search_exercisesLABSCO SUMMARY
Exercise data an assistant looks up, with the anatomy attached.
Fitness content is a place where a confident wrong answer has physical consequences — invented movements, wrong muscle groups, unsafe cues. This puts a structured library behind the agent so the exercises it names, and the muscles it attributes to them, come from the source.
What it is
The official MCP server for exerciseapi.dev, a curated exercise library spanning strength, calisthenics, yoga, pilates, mobility, physical therapy, plyometrics and stretching.
What you get
- Search across the library with filtering handled server-side, so the shortlist comes back already narrowed
- The full record for one exercise: instructions, form tips and safety notes written by people rather than generated
- Primary and secondary muscles named specifically, not as "chest" or "legs"
- Browsable lists of categories, equipment and muscles, so an app's filter UI can be built from the real vocabulary
- Library statistics, and demonstration videos for a growing subset of exercises
Requirements
npx @exerciseapi/mcp-server with EXERCISEAPI_KEY in the client config. A free key from exerciseapi.dev/dashboard allows 100 requests a day and needs no credit card.
Setup effort
One command plus a key — npx -y @exerciseapi/mcp-server, then supply credentials
USE CASES
01
Assembling a session for a specific goal
Search by what you actually have — the target muscle, the equipment in the room, the difficulty — and get exercises that satisfy all of it.
02
Checking form before you prescribe a movement
Pull the exercise's own instructions, form tips and safety notes rather than paraphrasing from memory.
03
Building the filters for a fitness app
Read the real category, equipment and muscle vocabularies and build your UI from those, so the filters match the data.
04
Working around missing equipment
Find substitutes that hit the same primary muscle with whatever is available, instead of dropping the movement from the plan.
05
Sizing the library before you commit to it
Read the coverage statistics to see what the catalogue actually holds across categories before building a product on top of it.
6 tools
Listed in project docs. Your client may show a different list.
get_exerciselist_categorieslist_muscleslist_equipmentget_statsBEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
6 tools named in the project's documentation.
Requires
- npx on PATH
- EXERCISEAPI_KEY in your environment
Where it runs
All 5 documented clients run the server on your machine.
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
npx -y @exerciseapi/mcp-serverMCP Clients
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline
JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"exerciseapi": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@exerciseapi/mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"EXERCISEAPI_KEY": "<YOUR_EXERCISEAPI_KEY>"
}
}
}
}
