Common questions about
Open Wearables.

Open Wearables is an open-source wearable API and health data platform. It connects wearable devices through a single API, computes health scores (sleep, recovery, strain, HRV, VO2 max), and includes an AI engine that reasons over health data.

You can build coaching systems, wellness programs, clinical monitoring, or personal health dashboards on it. Self-hosted, MIT licensed, zero per-user fees. 1,000+ stars on GitHub.

Five minutes to your first API call. Clone the repo, run Docker Compose, connect a provider. Railway offers one-click deployment if you want something faster.

Full quickstart guide: docs.openwearables.io/quickstart

Self-hosted. You deploy it on your own infrastructure using Docker Compose. Your users' health data stays on your servers.

A managed cloud version is not currently available. If you need managed infrastructure with enterprise SLAs, Momentum can deploy and manage it for you. See custom deployment for details.

Nine providers as of v0.4. One wearable API covers all of them.

Cloud-based (via provider APIs): Whoop API, Garmin API, Oura Ring API, Polar API, Strava API, Suunto API.

SDK-based (on-device): Apple Health, Samsung Health, Google Health Connect.

Coming next: Fitbit, Coros, Xiaomi.

Four SDKs covering all major platforms:

• iOS SDK (Swift, native)
• Android SDK (Kotlin, native)
• Flutter SDK (cross-platform)
• React Native SDK (shipped in v0.4)

All handle Apple Health and Google Health Connect through a single integration. Choose the one that matches your stack.

Apple Health uses HealthKit, which requires on-device SDK access (not a cloud API like Garmin or Whoop). Open Wearables wraps the Apple Health API through the Flutter, React Native, or native iOS SDK so you don't need to build HealthKit integration yourself.

The SDK manages OAuth-free authorization, background sync, incremental updates, and sleep stage timestamps. Users authorize once in your app, and data flows automatically.

Yes. The codebase includes a contribution guide for adding new providers. Oura Ring was added this way by a community contributor.

For proprietary devices or urgent timelines, Momentum offers custom integration services.

• Backend: FastAPI (Python)
• Database: PostgreSQL + Redis
• Task processing: Celery
• Frontend (developer portal): React + TypeScript, built with Vite
• Deployment: Docker Compose

Full source: github.com/the-momentum/open-wearables

Health data aggregation across multiple devices means overlapping data. When Apple Health and Garmin both record the same run, Open Wearables uses configurable priority rules. You set which provider takes precedence by device type or provider hierarchy.

This matters in practice: most active users wear more than one device. The deduplication layer ensures your health scores compute from clean, non-duplicated inputs.

It depends on the provider. Cloud-based providers (Whoop, Garmin, Oura, Polar) typically allow historical backfill through their APIs. The depth varies: some give 30 days, others give years.

SDK-based providers (Apple Health, Google Health Connect) can access whatever the device has stored locally.

On your infrastructure. Open Wearables is self-hosted by design. Your database, your servers. Health data never passes through Momentum's systems unless you explicitly request enterprise support.

The architecture is HIPAA-ready: encryption at rest and in transit, audit logging, role-based access control. But HIPAA compliance is not just software. It requires proper infrastructure configuration, organizational policies, and procedures.

Momentum offers HIPAA implementation support for teams that need it. This includes a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for HIPAA-covered entities and business associates, signed by the platform maintainers directly. We also provide architecture documentation your compliance team can review: encryption configuration, access controls, audit logging, and data flow diagrams.

See enterprise support for details.

Self-hosting simplifies GDPR compliance significantly. You control where data is stored, how long it's retained, and who processes it. Open Wearables does not introduce third-party data processors into your architecture.

No. Zero per-user fees at any scale. You pay only for the infrastructure you run it on.

At 10,000 users, comparable health data API platforms (Terra, Rook) cost $5,000 to $20,000 per month. Open Wearables on the same scale: $200 to $500 per month in infrastructure costs.

Infrastructure only. Typical ranges:

• Side project or prototype: $5 to $50/month
• Production startup: $200 to $500/month
• Enterprise scale: depends on volume and redundancy requirements

No license fees, no per-API-call charges, no usage tiers.

Momentum built wearable integrations for client after client. The same nine providers, the same normalization logic, the same compliance requirements. Making it open source solved that problem for everyone.

Momentum's business model: paid services on top. Enterprise deployment, custom scoring algorithms, AI coaching implementation, compliance support. The platform is free. The expertise is not.

A computed metric derived from raw wearable data. Instead of showing "your HRV was 42ms last night," a health score tells you "your recovery is 68% today: above your 30-day average, below your peak."

Open Wearables includes open algorithms for sleep quality, recovery, training strain, HRV baseline, VO2 max, stress index, and more. Every algorithm is open source. Read every line, fork them, tune thresholds for your specific user population.

The MCP (Model Context Protocol) server lets Claude, ChatGPT, and other LLMs query a user's health data with structured reasoning.

Instead of dumping raw numbers into a prompt, the MCP server provides pre-computed health scores, trends, anomalies, and baselines. The result: an AI assistant that can answer "Should I train hard today?" with actual physiological analysis.

Documentation at docs.openwearables.io.

Yes. The platform is MIT licensed. You can extend, modify, or replace any algorithm. Build your own scoring models, train them on your user population, and keep them proprietary.

The open algorithms are a starting point. Your domain expertise makes them valuable for your specific use case.

Self-deploy (free): Clone the repo, follow the docs, deploy with Docker Compose or Railway. Community support through Discord, where the core team and other developers answer questions. No SLA, no guaranteed response times. You own and operate everything.

Custom deployment with Momentum: Momentum deploys Open Wearables on your cloud (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and handles everything production requires. That includes infrastructure setup, security hardening, HIPAA-eligible architecture, and custom integrations for providers we don't support yet.

On the support side: SLA-backed response times, a dedicated Slack channel with named engineers, priority patches and escalation paths. If you need a BAA for HIPAA compliance, we sign it directly. We also track every upstream Open Wearables release and roll out updates, new providers, and security patches with zero downtime.

Most teams start self-hosted and bring in Momentum when they need production guarantees. See custom deployment and enterprise support for the full scope.

Momentum is a healthtech software studio. 130+ engineers since 2013. We built Open Wearables because the same wearable integration problem appeared in every health tech project we worked on. We solved it once and open-sourced it.

What we bring to custom deployments: mobile development across iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native. Cloud infrastructure on AWS, GCP, or Azure. Security hardening and compliance configuration for HIPAA and GDPR. Custom provider integrations for devices we don't support yet. AI coaching layers and health scoring algorithms tuned to your population.

The platform is free and MIT licensed. Momentum sells the engineering expertise to deploy it at production scale, keep it running, and extend it for your use case.

Learn more at themomentum.ai.

Discord is the fastest channel for self-hosted users. The core team and community are active there for technical questions, architecture advice, and troubleshooting.

Teams on enterprise support get a dedicated Slack channel with named engineers, SLA-backed response times, priority patches, and escalation paths. This includes BAA signing for HIPAA-covered entities, compliance documentation your team can review and sign off on, and proactive release management. Not a support queue: a partnership.

For bugs or feature requests, open an issue on GitHub. For enterprise discussions, schedule a call.

Yes. A common approach: keep your current provider (Terra, Rook, or direct integrations) running while you migrate to Open Wearables provider by provider. There is no requirement to switch everything at once.

One thing to plan for: non-Apple providers use OAuth tokens. When you switch a user from another provider to Open Wearables for Garmin or Whoop, that user needs to re-authorize. Apple Health is SDK-based, so it does not require re-authorization.