whatsapp-mcp-server

A production-ready Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects AI assistants like Claude to the WhatsApp Cloud API (Meta). Send messages, manage conversations, handle media, send template messages, and receive real-time webhooks — all through natural language.

Why this MCP server?

This is the only WhatsApp MCP server built on the official Meta WhatsApp Cloud API.

Most WhatsApp tools for developers rely on unofficial browser automation libraries (whatsapp-web.js) or reverse-engineered protocols (whatsmeow, Baileys). These approaches violate WhatsApp's Terms of Service and carry a real risk of account bans. This project is different.

Bottom line: if you are building anything beyond a personal experiment — customer support, automated notifications, business workflows — use the official API. This server gives you that, packaged as a drop-in MCP server.

Related MCP server: WAHA MCP Server

Features

• Send all message types — text, images, videos, audio, documents, reactions

• Template messages — send and list approved WhatsApp Business templates with full component support

• Media management — upload, retrieve, and delete media files

• Conversation history — in-memory store of recent conversations via webhook

• Real-time webhooks — receive incoming messages and delivery status updates

• Business profile — read and update your WhatsApp Business profile

• Contact lookup — validate phone numbers against WhatsApp

• Rate limit handling — automatic exponential backoff retry logic

• Type-safe — fully typed TypeScript with Zod input validation

• Docker ready — multi-stage Dockerfile and docker-compose included

• Works without webhook — send-only mode with no webhook server required

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    AI Assistant (Claude)                      │
└──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘
                           │ MCP Protocol (stdio)
                           │
┌──────────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────────┐
│                  whatsapp-mcp-server                         │
│                                                              │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────────────┐  │
│  │  MCP Server │  │   Tools      │  │  WhatsApp Client  │  │
│  │  (stdio)    │◄─┤  messages    ├─►│  (Axios + retry)  │  │
│  │             │  │  contacts    │  └────────┬──────────┘  │
│  └─────────────┘  │  media       │           │              │
│                   │  templates   │           │ HTTPS        │
│  ┌─────────────┐  └──────────────┘           │              │
│  │  Webhook    │                             ▼              │
│  │  Server     │  ◄──── Incoming   ┌─────────────────────┐ │
│  │  (Express)  │       messages    │ WhatsApp Cloud API  │ │
│  └──────┬──────┘       & statuses  │  graph.facebook.com  │ │
└─────────│───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┘ │
          │                           │                        │
          │ HTTP POST (Meta webhooks) │ HTTPS (send messages)  │
          │                           │                        │
     ┌────▼──────────────────────────▼──────────────┐
     │            WhatsApp Users                     │
     └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Webhook flow for incoming messages:
WhatsApp User → Meta Servers → POST /webhook → WhatsAppWebhook
→ in-memory conversation store → EventEmitter → MCP tools

Prerequisites

1. Node.js 20+ — download

2. Meta Developer Account — create one

3. WhatsApp Business App configured in Meta App Dashboard

4. Phone Number ID and Access Token from your WhatsApp app settings

5. (Optional) A public HTTPS URL for receiving webhooks (use ngrok for local dev)

Quick Start

Option A — Run with npx (no clone required)

The package ships a whatsapp-mcp-server binary, so the fastest way to use it is to let your MCP client launch it via npx and pass credentials through env (see the client config blocks below):

npx -y @fredshred7/whatsapp-mcp-server

npx downloads and runs the published package on demand — point your MCP client at it and you are done. Jump to Usage with Claude Desktop or Usage with Claude Code.

Option B — Clone and build from source

Step 1 — Clone and install:

git clone https://github.com/FredShred7/whatsapp-mcp-server.git
cd whatsapp-mcp-server
npm install

Step 2 — Configure credentials:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your WhatsApp credentials

Step 3 — Build:

npm run build

Step 4 — Add to Claude Desktop or Claude Code (see sections below)

Step 5 — Test it: Ask Claude: "Send a WhatsApp message to +15551234567 saying Hello from Claude!"

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the values.

Available Tools

⚠️ whatsapp_get_contact is legacy and not expected to work on the Cloud API. It relies on the POST /{phone-number-id}/contacts "contact check", which was a feature of the legacy WhatsApp On-Premises API — not a Cloud API endpoint that was later removed. Per Meta's On-Premises API Sunset, the final On-Premises client version expired on 2025-10-23. The contact-check never existed in the WhatsApp Cloud API (the API this server uses), and the Cloud API has no contact-validation equivalent. (Even on On-Premises, Meta had degraded it to always return valid, so the result could not be trusted.) To determine whether a number can receive messages, send the message and inspect the message-status webhooks / error codes (e.g. 131026 "message undeliverable") instead. The tool is retained only for backwards compatibility.

