DEV Community: Sarthak Goyal

I Built My Own Open Source Gym Tracker Because Every Other App Was Lying to Me

Sarthak Goyal — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 05:11:15 +0000

I Built My Own Open Source Gym Tracker Because Every Other App Was Lying to Me

You know the feeling.

You finish a solid session. You hit a new personal best on Romanian deadlifts. You ran 20% more volume than last week. You felt the progressive overload.

Then you open your gym app to log it… and it just stores the numbers somewhere, behind three paywalls and a subscription prompt, never to be seen again.

That's not tracking. That's just data hoarding with a logo.

So I did what any developer-lifter with too much free time and too many opinions would do: I built my own.

What is ASAP?

ASAP (As Strong As Possible) is a fully open source, self-hostable workout tracking web app built for people who train with intent.

Not for casual step-counters. For people who care about:

Progressive overload — are you actually getting stronger over time?
Volume — how much total work are you putting in per muscle group?
Consistency — are you actually showing up?
PRs that matter — not just "you walked 500 steps more today 🎉"

GitHub: https://github.com/asap-open/ASAP
Docs: https://asap-open.github.io/asap-docs

The Problem with Existing Apps

Most fitness apps fall into one of two traps:

Trap 1: The Walled Garden
Your data lives on their servers. You can't export it. You can't query it. If they shut down or paywall the feature you actually use — you lose everything.

Trap 2: The Feature Graveyard
They show you charts... of what, exactly? Steps? Calories burned based on a formula from 1990? The stuff serious lifters care about — weekly volume per muscle, estimated 1RM trends, hard set tracking — either doesn't exist or costs $14.99/month.

I wanted something that recorded exactly what I'd want to see after a real session. So I built it.

👉 Check out the LinkedIn post here

What ASAP Actually Does

Log Sessions in Real Time

During your workout, log sets, reps, weight, and flag hard sets as you go. No friction, no required templates — just open it and start tracking.

See the Work After the Session

This is the part I actually care about. After logging, ASAP shows you:

Volume trends over time (weekly, monthly)
Muscle group breakdown — which muscles you hit and how hard
Personal bests — real PRs based on your actual training data
Progress charts so you can see the overload happening

Build Routines Your Way

Create routines from scratch or modify them however you want. No forced templates, no "recommended splits" from an algorithm that doesn't know you.

873 Exercises Out of the Box

Strength, cardio, mobility — all categorized with proper muscle group tagging. Plus you can add your own custom exercises.

Mobile + Desktop

Works great on both. I train with my phone, I review progress on my laptop. ASAP handles both without compromise.

You Own Your Data

Self-host it with a single command:

docker compose up

That's it. Postgres database, Node.js API, React frontend — all running in Docker. Your data never touches a third-party server unless you want it to.

The Tech Stack

Here's what's under the hood:

Layer	Tech
Frontend	React 19, TypeScript, Vite
Backend	Node.js, Express, TypeScript
ORM	Prisma
Database	PostgreSQL
Auth	JWT
Deployment	Docker + Docker Compose
Docs	VitePress

A few things I'm particularly happy with:

Prisma made the data modeling genuinely enjoyable. The schema is clean, migrations are versioned, and the generated types mean the frontend and backend speak the same language without any extra glue.

React 19 with SWR for data fetching gives the UI a snappy, optimistic feel even on slower connections. The dashboard feels fast because it mostly is.

The Docker setup was a priority from day one. There are two compose configs included — one that brings up everything including Postgres (compose.with-db.yaml), and one for people who want to point it at an external database (compose.external-db.yaml). Self-hosting should be accessible, not a DevOps PhD thesis.

What the Data Model Looks Like

The core of ASAP is built around a few key entities:

Users — accounts with profiles (weight tracking, goals, etc.)
Exercises — the 873-exercise library, each tagged with muscle groups, equipment, and category
Routines — user-defined workout plans composed of exercise slots
Sessions — individual workout instances tied to either a routine or ad-hoc
Sets — the actual logged data: reps, weight, RPE, hard set flag
Progress — derived from sets over time: volume, PRs, trends

The schema is clean enough that if you want to write your own queries against your self-hosted database — you can. It's just Postgres.

Why Open Source?

A few reasons:

1. I wanted to use it myself without worrying about the app dying.
If I build it, I control it. If I open source it, the community can keep it alive even if I get hit by a bus.

2. Fitness data is personal.
Your training history is a record of years of work. That shouldn't live on someone else's server behind a subscription. You should own it.

3. Developers lift too.
I figured there are enough developer-lifters out there who'd either want to use this directly, contribute to it, or fork it and make it their own thing. All of that is welcome.

4. Building in public keeps you honest.
Shipping something people can actually read, run, and critique is a better forcing function for code quality than any linter.

The Docs

One thing I put real effort into: the documentation.

