Move, sleep, eat real food, hit your protein. Protocol turns the basics into goals you can see, streaks you want to keep and plans you actually follow. No shame, just the next rep.
Free to start, no credit card. Goals, rings, streaks and reminders are free; Pro adds the coach.
How does Protocol keep you accountable?
Protocol is a health app that turns the fundamentals (movement, sleep, recovery and protein) into daily goals, three rings and streaks that fill in from your wearable and the meals you log. You pick one goal that matters most, plan when you will act with if-then intentions, and get reminders at the time you chose and a heads-up before a streak breaks. It scores the day by what you hit, never by what you missed.
rings: Move, Fuel and Recover
3rings: Move, Fuel and Recover
badge levels: smashed, hit, almost, miss
4badge levels: smashed, hit, almost, miss
heads-up when a streak is at risk
7 PMheads-up when a streak is at risk
goals, streaks and reminders, always
$0goals, streaks and reminders, always
Why people quit
Most apps keep score. Few help you keep going.
A tracker that shows 2/5 at two in the afternoon is telling you that you are failing at a day that isn’t over. One missed day wipes a streak to zero and the whole effort starts to feel pointless. People don’t quit because they lack data. They quit because the data makes them feel bad.
A typical tracker at 2 PM
2/5
goals complete
Sleep✓
Protein✓
Steps✕
Workouts✕
Recovery✕
Protocol at 2 PM
2 goals hit
and two still in progress
Sleep✓ Hit
Protein★ Smashed
StepsIn progress
WorkoutsIn progress
RecoveryAlmost
Illustrative. The left card is a generic checklist tracker, not any one app.
The fundamentals
The advice hasn’t changed. Following it is the hard part.
Long before wearables, every serious tradition of health landed on the same short list: move every day, sleep well, eat real food, and keep at it. Protocol gives each one a ring, so the fundamentals are what you see first every morning.
Move
Move your body. Train for strength.
Steps, active calories, workouts per week and zone 2 minutes.
Pick the goal, see the day, keep the streak, plan the when, and read the week.
01
Pick what matters
One goal at the top.
Start with the outcome you care about most. Protocol lines up the daily targets that ladder up to it, so every number on your screen has a reason to be there.
Six #1 goals: energy and recovery, strength and performance, weight and body composition, longevity and prevention, metabolic health, or sleep quality.
Each one pre-selects the few targets that move it. Strength puts workouts, protein, recovery and zone 2 up front; sleep quality puts sleep and recovery first.
Set a date for an outcome goal (“163 lb by January”). Protocol shows it back to you and projects your pace, and never grades you against it.
Change any target, any time. Protein and calorie targets start from your bodyweight and goal.
Pick your #1 goal
Your #1 goal
Strength & performance
Train hard, get stronger
What Protocol puts first
WorkoutsWeekly training sessions1
ProteinDaily protein target2
RecoveryHRV-based readiness score3
Zone 2Weekly Zone 2 cardio minutes4
WeightTarget body weight5
02
Close your rings
Three rings. The whole day.
Move, Fuel and Recover hold the fundamentals in one glance, with a pace for the time of day, so 3 PM tells you whether you are on track, not just how far you have to go.
Each ring reads “on pace”, “behind” or “done” for where you are in the day, or the week for workouts and zone 2.
Steps, sleep, recovery and workouts fill in from Apple Watch, Oura, WHOOP or Apple Health. Meals and water come from what you log.
Tap a ring to see what is inside it and which metric is holding it back.
On your Home Screen too: Rings, Goals and Streaks widgets.
3:00 PM
Inside Move
Move
behind
Steps are what’s holding it back.
Stepsbehind
4,120 / 9,000
Active calorieson pace
310 / 550
Workoutson pace
2 / 4 this week
03
Build streaks
Streaks that cheer you on.
Hit a goal day after day and it becomes a streak, for sleep, recovery, steps, protein, active calories and workouts, plus HRV, resting heart rate and calories when you set those goals.
Milestones at 5, 10, 15 and on up through 30, 60, 90 and all the way to 360 days. The big ones get a full-screen celebration.
Today never breaks a streak early. Steps or protein still short at noon is “in progress”, not a miss.
At 7 PM, if a steps, protein or active-calorie streak of three days or more hasn’t hit today’s goal, your iPhone tells you exactly how much is left.
Streaks count your whole history, so a 90-day run reads 90 everywhere: app, widget and email.
9DAYS
Protein, 9 days running
Today: in progress
M
T
W
T
F
S
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
S
Milestones
5101520306090
Next milestone: 10 days
Sleep6D
Steps5D
Recovery4D
04
Plan the when
Decide when. Then just do it.
