whatsapp

💬 WhatsApp for Claude Code

Your WhatsApp number, powered by Claude Code.

Quick Setup · Features · Access · Docs · Going further · Issues

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With Anthropic's recent policy changes, many users lost access to their AI agents through messaging platforms. While official channel plugins exist for Telegram and Instagram, WhatsApp — the world's most used messaging app — had no solution.

This plugin fills that gap. It connects your WhatsApp number directly to Claude Code, turning it into a fully functional AI agent that responds through WhatsApp.

Highlights

• Native WhatsApp channel — scan a QR (or use a pairing code on headless servers), pair your contacts, start chatting with Claude.
• Access control — pairing codes, allowlist, group gating with requireMention, plus per-chat history scope (each chat sees its own history by default; designated owners read all). Nobody talks to your agent without permission, and no chat reads another's history.
• Permission relay — when Claude wants to run a tool, get the prompt on WhatsApp; approve or deny with a 👍 reaction or yes <id> reply.
• Local search, export, and discovery — every message indexed locally; full-text search, contact and chat discovery, message-context lookup, request older messages from WhatsApp, dump chats to markdown / jsonl / csv.
• Voice transcription — local Whisper by default (no API keys, 99+ languages); optional cloud providers (Groq / OpenAI) for higher quality on slower hardware.
• Media pipeline — inbound images, audio, video, and documents auto-downloaded for Claude to read.
• Reply shaping — paragraph-aware chunking, optional ack reaction, auto-document for long replies, message editing without push notifications.
• Inbound debouncing — rapid-fire texts from the same sender are batched into a single agent turn, so Claude stops answering mid-thought when the user is still typing.
• Autonomous mode + web browsing — combine with --chrome for a fully agentic WhatsApp assistant.
• Always-on — launchd, systemd, or Task Scheduler recipes included.
• Multiple agents — run separate numbers from separate folders, each isolated.

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18+

Quick Setup

1. Create a folder for your WhatsApp agent.

Each agent lives in its own folder. Create one and open Claude Code there:

mkdir ~/my-whatsapp-agent && cd ~/my-whatsapp-agent
claude

2. Install the plugin.

Inside Claude Code, add the marketplace:

/plugin marketplace add crisandrews/claude-whatsapp

Then install the plugin:

/plugin install whatsapp@claude-whatsapp

When prompted for scope, select "Install for you, in this repo only (local scope)" — this keeps the agent isolated to this folder.

3. Close and relaunch with the WhatsApp channel.

Exit Claude Code (/exit or Ctrl+C), then relaunch:

claude --dangerously-load-development-channels plugin:whatsapp@claude-whatsapp --dangerously-skip-permissions

--dangerously-skip-permissions lets the agent run without asking for confirmation on every action — recommended for a smooth experience. First launch installs dependencies in the background (~60-90s). Subsequent launches are instant.