@chat-adapter/whatsapp

npm package: @chat-adapter/whatsapp

WhatsApp Business Cloud adapter for Chat SDK, using the WhatsApp Business Cloud API.

Documentation: chat-sdk.dev/adapters/official/whatsapp · Guides: vercel.com/kb/chat-sdk

Installation

pnpm add @chat-adapter/whatsapp

Scaffold with the CLI

To scaffold a new WhatsApp bot with this adapter preselected:

npx create-chat-sdk@latest my-bot --adapter whatsapp memory

Visit the adapters directory to see other available official and vendor-official adapters.

Usage

import { Chat } from "chat";
import { createWhatsAppAdapter } from "@chat-adapter/whatsapp";

const bot = new Chat({
  userName: "mybot",
  adapters: {
    whatsapp: createWhatsAppAdapter(),
  },
});

bot.onNewMention(async (thread, message) => {
  await thread.post("Hello from WhatsApp!");
});

When using createWhatsAppAdapter() without arguments, credentials are auto-detected from environment variables.

WhatsApp Business setup

1. Create a Meta app

1. Go to developers.facebook.com/apps
2. Click Create App, select Business type
3. Add the WhatsApp product to your app
4. Go to WhatsApp > API Setup and note your Phone Number ID and Access Token

2. Configure webhooks

1. Go to WhatsApp > Configuration in your Meta app
2. Set Callback URL to https://your-domain.com/api/webhooks/whatsapp
3. Set Verify Token to a secret string of your choice (this becomes WHATSAPP_VERIFY_TOKEN)
4. Subscribe to the messages webhook field

3. Get credentials

From your Meta app dashboard, copy:

• App Secret (under App Settings > Basic) as WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET
• Access Token (under WhatsApp > API Setup) as WHATSAPP_ACCESS_TOKEN
• Phone Number ID (under WhatsApp > API Setup) as WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID

For production, generate a permanent System User Token instead of the temporary access token.

Inbound attachments

Incoming media attachments expose a lazy fetchData(). Media is downloaded only from Meta's fbcdn.net and fbsbx.com hosts or the configured Graph origin. Downloads refuse private and internal addresses, are limited to 25 MB, and time out after 30 seconds, and the access token never follows a redirect off those hosts. Pass a custom transport to downloadMedia() to route downloads through a proxy.

Configuration

All options are auto-detected from environment variables when not provided. You can call createWhatsAppAdapter() with no arguments if the env vars are set.

*Required at runtime — either via config or environment variable.

Environment variables

WHATSAPP_ACCESS_TOKEN=...          # Meta access token (permanent or system user token)
WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET=...            # App secret for X-Hub-Signature-256 verification
WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID=...       # Bot's phone number ID from Meta dashboard
WHATSAPP_VERIFY_TOKEN=...          # User-defined secret for webhook verification
WHATSAPP_BOT_USERNAME=...          # Optional, defaults to "whatsapp-bot"
WHATSAPP_API_URL=...               # Optional, override the Meta Graph API base URL

Webhook setup

WhatsApp uses two webhook mechanisms:

1. Verification handshake (GET) — Meta sends a hub.verify_token challenge that must match your WHATSAPP_VERIFY_TOKEN.
2. Event delivery (POST) — incoming messages, reactions, and interactive responses, verified via X-Hub-Signature-256.

// Next.js App Router example
import { bot } from "@/lib/bot";

export async function GET(request: Request) {
  return bot.webhooks.whatsapp(request);
}

export async function POST(request: Request) {
  return bot.webhooks.whatsapp(request);
}

Features

Messaging

Rich content

Conversations

Typing indicators

WhatsApp supports typing indicators through thread.startTyping() or adapter.startTyping(threadId).

Use it when the bot is about to respond and may take a few seconds. The adapter uses the most recent inbound message ID from thread history, so startTyping() only works after the bot has received a message.

await thread.startTyping();

await thread.post({
  markdown: "Thanks, I am checking that now.",
});

WhatsApp-specific behavior:

• If there is no inbound message context, startTyping() no-ops.
• The typing indicator is dismissed when the bot sends its reply, or after the WhatsApp platform timeout.

Read receipts

Use thread.markAsRead() in a message handler to acknowledge the current inbound message:

await thread.markAsRead();

You can also pass an inbound Message or its ID. WhatsApp marks that message and earlier messages in the conversation as read. It does not allow outgoing message IDs to be marked as read and recommends acknowledging inbound messages within 30 days.

Incoming message types

Message history

Interactive messages

Card elements are automatically converted to WhatsApp interactive messages:

• 3 or fewer buttons — rendered as WhatsApp reply buttons (max 20 chars per title)
• More than 3 buttons — falls back to formatted text
• Max body text — 1024 characters

When a card with reply buttons also contains link buttons, each link button is appended to the interactive message body as a Label: url line, since WhatsApp reply buttons cannot open URLs.

Link buttons (CTA URL)

A card whose only interactive element is a single link button is sent as a native CTA URL message with a tappable link button. The card is promoted only when all of these hold:

• The link button is the card's only action across every actions row, including rows nested in sections. Reply buttons, selects, radio selects, or a second populated actions row keep the text fallback.
• The URL starts with http:// or https:// and the label is non-empty. Other schemes (mailto:, tel:, relative paths) keep the text fallback because the Cloud API rejects them.
• The card has no header image and no image, table, chart, or inline link children. Text, fields, sections, and dividers are fine.
• The post has no files or attachments. When media accompanies the card, the adapter keeps the single captioned media send, and the caption includes a Label: url line for each link button.