An intention turns “I should work out more” into “Mon, Wed, Fri at 6:00 AM, I will do my strength workout.” Deciding the when and the what in advance is one of the best-studied tools in behavior science.
Scheduled: pick the days, the time and the exact action.
If-then: “When I think about skipping my workout, I will put on my shoes and do five minutes.”
Protocol reminds you on your iPhone at the time you chose. Turn any reminder off with one tap.
Add it to your calendar, and see your intentions at the top of Today.
New intention
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
At 6:00 AM, I will .
🔔 Reminder on
Save commitment
Monday, 6:00 AM
Protocolnow
Your 6:00 AM plan
I will do my strength workout.
05
See the week
Progress, not perfection.
One day is noise. The week is the signal. Protocol shows how consistent you have been, so a rough Tuesday sits inside a good week instead of erasing it.
The “This week” grid shades each day by how many goals you hit.
A weekly review email every Monday morning (or Sunday, if you prefer): the week’s numbers, your consistency grid and a recap.
Your morning notification leads with the wins: “3 goals hit”, not “3 of 5”.
With Pro, the coach reads the week and writes a plan for the next one.
This week
1 / 7 days on track
MTWTFSS
Sleep
Steps
Protein
Recovery
The coach’s weekly read · Pro
Wednesday was rough and the rest of the week held. Protein hit six of seven days.
Demo numbers are examples in the app’s layout. Notifications are on iPhone.
The evidence
The interventions are free. Doing them every day is the hard part.
lower risk of death from any cause at about 7,000 steps a day, compared with 2,000
47%lower risk of death from any cause at about 7,000 steps a day, compared with 2,000
lower mortality risk from 30 to 60 minutes of strength work a week
10–17%lower mortality risk from 30 to 60 minutes of strength work a week
median for a new behavior to become automatic
66 daysmedian for a new behavior to become automatic
steps a day when game mechanics and competition were added
+920steps a day when game mechanics and competition were added
The science of what to do is clear. Protocol is built on the science of doing it: streaks, implementation intentions, identity and accountability.
Data is everywhere. Follow-through is rare. So Protocol is built as a loop, not a report: honest verdicts (smashed, hit, almost, miss), streaks that remember, if-then plans that pre-commit you and, with Pro, a coach that notices. All of it grounded in behavior science, and none of it guilt.
01
Identity, not willpower
“I want to sleep better” fades. “I’m someone who protects my sleep” sticks. Every day you keep a streak is a vote for who you’re becoming.
Behavior happens when motivation, ability and a prompt line up. Your wearable fills the rings with no effort, and reminders arrive at the moment you planned.
More of what the research found, and where it shows up in Protocol.
Tracking progress helps you reach a goal, and it helps more when the progress is written down.
138 experiments with 19,951 participants: prompting people to monitor their progress raised goal attainment, with larger effects when progress was physically recorded or reported.
A habit takes about two months to feel automatic, and missing one day doesn’t reset it.
Volunteers repeating a daily behavior took a median of 66 days to reach peak automaticity, with a range of 18 to 254 days. Missing a single opportunity did not materially affect the process.
Game mechanics get people moving, and competition worked best.
In a randomized trial of 602 adults, gamification with social incentives raised daily steps. The competition arm walked 920 more steps a day than the control group during the trial.
An unbroken streak keeps you going. A broken one, framed as your fault, makes you stop.
Across seven studies, seeing an intact streak increased people’s next engagement compared with seeing a broken one, and the drop was biggest when people blamed themselves for the break.
Decades of goal-setting research show that specific, challenging goals lead to better performance than vague ones, especially with feedback on progress.
A miss is information, not a verdict. Being kind to yourself after a slip leads to fewer slips, not more, so Protocol cheers what you did and keeps a rough day in proportion. These are rules in the product, not a tone of voice.
With Pro: a coach that follows up
Tell the coach you’ll walk after dinner this week, and next time you talk it asks how it went. If it didn’t happen, it asks what got in the way and adjusts the plan.
Wins first
The day reads “3 goals hit”, never “0 of 5”. The full count only shows on a perfect day.
Close counts
Land within 85% of a goal and the badge says Almost, not Miss.
Today is never a miss by noon
Steps, protein and active calories stay “in progress” until the day is over, so an unfinished day never breaks a streak early.
Nudges you can act on
The 7 PM heads-up only covers what you can still do tonight. Target dates are shown, never graded, and sleep never gets a nag.
Everywhere you look
Accountability that finds you.
A goal you only see when you open a settings page is a goal you forget. In Protocol your progress meets you where you already are.
Today, first thing
Your rings, goals hit and intentions open the app, on iPhone and on the web.
