From Frustration to Code: Why I Built jokiinlari

A developer's honest confession about wanting a daily Strava streak, but getting stuck on route planning — so I built jokiinlari instead.

The frustration that wouldn't go away

I have a problem that probably sounds small, but it's very real for me: I want to run consistently. Not just for the health benefits — I genuinely like watching my Strava streak climb, seeing my pace graph inch downward, checking in every morning after a run.

The problem was never motivation to run. The problem was the step right before running: figuring out the route.

Every night before a morning run, I'd open Google Maps, drag points around trying to hit the right distance, then realize the path cut through a highway with no sidewalk, or had a brutal climb when all I wanted was an easy jog. Start over. Sometimes it took 20–30 minutes just to plan an 8km route. That's before even converting the result into something my Garmin or Coros could actually read.

Twenty minutes doesn't sound like much. But when it happens every single night, it slowly becomes an excuse to skip. "Eh, I'll just do it tomorrow, don't feel like dealing with the route right now." And that's how my Strava streak kept breaking — not because I was too lazy to run, but because I was too tired of the hassle before the run.

I think a lot of runner-developers feel this exact thing: we love the data, we love the tracking, but the actual process of planning the route becomes friction we didn't need.

So I built jokiinlari

Instead of staying stuck in that frustration, I decided to solve it the way that made the most sense to me: build the tool myself.

jokiinlari is an AI-assisted running route planner. The idea is simple: go from a blank map to a watch-ready GPX file without ever leaving your browser.

Four main steps:

Build your route on real roads — place waypoints directly on actual streets using OpenStreetMap. Free, and you don't even need to sign in just to try building a route.

Talk to the AI co-pilot — just type something like "10km loop from Monas, around 50m elevation gain", and jokiinlari lays out a path on roads that actually exist.

Check elevation before you run — gain and grade are visible upfront, so you're not blindsided by a climb at kilometer 6.

Export to GPX — download it, upload manually to Strava, or load it straight into Garmin, Coros, or any GPX-compatible app.

If you want to save and keep iterating on a route, sign in and it lands in your dashboard — you can share it from there too.

Being upfront about pricing

Building the map, configuring the route, and previewing elevation — all of that is free. The only things you pay for are AI tokens (for the co-pilot) and GPX export credits. Buy once, tokens never expire, no monthly subscription.

When you sign up, you get free trial tokens (~25,000) to try things out. After that, there are two packs:

Basic — Rp15,000 for 50,000 AI tokens + 1 GPX export

Standard — Rp49,000 for 250,000 AI tokens + 5 GPX exports (best value)

Custom or club packs are available via WhatsApp or email after checkout.

I deliberately didn't make this a monthly subscription, because as a user myself, I only need to plan a route when I actually need one — not every single day.

Who this is for

Runners who plan routes for Strava, Garmin, or Coros and are tired of fiddly desktop tools.

Running clubs that need to prep several routes at once for members.

Anyone who — like me — would rather describe the run they want instead of clicking point by point on a map.

Since it's built on OpenStreetMap, it works anywhere in the world, but it was built with an Indonesian runner's perspective from day one — bilingual UI, IDR pricing, and example prompts that actually make sense for local streets, not a translated clone of a US product.

Try this prompt

If you want to try the co-pilot right away, type something like:

"Build me an 8km loop from GBK, under 40m elevation gain, avoid major roads"

and see what comes back — real roads, not a straight line that ignores reality.

Wrapping up

I'm not going to claim jokiinlari will suddenly turn you into a consistent runner. Motivation is still on you. But if one of the reasons you skip a run is dreading the route-planning part beforehand — that's the piece I can help with.

If you're curious, try it here: https://jokiinlari.xyz