Too many open source projects are impossible to run locally because the README is three lines and a "good luck." ASAP has a full docs site covering:

Installation and self-hosting
API reference (auth, exercises, sessions, progress, weights, profile)
Feature guides
Contributing guide

Docs: https://asap-open.github.io/asap-docs

What's Next

There's a real backlog here. Some things I'm thinking about:

Offline support / PWA — you shouldn't need a connection mid-set
Plate calculator — tell it your bar weight and available plates, it tells you the setup
AI-assisted volume recommendations — not vibes, actual volume landmarks based on your history
Improved muscle heatmap — visual body map showing weekly volume distribution
Webhooks / export — CSV, JSON, whatever format you want

If any of these sounds interesting to you — or if you have something completely different you'd want to see — open an issue or drop a comment here.

Try It / Contribute

If you're a developer, a lifter, or both — I'd genuinely love for you to check it out.

Run it locally in 60 seconds:

git clone https://github.com/asap-open/ASAP
cd asap/deploy
docker compose -f compose.with-db.yaml up

Star it, fork it, open issues, submit PRs. Every kind of contribution is welcome — features, bug fixes, better docs, design feedback, all of it.

GitHub: https://github.com/asap-open/ASAP
Docs: https://asap-open.github.io/asap-docs

Built with React 19, Node.js, Prisma, PostgreSQL, and Docker by someone who got tired of their PR data disappearing into the void.

Expanding Your Self-Hosted Server: Portainer, Homarr, and Netdata

Sarthak Goyal — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 13:53:25 +0000

Following last week’s blog — Getting Started with Self-Hosting Your First Home Server — we’ll take things a step further and explore a few more services you can run on your server.

These are beginner-friendly tools that don’t require much configuration but still provide meaningful functionality:

Portainer - Container Management
Homarr - A Sleek Dashboard
Netdata - Server Monitoring

All three will be deployed using Docker Compose for simplicity and easy management.

What is Docker compose?

If you have never heard of it then you can think of it as a overpowered feature of docker that allows you manage containers state and what not with just a 1 line of command. It consist of a YAML file which are basically configuration files that tell compose what containers to run with what all settings.
To install docker compose on you machine you can follow the official documentation here.

Once installed, we’ll set up a clean directory structure to organize our Compose files.

Setting up the directory structure

SSH into your server and run:

cd $HOME
mkdir -p docker/{portainer,netdata,homarr}
cd docker

This will create a docker folder in your home directory, with subfolders for each service. Keeping things organized now will save you headaches later when you add more services.

1. Deploying Portainer

Portainer provides a web-based interface to manage your Docker environment — images, containers, volumes, and networks — without touching the command line.
More details: portainer.io

Navigate to the Portainer directory and create a docker-compose.yml:

cd $HOME/docker/portainer
sudo nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the following:

services:
  portainer:
    image: portainer/portainer-ce:latest
    ports:
      - 9443:9443
    volumes:
      - data:/data
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  data:

Start Portainer:

sudo docker compose up -d

Access it in your browser:

https://<server-ip>:9443

You’ll be prompted to create your admin account.
Tip: If port 9443 is already in use, change it in the ports section.

2. Deploying Homarr

Homarr is a beautiful, customizable dashboard that puts all your apps and services in one place. It can even integrate with certain apps to display live stats.
More details: homarr.dev

Navigate to the Homarr directory:

cd $HOME/docker/homarr
sudo nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the following:

services:
  homarr:
    container_name: homarr
    image: ghcr.io/homarr-labs/homarr:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ./homarr/appdata:/appdata
    environment:
      - SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<your_encryption_key>
    ports:
      - '7575:7575'

You can generate a 32-byte encryption key with:

openssl rand -hex 32

Or use the key generator in Homarr’s installation docs.

Start Homarr:

sudo docker compose up -d

Access it at:

http://<server-ip>:7575

From there, you can start customizing your dashboard.
Setup guide: Homarr post-install docs

3. Deploying Netdata

Netdata gives you real-time performance and health monitoring for your server — CPU usage, RAM, disk activity, network stats, and much more.
More details: netdata.cloud

Navigate to the Netdata directory:

cd $HOME/docker/netdata
sudo nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the following:

services:
  netdata:
    image: netdata/netdata
    container_name: netdata
    ports:
      - 19999:19999
    restart: unless-stopped
    cap_add:
      - SYS_PTRACE
    security_opt:
      - apparmor:unconfined
    volumes:
      - /proc:/host/proc:ro
      - /sys:/host/sys:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

Start Netdata:

sudo docker compose up -d

Access it in your browser:

http://<server-ip>:19999

You can skip account creation and use the dashboard anonymously if you prefer.

Wrapping up

With Portainer, Homarr, and Netdata running, you now have:

An easy way to manage containers (Portainer)
A sleek dashboard for quick access (Homarr)
Real-time server analytics (Netdata)

All deployed using Docker Compose, making them easy to start, stop, or upgrade later.

If you found this guide helpful, consider subscribing or following for more self-hosting tutorials. Feel free to leave your thoughts or questions in the comments.