Home Screen widgets
Rings, Goals and Streaks widgets, so the day’s progress is a glance away.
Notifications that mean something
Your morning brief, intention reminders, a 7 PM streak heads-up and meal reminders, each with its own switch.
The weekly review
Every Monday: the week’s numbers and your consistency grid. Pro adds the coach’s read and next week’s plan.
A coach that knows your streaks
With Pro, the coach sees your goals and streaks, and the morning brief celebrates any streak of five days or more.
Fed by what you already wear
Oura, WHOOP and Apple Health fill in movement, sleep and recovery. Nothing to tick off by hand.
Pick one goal that matters, turn it into a few specific daily targets, decide in advance when you will act, and track your progress where you will see it every day. Research backs each step: specific goals beat vague ones, if-then plans make follow-through more likely, and monitoring progress raises goal attainment. Protocol puts all four in one app: a #1 goal, Move, Fuel and Recover rings, intentions with reminders, and streaks.
How does Protocol keep me accountable?
Your wearable fills in steps, sleep, recovery and workouts automatically, and your meals fill in protein and calories. Each day closes three rings, every goal gets a badge (smashed, hit, almost or miss), and goals you hit day after day become streaks. Intentions remind you at the time you planned, a 7 PM notification warns you when a streak is at risk, and a weekly review shows how consistent you were. With Pro, an AI coach remembers what you said you would do and asks how it went.
Do streaks actually help build habits?
They help when they keep you showing up and hurt when one missed day feels like failure. Habits take about two months of repetition to feel automatic (a median of 66 days in one well-known study), and missing a single day does not undo the progress. Protocol’s streaks celebrate milestones from 5 to 360 days, never count today as a miss before the day is over, and sit next to a weekly view so one off day stays in proportion.
What happens if I miss a day?
The streak for that goal starts again, and that is all. Your rings, badges and weekly grid still show everything you did hit, the morning notification leads with your wins, and the coach treats a miss as information about what got in the way, not a failure. Research on habit formation found that missing one day did not materially affect how habits form.
What is an implementation intention?
A plan that names when, where and how you will act: “On Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 AM, I will do my strength workout,” or “When I reach for a snack after 8 PM, I will drink a glass of water first.” A meta-analysis of 94 studies found these plans have a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals. In Protocol you can set scheduled or if-then intentions and get a reminder at the time you chose.
How long does it take to build a habit?
Longer than 21 days for most people. In a study that followed people repeating a daily behavior, the median time to reach peak automaticity was 66 days, and the range ran from 18 to 254 days depending on the person and the habit. That is why Protocol’s streak milestones keep going past 30 to 60, 90 and beyond.
What are the Move, Fuel and Recover rings?
Three daily rings that cover the fundamentals. Move tracks steps, active calories, workouts and zone 2 minutes. Fuel tracks protein, calories against your budget and water. Recover tracks sleep, your recovery score, and HRV and resting heart rate against your own baseline. Each ring shows whether you are on pace for the time of day.
What does “smashed” mean in Protocol?
You went well past the goal: 110% of your sleep or recovery goal, 120% of your protein target, or 125% of a steps, active-calorie, water, workout or zone 2 goal. Hitting 100% is a hit, 85% or more is almost, and sleep beyond 130% of your goal counts as a hit rather than smashed, because oversleeping isn’t a win.
Will Protocol remind me?
Yes, on iPhone. Each scheduled intention can remind you at its time, a midday check-in (if you turn it on) tells you when Move or Fuel is behind pace, a 7 PM notification warns you when a steps, protein or active-calorie streak of three days or more hasn’t hit today’s goal, and you can set a reminder for each meal. Your morning notification arrives with your daily brief. Every type has its own switch in Settings › Notifications.
Is Protocol’s goal and streak tracking free?
Yes. Goals, Move, Fuel and Recover rings, streaks, badges, intentions and reminders are all on the free plan, with no credit card. Protocol Pro adds the AI coach that follows up on your commitments, the full morning brief and the coach’s read of your week. Pro is $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
Does it work with Apple Watch, Oura or WHOOP?
Yes. Oura and WHOOP connect directly, and Apple Watch and other devices that write to Apple Health come in through it. Steps, sleep, recovery, HRV, resting heart rate and workouts fill your rings and streaks automatically; there is nothing to tick off by hand.
Can I track custom habits like meditation or reading?
As intentions, yes: “Every weekday at 7 AM, I will meditate for ten minutes” gets a reminder at that time. Streaks and rings are built on health metrics Protocol can measure or you log (sleep, recovery, steps, workouts, protein, calories, water), so there is no checkbox streak for an arbitrary habit yet.