WAHA (WhatsApp HTTP API)

To develop on WAHA, you need Node.js (>=22) and specific prerequisites for the whatsapp-rust-bridge (Bun and a specific Rust nightly toolchain).

Prerequisites Installation:

# Bun runtime
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash -s -- bun-v1.3.9

# Rust nightly toolchain
curl -fsSL https://sh.rustup.rs | bash -s -- -y --default-toolchain nightly-2026-01-30
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
cargo install wasm-pack --vers 0.14.0 --locked

Running the project:

yarn install
yarn gows:proto
yarn start

# Install dependencies
yarn install
# Fetch and compile proto files
yarn gows:proto
# Run
yarn start

To use the standard WAHA image, ensure Docker is installed and run the following command to pull the image:

docker pull devlikeapro/waha

If you are using WAHA Plus, you must log in with your credentials first:

docker login -u devlikeapro -p {KEY}
docker pull devlikeapro/waha-plus
docker logout

Start the WAHA container using Docker. The API will be accessible at http://localhost:3000. You can view the Swagger documentation at that address to interact with the API.

docker run -it --rm -p 3000:3000/tcp --name waha devlikeapro/waha

The Chatwoot integration provides CLI commands to manage the process of pulling messages from WhatsApp into Chatwoot. You can start a pulling process for specific chats or all chats, check the status of a running job, or remove an existing job.

Start Message Pulling

Use MessagesPullStart to initiate the message pulling process. You can target a specific chat or use ChatID.ALL to pull from all available chats.

Options:

• chat: The ID of the chat to pull from. Use ChatID.ALL for all chats.
• options: Configuration for the pull process (e.g., period for time range, ignore for JID filters).
• jobOptions: Configuration for the background job (e.g., timeout).

Check Pulling Status

Use MessagesPullStatus to retrieve the current state of the active message pulling job (e.g., whether it is running, completed, or failed).

Send a text message using the POST /api/sendText endpoint.

Chat ID Format: Use the international phone number without the + symbol, followed by @c.us (e.g., 12132132131@c.us).

JSON Payload Example:

{
  "chatId": "12132132130@c.us",
  "text": "Hi there!",
  "session": "default"
}

Using cURL:

export PHONE=12132132130
curl -d "{\"chatId\": \"${PHONE}@c.us\", \"text\": \"Hello from WhatsApp HTTP API\" }" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/sendText

# Phone without +
export PHONE=12132132130
curl -d "{\"chatId\": \"${PHONE}@c.us\", \"text\": \"Hello from WhatsApp HTTP API\" }" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/sendText

To initialize a WhatsApp session, send a POST request to /api/sessions. The name field in the payload identifies the session. In WAHA Plus, you can use different names to run multiple WhatsApp accounts within a single container.

Payload Example:

{
  "name": "default"
}

When running WAHA using Docker Compose, you can configure its behavior using several environment variables. These settings control API security, dashboard access, the WhatsApp engine, and media storage.

environment:
  - WAHA_API_KEY=321
  - WAHA_DASHBOARD_USERNAME=admin
  - WAHA_DASHBOARD_PASSWORD=admin
  - WHATSAPP_DEFAULT_ENGINE=WEBJS
  - WAHA_PRINT_QR=False
  - WAHA_MEDIA_STORAGE=LOCAL
  - WHATSAPP_FILES_LIFETIME=0
  - WHATSAPP_FILES_FOLDER=/app/.media

To use MongoDB for storing WhatsApp sessions instead of local files, uncomment the mongodb service block in your docker-compose.yaml. Ensure you provide the required root credentials via environment variables.

Required Environment Variables:

• MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME
• MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD

mongodb:
  image: mongo
  container_name: mongodb
  ports:
    - '127.0.0.1:27017:27017/tcp'
  volumes:
    - mongodb_data:/data/db
  environment:
    - MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME=mongouser
    - MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD=mongopassword

volumes:
  mongodb_data: {}