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).

Recommended — run the published package via npx (no local build needed):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@fredshred7/whatsapp-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID": "your_phone_number_id",
        "WHATSAPP_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_access_token",
        "WHATSAPP_WEBHOOK_VERIFY_TOKEN": "your_verify_token",
        "WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET": "your_app_secret",
        "WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID": "your_business_account_id",
        "WEBHOOK_PORT": "3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternatively — run a local build (after cloning and npm run build):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/whatsapp-mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID": "your_phone_number_id",
        "WHATSAPP_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_access_token",
        "WHATSAPP_WEBHOOK_VERIFY_TOKEN": "your_verify_token",
        "WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET": "your_app_secret",
        "WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID": "your_business_account_id",
        "WEBHOOK_PORT": "3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving. You should see the WhatsApp tools available in the tools panel.

Usage with Claude Code

Add to your Claude Code MCP settings (~/.claude/settings.json or project-level .claude/settings.json). Using the published package via npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@fredshred7/whatsapp-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID": "your_phone_number_id",
        "WHATSAPP_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_access_token",
        "WHATSAPP_WEBHOOK_VERIFY_TOKEN": "your_verify_token",
        "WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET": "your_app_secret",
        "WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID": "your_business_account_id",
        "WEBHOOK_PORT": "3000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or use the CLI to add it:

claude mcp add whatsapp npx -y @fredshred7/whatsapp-mcp-server

Webhook Setup

Webhooks allow you to receive incoming messages and delivery status updates. They are optional — the MCP server works without them for sending messages only.

Local development with ngrok

# 1. Install ngrok: https://ngrok.com/download
# 2. Start your webhook server
WEBHOOK_PORT=3000 npm run dev

# 3. In another terminal, expose it publicly
ngrok http 3000

# 4. Copy the HTTPS URL (e.g. https://abc123.ngrok.io)

Configure in Meta App Dashboard

1. Go to Meta App Dashboard > Your App > WhatsApp > Configuration

2. Set Callback URL to: https://your-ngrok-url.ngrok.io/webhook

3. Set Verify Token to match your WHATSAPP_WEBHOOK_VERIFY_TOKEN

4. Click Verify and Save

5. Subscribe to the messages webhook field

Production

For production, deploy this server behind a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, etc.) with a valid TLS certificate. Set WEBHOOK_PORT to your internal port and expose it via HTTPS on port 443.

Docker Deployment

Build and run with docker-compose

# Copy and fill in your credentials
cp .env.example .env

# Build and start
docker-compose up -d

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

# Stop
docker-compose down

Build manually

# Build image
docker build -t whatsapp-mcp-server .

# Run (send-only, no webhook)
docker run --rm -i \
  -e WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID=xxx \
  -e WHATSAPP_ACCESS_TOKEN=xxx \
  whatsapp-mcp-server

# Run with webhook server
docker run --rm -i \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  --env-file .env \
  whatsapp-mcp-server

Note: When using Docker with Claude Desktop/Code, the MCP transport uses stdio. Make sure to pass -i (interactive) so stdin/stdout remain connected. The webhook port is separate from the MCP transport.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run with auto-reload
npm run dev

# Type-check only (no build)
npm run typecheck

# Build
npm run build

# Lint
npm run lint

# Run the test suite
npm test

# Re-run tests on change
npm run test:watch

Project structure

src/
├── index.ts              # Entry point — loads env, wires up components
├── server.ts             # MCP server — registers tools, handles requests
├── whatsapp/
│   ├── client.ts         # WhatsApp Cloud API client with retry logic
│   ├── types.ts          # TypeScript types and interfaces
│   └── webhook.ts        # Express webhook server + in-memory store
└── tools/
    ├── shared.ts         # Shared helpers: formatError + Zod->JSON Schema
    ├── messages.ts       # Send/receive message tools
    ├── contacts.ts       # Contact and business profile tools
    ├── media.ts          # Media upload/download/delete tools
    └── templates.ts      # Template message tools

test/                     # Vitest unit tests (schema, errors, webhook)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on reporting bugs, suggesting features, and submitting pull requests.

License

MIT — Copyright (c) 2025 FredShred7