download activity file to save its ZIP file. The menu prompts for a destination and confirms before replacing an existing file.

The usual flow is to obtain a token, then pass it to the data client.

Pass your application's API key directly to obtain_token(). For example, an application with its own secret store can use:

from garmin_personal_api import (
    GarminPersonalApiClient,
    PersonalApiAuthenticator,
)

api_key = my_app_secret_manager.get("garmin-personal-api-key")
with PersonalApiAuthenticator() as authenticator:
    token = authenticator.obtain_token(api_key)

with GarminPersonalApiClient(token.access_token) as client:
    sleep = client.get_daily_sleep("2026-08-24")
    steps = client.get_daily_steps("2026-08-20", "2026-08-24")

obtain_token() returns a BearerToken with the token string in access_token and its expiration, in seconds since the epoch, in expires_at. Pass force_refresh=True to explicitly obtain and cache a new token.

Alternatively, use resolve_api_key() to discover the key:

from garmin_personal_api import PersonalApiAuthenticator, resolve_api_key

with PersonalApiAuthenticator() as authenticator:
    token = authenticator.obtain_token(resolve_api_key())

To explicitly select a key file, use resolve_api_key(key_file="~/my-garmin-key"). This overrides the environment variable, including when you explicitly select the default file path. If the selected file is missing, unreadable, or empty, discovery raises an error instead of trying another source.

Applications that already have a bearer token can skip the authenticator and use the data client directly:

from garmin_personal_api import GarminPersonalApiClient

with GarminPersonalApiClient(my_app_token_provider.get_token()) as client:
    profile = client.get_user_profile_settings()

Both classes accept an optional requests.Session and can be used as context managers or closed explicitly.

Request activity is logged at INFO to the garmin_personal_api logger. Configure Python logging to see it.

download_activity() returns ZIP bytes without writing or extracting files:

from pathlib import Path

with GarminPersonalApiClient(token.access_token) as client:
    content = client.download_activity(123456789)
    Path("activity-123456789.zip").write_bytes(content)

The whole ZIP is held in memory; streaming is not currently supported. Unlike the CLI, Path.write_bytes() overwrites an existing file.

The table contains every dedicated wrapper on GarminPersonalApiClient. The CLI column shows the matching gc-personal command. activity, activity-workouts, and activity-download are direct commands but are not listed on the top-level interactive menu; see Interactive Mode for how to reach them interactively.

Wrappers are added as a convenience and may lag behind new endpoints available through Personal API. See the Personal API Swagger documentation for the full endpoint reference. Use get() for endpoints that don't have a wrapper; see Call an endpoint without a wrapper.

Dates accept datetime.date objects or YYYY-MM-DD strings. Validation of dates, ranges, and other arguments is left to the API, except download activity IDs, which must be positive integers.

Use GarminPersonalApiClient.get() for another Personal API GET endpoint:

with GarminPersonalApiClient(token.access_token) as client:
    custom_data = client.get(
        "/some-service/some-resource",
        params={"calendarDate": "2026-08-24"},
    )

The client adds bearer-token authorization and returns decoded JSON. A successful response with no content returns None.

• GarminPersonalApiError for missing or empty credentials, invalid local settings such as a non-positive timeout or an invalid download activity ID, an empty download response, or a token response that is not a JWT with an exp claim.
• HttpError, a subclass of GarminPersonalApiError, for unsuccessful token or data responses. It exposes status_code, method, url, and response_text.
• OSError when an existing key file can't be read, or the bearer-token cache can't be read or written, for example because of file permissions.

Network failures and invalid JSON responses raise the underlying requests exceptions.

ruff check .
pyright
pytest

Tests use HTTP test doubles and do not require credentials or network access.

• Garmin Connect Personal API Tokens
• Garmin Connect Personal API overview
• Personal API Swagger documentation

Copyright 2026 Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. Distributed under the Apache 2.0 License. See LICENSE for the complete license text.