Cheers,
Sarthak

Getting Started with Self-Hosting: Your First Home Server

Sarthak Goyal — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 14:55:31 +0000

Self-hosting opens up a world of possibilities, giving you the freedom to build and run almost anything in your homelab. The only real limit is the capacity of your hardware.

Beyond the flexibility it offers, self-hosting is an excellent way to explore new technologies and enhance your technical skills through hands-on experience. It allows you to host your own projects without depending on third-party services, often at little to no cost. While some setups may require a modest investment, students can take advantage of the GitHub Student Developer Pack to get started for free.

You can also repurpose old hardware — such as an unused laptop or desktop — that might otherwise end up discarded, giving it a new life in your home server setup.

How to Get Started

Getting started with your first home server is straightforward. The only essential equipment you need is:

A device to serve as your server (an old laptop, desktop, or any spare computer)
An Ethernet cable (recommended for a stable connection)

Step 1: Install an Operating System

The first step is to install an operating system (OS) on your server that will run your services. For beginners, I recommend using Linux, specifically Ubuntu Server, due to its ease of use and strong community support. Here is a tutorial to help you install Ubuntu server.

Note: Familiarity with the command line (terminal) is helpful but not mandatory. A good beginner tutorial for Linux terminal basics can be found here.

If your device already has Windows installed and you prefer not to replace it, you can skip the OS installation step and proceed, but using Linux generally provides a more flexible environment for server applications.

Step 2: Connect Your Server to the Internet

You have two main options to connect your server to the internet:

Ethernet cable: Preferred for a stable and reliable connection.
Wi-Fi: Possible, but reliability can vary depending on signal strength.

After connecting your server to the network, find its IP address by running the following command in the terminal:

ip a

Look for the local (private) IP address associated with your network interface (often something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x). The loopback address (127.0.0.1) is not the one you need.

Step 3: Connect to Your Server Using SSH

Moving forward we will use SSH to connect to our server to manage it and deploy services on it. SSH (Secure Shell) allows you to manage your server remotely from another computer on the same network.

On your host machine, open a terminal and run:

ssh username@ipaddress

Replace username with your server's user account name and ipaddress with the IP address you found in the previous step.
The first time you connect, you will be prompted to verify the server's host key:

The authenticity of host '192.168.1.10 (192.168.1.10)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:Zf45K8eT0Q9nsPz4lYgG+ZxCwFJ7X9A3lRM9z+EtO1k.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.10' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
username@192.168.1.10's password:

Type yes and enter your password when prompted (note: password input will be hidden).

Step 4: Update Your Server

Once logged in, update your package lists and upgrade installed software to the latest versions:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Now the real fun begins. We will now start deploying services on our server using docker.

Step 5: Deploy Your First Service with Docker

Docker is a containerization platform that packages applications and their dependencies into portable containers. Containers ensure that applications run consistently across different environments.

For beginners, Docker simplifies deploying and managing services on your server. To learn more about docker here is a simple tutorial to help you with the basics of the docker.

Installing Docker on Ubuntu Server

Follow the official Docker installation guide here: Docker Engine Installation on Ubuntu.

Step 6: Install Portainer for Container Management

Portainer is a lightweight management UI for Docker that makes container management accessible via a web interface.

Run these commands to set up Portainer:

sudo docker volume create portainer_data
sudo docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9443:9443 --name portainer --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer-ce:lts

You can now access Portainer by navigating to:

https://<your-server-ip>:9443

For example, if your IP is 192.168.1.10, open:

https://192.168.1.10:9443

And there you have it, your very first service running in your own server. In the upcoming blogs we will explore more services that can deployed on your server. I will be posting every Monday so you should look forward to it.

If you found this guide helpful, consider subscribing or following for more tutorials. Also leave a like if you want more such content.
You can also share your thought in the comment section.

Cheers,
Sarthak

MY FIRST BLOG 😁

Sarthak Goyal — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 04:51:00 +0000

Hey Guys,

For my first blog i wanted to say hi to all the readers and also introduce myself.

I am Sarthak Goyal, an undergraduate student at IIIT Dharwad currently pursuing a Bachelors of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering. My Interests lies in Software Engineering, Development, Machine Learning and DevOps. I am fluent in Hindi, English, Python 😁 and I’m current learning Java. I focus on making a products that solve real world problem rather then just writing just the code.

Beyond tech, i am a hobbyist photographer and like to read books during my free time. You can check out my Instagram for my hobby related content.

Also one more topic that draws my attention is Finance may be because i am a “Baniya” by caste. If you don’t know what that is, just search “Baniya Cast in India” and you will get the context. I find financial systems, investing, and money management quite intriguing.

Future content will cover topics related to Python, ML/DL, Self-Hosting, Linux, and more. I am open for all kind of discussion related to Python, Linux, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Self Hosting and more.

I guess that’s it for now— Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Sarthak Goyal