Quick Start

This guide walks you through connecting a WhatsApp number, receiving webhooks, and sending your first message.

Prerequisites

A WAHooks account (sign up)
A WhatsApp account on your phone
An API token (create one in the dashboard or via CLI)

1. Install the SDK and CLI

npm install @wahooks/sdk

pip install wahooks

Install the CLI to manage connections and tokens from your terminal:

curl -fsSL https://wahooks.com/install | bash

brew install dhruvyad/tap/wahooks

npm install -g @wahooks/cli

2. Create an API token

wahooks login
wahooks tokens create my-app

# Use your Supabase JWT from the dashboard
curl -X POST https://api.wahooks.com/api/tokens \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "my-app"}'

Save the token — it's shown only once. It looks like wh_a1b2c3....

3. Create a connection and scan QR

import { WAHooks } from '@wahooks/sdk';

const client = new WAHooks({ apiKey: 'wh_...' });

const connection = await client.createConnection();
console.log('Connection ID:', connection.id);

// Get QR code to scan with WhatsApp
const qr = await client.getQR(connection.id);
console.log('Scan this QR:', qr.value);

from wahooks import WAHooks

client = WAHooks(api_key="wh_...")

connection = client.create_connection()
print("Connection ID:", connection["id"])

# Get QR code to scan with WhatsApp
qr = client.get_qr(connection["id"])
print("Scan this QR:", qr["value"])

Open the QR code in WhatsApp: Settings → Linked Devices → Link a Device.

4. Set up a webhook

const webhook = await client.createWebhook(
  connection.id,
  'https://your-server.com/webhook',
);
console.log('Webhook created:', webhook.id);
console.log('Signing secret:', webhook.signingSecret);

webhook = client.create_webhook(
    connection["id"],
    url="https://your-server.com/webhook",
)
print("Webhook created:", webhook["id"])
print("Signing secret:", webhook["signingSecret"])

5. Send a message

await client.sendMessage(
  connection.id,
  '1234567890@s.whatsapp.net',
  'Hello from WAHooks!'
);

client.send_message(
    connection["id"],
    chat_id="1234567890@s.whatsapp.net",
    text="Hello from WAHooks!",
)

Chat IDs use the format {phone}@s.whatsapp.net for individual chats and {id}@g.us for group chats.

Next steps

Receive webhooks — handle incoming messages
Webhook signatures — verify webhook authenticity
API Reference — explore all endpoints