Questions

Do I need to install anything?

No. You link an account with a QR code and paste a URL and a token into your MCP client. If you would rather run everything yourself, the self-hosting guide covers it.

Which clients work?

Anything that speaks MCP over HTTP with a custom header: Claude Code today, and any client that lets you add a remote server with an Authorization header. Some apps only accept OAuth connectors so far — for those, run the gateway locally over stdio until OAuth lands.

Can I connect more than one client?

Yes. The token is not tied to a device or a session, so your editor, your phone assistant and a cron job can all use the same endpoint at once.

Does my phone have to stay online?

No. A linked device keeps working while the phone is off — the same way WhatsApp Web does. The phone matters for linking, not for reading afterwards.

Can it message a number I have never written to?

Yes, when sending is enabled for your account: send_message takes a plain phone number in international format and starts a new conversation. Check first with check_numbers_on_whatsapp so you do not write into the void — that tool asks WhatsApp whether a number is registered at all.

Can it read group chats?

Yes, groups are ordinary chats. list_groups and get_group add the parts a chat list does not show: subject, description, participants and who the admins are.

Can it see photos and documents?

get_media fetches the attachment of one specific message on request. Images come back as images, so a model can actually look at them; other file types report their type and size. Nothing is downloaded in the background.

What about voice notes, stickers, polls?

They appear in message listings as messages of that type. Transcription is not part of this — if you want a voice note turned into text, hand the file to a tool that does that job.

How far back does history go?

As far as the account synced. WhatsApp hands a linked device a limited backfill, and the free tier keeps a 90-day window. history_coverage tells you per chat what is actually there before you go searching for something that was never synced.

Can my number get banned?

It can. WhatsApp's terms are written for humans using clients, and unusual sending patterns get numbers restricted — that decision is theirs and cannot be appealed by us. Reading is quiet; bulk or bot-like sending is the risky part, which is why sending is off by default and why bulk tooling is explicitly not planned.

Is this a WhatsApp Business API thing?

No. The official Business API is a different product with templates, per-message fees and approvals. This links a normal account as a device, like a desktop client — cheaper and more flexible, but with none of the official guarantees.

What if my token leaks?

Ask for a rotation; the old token dies immediately. Until then, assume anyone holding it can read everything the account has synced. That is why the token deserves password-manager treatment.

Can you read my messages?

The operator can technically reach the machine — that is true of every hosted service, and pretending otherwise would be a lie. What we commit to is in Privacy: no reading out of curiosity, no analytics on content, no training, no sharing. If that trust is a problem, self-host; the code is the same.

What about the other people in my chats?

They did not sign up here. Keeping a copy of your own conversations is ordinarily yours to do, but pushing someone's message into an assistant is a judgement call you own — and in a business context it is a processing activity you are responsible for.

What does it cost?

Nothing today. There is no payment flow at all during the alpha, and pricing will be announced with at least 30 days' notice. See Pricing.

What if you disappear?

The store is a plain SQLite directory and the gateway is a small Node service. Export the store, run it yourself, done. That is the point of keeping it open source and boring.

Why should I trust an alpha with my WhatsApp?

Maybe you should not — yet. Link a secondary account, keep sending off, and see whether the thing behaves. That is a perfectly reasonable way to evaluate this, and it is what we would do.