Stride

A launcher and workout overlay that replaces the stock software on an iFit treadmill console. This repo is what a console talks to: the update catalog, the installer, and the recovery runbook.

Tested on one machine: a NordicTrack Commercial 1750. That is the only console Stride has ever run on. Other iFit machines use the same Android console software and will probably work, but nobody has tried, and the recovery step below is the part to read before you find out. If you do try another model, please open an issue and say how it went.

Install Stride

On your Mac or Linux machine, with the console reachable over adb:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Clancey/stride-catalog/main/install.sh | bash

That downloads Stride, verifies it, installs it, and grants the permissions Stride cannot grant itself. It prints what it is about to do and waits for you to confirm.

If the console is on your network rather than USB:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Clancey/stride-catalog/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --connect 192.168.1.50

adb is the only prerequisite:

brew install --cask android-platform-tools    # macOS
sudo apt install adb                          # Debian/Ubuntu

That is the last time you need a laptop. From then on Stride updates itself and its apps from this catalog, on the console, with no cable.

What you get

	A store. All apps → Store lists what the catalog offers. Tap Install.
	Updates. Checked on startup and every few hours. The header badges when there is something to do.
	Google Play, in one tap. Four packages, in the right order, behind one button — and only while Play is missing.

Google Play

These consoles ship without Google Play, so anything that needs it — YouTube, YouTube Music — cannot run. Stride installs the four packages Play needs, in the order it needs them, behind a single Install button that only appears while something is missing.

Restart the console when it finishes. Apps that need Play become installable at that point.

Making Stride the launcher

The installer deliberately does not do this, because it is the one step that can leave you with a console you cannot operate. Try Stride first. When you are happy it starts:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Clancey/stride-catalog/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --set-home

Keep adb connected the first time. If anything goes wrong, put the console's own launcher back:

adb shell cmd package set-home-activity com.ifit.standalone/.MainActivity

Before doing this on a machine you rely on, read the runbook — how to get an unbootable console back, how to kill a runaway overlay, and what to do if the belt is moving and you cannot stop it.

Safety

Stride controls a machine that can physically hurt someone. Two rules are enforced in the client:

• Installs never happen while the belt is moving. The Android install dialog is full-screen and would cover the stop control. Downloads continue; installs wait for the workout to end.
• Stride never updates itself unprompted. A self-update kills the process, and with it the overlay that supplies the only Back and Home this console has.

Every download is verified twice before the installer opens: SHA-256 over the bytes, and the APK's signing certificate against the one this catalog pins. A mismatch is a hard failure, never a warning.

The safety key is still the only emergency stop. Stride's stop button is best-effort software on top of a treadmill, and nothing here changes that.

If something goes wrong

Symptom	Fix
adb not found	Install platform-tools (above).
no console connected	Enable Developer options → ADB/wireless debugging on the console, then --connect <ip>.
more than one device	--device <serial>, from adb devices.
SHA-256 mismatch	Refused on purpose. Re-run; if it persists, open an issue — do not force it.
An install never prompts	Make sure Allow Stride to install apps is green in the Updates sheet.
Console stuck after --set-home	adb shell cmd package set-home-activity com.ifit.standalone/.MainActivity

Re-running the installer is safe: it reinstalls over the top and re-applies the grants.

What this repo is

catalog.json is a static manifest that Stride's background updater reads over HTTPS. Stride's own APKs are attached to Releases here; third-party APKs live in Cloudflare R2.

Stride on the console ──► raw.githubusercontent.com/.../catalog.json
                          ├─► Stride     → GitHub Releases (this repo)
                          └─► other apps → Cloudflare R2

Nothing here runs. It is a static file host that happens to be a git repo, so every change to what a console will install is a reviewable commit.

Publishing a build, the catalog.json schema, and R2 setup are in PUBLISHING.md.