The button label is truncated to 20 characters, the header (card title) to 60, and the body to 1024. Cards that do not match these rules fall back to formatted text, where link buttons render as Label: url.

Template messages

Outside the 24-hour customer service window, WhatsApp only accepts pre-approved template messages. Use sendTemplate to start business-initiated conversations:

const threadId = await adapter.openDM("15551234567");

await adapter.sendTemplate(threadId, {
  name: "appointment_reminder",
  language: "en",
  components: [
    {
      type: "body",
      parameters: [{ type: "text", text: "Tomorrow at 2pm" }],
    },
  ],
});

Templates must be created and approved in WhatsApp Manager before they can be sent. Quick reply button taps on a template arrive as button responses and are dispatched to your onAction handlers.

API errors

A non-2xx Graph API response throws WhatsAppApiError, exported from @chat-adapter/whatsapp. It extends AdapterError, so existing instanceof AdapterError checks continue to work.

import { WhatsAppApiError } from "@chat-adapter/whatsapp";

try {
  await thread.post("Hello");
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof WhatsAppApiError) {
    console.error(error.code, error.errorCode, error.details, error.status);
  }
  throw error;
}

• code: the shared AdapterError code when the failure maps onto one: RATE_LIMITED (HTTP 429, or Meta throttling codes such as 130429 and 80007), AUTH_FAILED (HTTP 401, or Meta codes 0 and 190), PERMISSION_DENIED (HTTP 403, or Meta codes 3, 10, and 200 to 299), NOT_FOUND (HTTP 404). Otherwise undefined.
• errorCode: Meta's numeric error code, such as 130429
• providerMessage and type: Meta's error.message and error.type, when present
• details: Meta's error_data.details, when present
• status: HTTP response status
• subcode and traceId: Meta's error_subcode and fbtrace_id, when present
• raw: the full parsed response body (see the WhatsAppGraphErrorBody type), or the original text if it is not valid JSON

Meta recommends using error codes and details for error handling. Subcodes are optional and deprecated in the Cloud API. Missing or malformed provider fields stay undefined, and numeric codes that a proxy serializes as strings are accepted. The error message combines the operation, the HTTP status, and Meta's error.message, or a bounded excerpt of a non-JSON body.

This covers non-2xx responses from message sends, templates, reactions, read receipts, typing requests, media uploads, and media metadata requests. Transport failures and unparseable response bodies throw NetworkError, as do binary media download failures. A 2xx response that reports success: false for a typing request or read receipt throws a plain AdapterError. A successful API response can still be followed by an asynchronous delivery failure; those webhook errors are not thrown as WhatsAppApiError.

User identity

WhatsApp messages include a business-scoped user ID in from_user_id and contacts[].user_id. Users with a username may omit the phone-based from and wa_id fields.

The adapter accepts either identifier. When both are available, it preserves an existing phone-based thread ID and stores the BSUID as an alias. Replies include both to and recipient, with the phone number taking precedence according to Meta's API. BSUID-only threads send through recipient.

Meta does not support BSUID recipients for one-tap, zero-tap, or copy-code authentication templates. Those templates require the user's phone number.

Use a persistent state adapter in production so identity aliases survive restarts. The adapter preserves the canonical thread when Meta rotates a BSUID by consuming user_changed_number and user_changed_user_id system messages plus the user_id_update webhook, which carries the previous and current BSUID. Subscribe your Meta app to the user_id_update webhook field so rotations reach the adapter. Current phone, BSUID, parent BSUID, and username fields remain available through message.raw.

Thread ID format

whatsapp:{phoneNumberId}:{userWaId}

Example: whatsapp:1234567890:15551234567

The final segment is the adapter's canonical user identifier. It may contain a phone number, a BSUID such as US.13491208655302741918, or a previously observed identifier retained for thread continuity.

Troubleshooting

Webhook verification failing

• Confirm WHATSAPP_VERIFY_TOKEN matches the value you entered in the Meta dashboard
• Ensure your endpoint returns the hub.challenge value for GET requests

Messages not arriving

• Check that you subscribed to the messages webhook field in Meta app settings
• Verify WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET is correct — signature verification silently rejects invalid payloads
• Ensure your phone number is registered and verified in the WhatsApp Business dashboard

"Invalid signature" errors

• Double-check WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET matches the value under App Settings > Basic
• The adapter uses HMAC-SHA256 to verify the X-Hub-Signature-256 header

Token expired

• Temporary tokens from the API Setup page expire after 24 hours
• For production, create a System User in Meta Business Suite and generate a permanent token

AI Coding Agents

If you use an AI coding agent such as OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, or Cursor, install the Chat SDK skill so it knows the SDK APIs, adapter patterns, and project conventions before writing code.

npx skills add vercel/chat

The skill references bundled documentation in node_modules/chat/docs, plus adapter guides and starter templates in the published package.

You can also install the Vercel Plugin for a broader agent toolkit — it includes the Chat SDK skill alongside specialist agents, agent slash commands, and more:

npx plugins add vercel/vercel-plugin

The plugin is optional; the skill alone is enough to build with Chat SDK.

For agent-readable documentation, see chat-sdk.dev/llms.txt (page index) or chat-sdk.dev/llms-full.txt (full text).

License

MIT