Arnie

Desk workout notifications powered by Arnold Schwarzenegger's Get Back In Shape guide. A native macOS menu bar app that nudges you with exercises throughout the workday.

Built with Claude Code.

Features

• Menu bar app with status, settings, and today's exercise log
• Interactive notifications with Done, Skip, and Another buttons
• 49 exercises across 3 tiers that unlock over weeks
• Configurable schedule, frequency, sounds, and progression
• Start at Login support

Quick start

python arnie.py install
open Arnie.app

install builds Arnie.app but does not install a LaunchAgent. The app runs its own menu bar timer and can start at login. If you'd rather have launchd fire notifications via the Python CLI instead, run python arnie.py install-agent — but don't run both, or you'll get duplicate notifications.

How it works

Exercises are organized into three tiers that unlock over time:

• Tier 1 (Weeks 1–2): 12 exercises — chair squats, wall pushups, marching in place, calf raises, desk planks, cat camel, bird dog, IYT raises, stretches
• Tier 2 (Weeks 3–4): 13 more (25 total) — bodyweight squats, desk pushups, wall sits, lunges, glute bridges, step-ups, leg raises, spiderman lunges
• Tier 3 (Week 5+): 24 more (49 total) — slow tempo reps, 2-minute challenges, myo-reps, the countdown, squat jumps, isometric holds, bear crawls, and more

Within a day, exercises don't repeat until the full eligible pool has been shown. Each notification includes a motivational quote.

The menu bar app

Click the walking figure icon in your menu bar to see:

• Last exercise shown
• "Next Exercise" button (or press ⌘N)
• Current day, tier, and exercise count
• Today's exercise log
• Settings (hours, frequency, sound, Start at Login)
• Reset progression

Notifications have action buttons: Done (default), Skip (lets the exercise come back later), and Another (fires a new one immediately).

Python CLI

The CLI reads and writes the same data as the app.

python arnie.py install            # Build Arnie.app (no LaunchAgent)
python arnie.py install-agent      # Install the LaunchAgent scheduler (optional)
python arnie.py notify [--force]   # Fire one notification now
python arnie.py status             # Show current state and schedule
python arnie.py log                # Print today's exercise log
python arnie.py config [options]   # View or update configuration
python arnie.py reset              # Reset progression back to tier 1, day 1
python arnie.py export-exercises   # Regenerate exercises.json from Python data
python arnie.py uninstall          # Remove the LaunchAgent

Configuration

Change settings via the menu bar app's Settings submenu, or via CLI:

python arnie.py config --start-hour 9 --end-hour 18
python arnie.py config --frequency 45
python arnie.py config --tier-days 7,7
python arnie.py config --sound Glass

Setting	Default	Description
start_hour	10	Hour to start notifications (0–23)
end_hour	19	Hour to stop notifications (0–23)
frequency_minutes	30	Minutes between notifications
tier_days	[14, 14]	Days at each tier before unlocking the next
sound	Ping	macOS notification sound name
weekdays_only	true	Only fire Mon-Fri

Data storage

App data lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Arnie/:

config.json     # User settings
state.json      # Tier progression and today's shown exercises
logs/           # Daily exercise logs

Building from source

Requires macOS 14+ and Xcode Command Line Tools.

python arnie.py install    # Builds Arnie.app

Or manually:

python arnie.py export-exercises
swiftc -o Arnie.app/Contents/MacOS/Arnie notifier/*.swift \
  -framework Cocoa -framework UserNotifications -framework ServiceManagement \
  -target arm64-apple-macosx14.0
cp notifier/Info.plist Arnie.app/Contents/Info.plist
mkdir -p Arnie.app/Contents/Resources
cp exercises.json Arnie.app/Contents/Resources/exercises.json
codesign --force --sign - Arnie.app

TODO

Sort the IP story before distributing

Exercise names and instructions in exercises.json are derived from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Get Back In Shape guide (distributed via the Pump Club newsletter). Workout names like "The 20-Second Burn" and "The Pain Reliever" come straight from the guide's table of contents, and instructions are paraphrased from the workout descriptions.

For personal use this is fine. Before shipping this to anyone else, pick one:

• Rewrite every name and instruction in original language, and drop the source field.
• Reach out to Arnold's Pump Club team for permission or a licensing arrangement.

Proper progression

The current tier system gates exercises behind wall-clock days (14 days at Tier 1, 14 at Tier 2, then all unlocked). With the default schedule that means each Tier 1 exercise repeats ~20+ times before anything new appears — which makes the app boring fast, working against its own goal of nudging you to move.

Better model to design:

• Progression should respond to use, not the calendar. Unlock new exercises after N completed reps, not N days.
• Track per-exercise completion counts in state, separate from today_shown.
• Give the user a sense of "moving forward" on every Done tap.
• Consider dropping tiers entirely and replacing them with tags (easy/medium/hard, or chair/standing/floor) that the user can filter on.

Sub-note: gamification

If we keep something progression-shaped, gamification can help it stick:

• Streaks — consecutive days with at least one Done. Show it in the menu.
• Daily goal — a small target (e.g. 5 exercises/day). Progress bar in the menu.
• Unlock events — when a new exercise becomes available, fire a distinct "New exercise unlocked!" notification so it feels like a reward, not just a larger pool.
• Weekly summary — a Sunday notification with the week's count, best day, new unlocks.
• Careful with guilt mechanics — skips shouldn't punish. The app should feel like a cheerful nudge, not Duolingo's owl. Losing a streak over one bad day is the kind of thing that makes people uninstall.

Files

notifier/
  main.swift                # App entry point, backward compat with CLI
  MenuBarController.swift   # Menu bar icon and dropdown
  NotificationManager.swift # Notifications with action buttons
  ExerciseEngine.swift      # Exercise loading, tier logic, selection
  DataManager.swift         # Config, state, and log I/O
  TimerController.swift     # Exercise scheduling
  Info.plist                # App bundle metadata
exercises.json              # Shared exercise data (generated from Python)
exercises.py                # Python exercise loader and logic
arnie.py                    # Python CLI
config.py                   # Python config management