RatClub | Devpost

Inspiration

We've all been there — standing in the gym parking lot at 6am, debating whether to go in or just drive to McDonald's instead. The difference between a great workout and skipping? Having someone waiting for you inside.

Most fitness apps focus on tracking reps and calories. None of them solve the actual problem: gym loneliness. RatClub was born from that frustration — the idea that accountability shouldn't require a $100/hour personal trainer. It should just require finding your rat pack.

What It Does

RatClub matches gym-goers with real training partners nearby, based on:

📍 Location & gym
🕐 Schedule compatibility
🏋️ Workout style & goals
⚡ A match score (because data > vibes)

Think Tinder for gains — except nobody ghosts you, because you literally have to show up to the same gym.

How We Built It

Frontend: SwiftUI (iOS) — built screen by screen from a Figma prototype, with a custom design system (smGoldSoft, smBlack, the whole rat aesthetic).

Backend & Database: Supabase (PostgreSQL) — handling auth, real-time chat, user profiles, workout logs, and the buddy-matching logic.

Navigation: A custom AppRouter using ObservableObject + NavigationPath to manage the full app flow from onboarding to the main feed.

Key screens:

Matching Map — find training partners near you in real time
GymNet — your local gym social feed
Workout Logger — track sets, reps, and PRs
Chat — coordinate sessions with your matches

Challenges We Faced

1. Xcode hates you (until it doesn't)

Moving files from Cursor into Xcode broke everything — 17 compiler errors on day one, mostly because Xcode silently drops files from the build target when you drag them in. Lesson learned: always check Target Membership.

2. AppRouter: the glue that kept falling apart

Every view depended on AppRouter, but building it incrementally meant the whole project broke every time a new view expected a property that didn't exist yet. We rebuilt it three times before it stuck.

3. import Combine — two words, one hour lost

@Published requires Combine. Swift doesn't tell you that clearly. The error message (does not conform to ObservableObject) sends you in completely the wrong direction.

4. SwiftUI + MapKit dark mode

Getting the map to look good under a dark overlay without the gradient clipping interactive elements took way more ZStack manipulation than any human should endure.

What We Learned

Ship the navigation skeleton first. Everything else depends on it.
Supabase Row-Level Security is powerful but needs to be set up before you write any data, not after.
A good design system (Color+Theme.swift) saves hundreds of lines across 10+ views.
The gap between "it compiles" and "it works" is where most of the real work lives.