Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.
Does OpenWA need an API key?
No required environment variable is listed on this record.
What transport does OpenWA use?
OpenWA runs locally over stdio.
When was OpenWA last checked?
Last checked 2026-11-11. OpenWA Open Source WhatsApp API Gateway Features • Quick Start • Docs • API • Contributing ---
From the publisher
Documentation
✨ Why OpenWA?
OpenWA is a free, open-source WhatsApp API Gateway designed for developers who need full control over their messaging infrastructure—without vendor lock-in or hidden paywalls.
Built on a pluggable architecture, OpenWA lets you select database engines (SQLite/PostgreSQL), media storage backends (Local/S3), and an optional Redis (queue, rate limits, WebSocket fan-out) through configuration rather than application-code changes. The storage backend is the live store for status media and, when chat-media archiving is enabled, archived chat media; other message media is returned inline to API and webhook consumers. Of the media, scripts/backup.sh archives only the local media directory, so an S3 bucket needs a backup of its own.
🔓 100% Open Source
No licensing fees, no feature locks, full source code access
🏗️ Pluggable Architecture
Swap adapters for database and storage via config
🖥️ Full Dashboard
Modern React UI for session, webhook, and API key management
Key features
01. Free, Open Source, Self-Hosted WhatsApp API Gateway
02. OpenWA Open Source WhatsApp API Gateway Features
03. Contributing ---
04. <p align="center">
05. <img src="docs/logo/openwa_logo
🔹 Multi-Session Ready
Run multiple WhatsApp sessions concurrently on one instance
🐳 Docker Native
Production-ready with zero configuration
🧩 Official Plugins
Chatwoot, Typebot & more as sandboxed plugins on the Integration Fabric — OpenWA-plugins
🔗 n8n Integration
Community nodes for workflow automation
🧩 Community Adapters
Third-party integrations (e.g. ioBroker) — see docs
🔐 Session-scoped keys
Operator and viewer (reader) tokens can be limited to chosen sessions — or all sessions if none are selected
🔒 Chat-scoped keys
Those same tokens can also be limited to chosen chats — a few groups and contacts — so an agent on a shared account sees only its own
Session-scoped operator & viewer tokens
When you create or edit an operator or viewer API key in the dashboard, you can tick the WhatsApp sessions that key may use.
No sessions selected — the key can access every session, including ones created later.
One or more sessions selected — the key can only list, read, and (for operator) manage those sessions. A request naming any other session returns 403 ("API key not authorized for this session"); session-filtered lists (sessions, audit, webhook delivery failures) return that key's rows rather than an error; and the key-management routes and the queue dashboard, which name no session at all, return 403.
Admin keys stay unscoped in the dashboard so they can keep managing other API keys. The HTTP API still accepts allowedSessions on any role if you need that from a client.
Chat-scoped operator & viewer tokens
A session-scoped key still reaches every chat on the sessions it may use. A key can be narrowed further, to chats (a chosen set of groups and individual contacts), with allowedChats on POST /auth/api-keys or PUT /auth/api-keys/{id}. The dashboard sets it on operator and viewer keys (one chat id or phone number per line) and shows each key's chat count in the list.
No chats selected — the key can reach every chat on its sessions.
One or more selected — the key reaches only those chats. Every authenticated REST route not explicitly marked as safe for a chat-scoped key refuses it with 403 (a request naming a session outside allowedSessions is refused first, with 403 "API key not authorized for this session"), including routes added in later releases: the refusal is the default. Inside its chats an operator key can do what the marked routes allow, which is more than reading and sending: it can also delete or clear a chat, leave or rename a group, and block the contact. It cannot change who belongs to a group: adding, removing, promoting or demoting participants, answering join requests and reading or resetting the invite link all stay closed.
The two scopes are independent — a key may be limited to sessions, to chats, to both, or to neither.
This lets you point an AI agent or third-party integration at a shared account without handing it every chat. Give the agent a key scoped to the few groups (or DMs) it is meant to handle: it can send and reply there, but it cannot list your other chats, read any other DM, message a contact outside its set, or reach the queue dashboard. It reads its chats' stored messages on either engine through GET /sessions/{sessionId}/messages?chatId=, where chatId is required for such a key, and live history through GET /sessions/{sessionId}/messages/{chatId}/history on whatsapp-web.js only. It can subscribe to the /events WebSocket, which delivers only events for its chats. It can still read the session's own status (GET /sessions/{sessionId}) so an integration can tell whether it is connected.
Identity is matched through the lid mapping table: a contact allowlisted by phone number also matches the same person's @lid privacy id once the table maps the two, and an unmapped @lid is refused rather than guessed. A lid's digits are never mistaken for a phone number, so 555000111@lid does not admit [email protected]. When a session reports a privacy id new to the gateway for a number the table already maps to another reported id, as when the number passes to someone else, the gateway logs a warning and writes a phone_second_lid_reported audit row under that session, so the keys that name either can be reviewed. An id the gateway no longer holds in its mapping cache (LID_MAPPING_CACHE_MAX) counts as new, so on a larger table a known pair can be reported again.
The default covers REST routes only. Surfaces that authenticate outside the REST guard do not inherit it, so each one that can return chat data applies the fence with its own check: the /events WebSocket delivers only events inside the key's chats, the MCP mount authorizes each tool call against them, and the Bull Board queue dashboard refuses the key. Five list routes are usable, each filtered to the key's chats before paging: GET /sessions/{sessionId}/chats, GET /sessions/{sessionId}/groups (id, name and community parent id only), GET /sessions/{sessionId}/contacts, GET /sessions/{sessionId}/labels/{labelId}/chats and GET /api/search (the built-in provider; a search plugin answers 403).
The API also accepts allowedChats on an admin key, but no admin-only route is open to a chat-scoped key, and the last usable admin key cannot be scoped this way.
None of this changes the ban-risk guidance below. It limits what a key can reach, not what WhatsApp makes of the account.
⚠️ Before you connect a number — please read
OpenWA is an unofficial, community-maintained gateway. It connects to WhatsApp through reverse-engineered clients (the whatsapp-web.js project and @whiskeysockets/baileys), not through Meta's official Cloud API. This has real consequences you should understand before you link a phone number.
What this means in practice
There is always a non-zero risk of account restriction or ban. WhatsApp's anti-abuse systems actively look for unofficial automation. No amount of code quality on our side can make that risk zero.
Pick the right number. Never connect your primary personal or business number to an automated gateway. Use a dedicated number you can afford to lose. If you're running this for paying clients, pass that guidance on to them.
The two engines trade off differently:
Engine
Ban-risk profile
Resource cost
whatsapp-web.js
Lower — drives a real headless Chromium that looks like genuine WhatsApp Web traffic.
High RAM (~300–500 MB / session).
baileys
Higher — speaks the multi-device WebSocket protocol directly and is easier for WhatsApp to fingerprint.
Low RAM (~30–80 MB / session).
If account safety is your top priority and you can afford the memory, prefer whatsapp-web.js. If you need density and accept the trade-off, use baileys.
Safe-sending guidelines
These are practical guardrails, not guarantees — but they materially reduce the chance of WhatsApp flagging the account:
Warm up fresh numbers. For the first several days, behave like a normal human user: scan the QR, exchange a handful of messages with saved contacts, join a group or two, set a profile photo. Don't blast on day one.
Don't cold-blast strangers. Sending the first-ever message to a large batch of numbers that have never messaged you is the single most reliable way to get restricted — on either engine.
Pace sends per session. Set SEND_PACING_ENABLED=true (off by default) for a per-session daily cap: an allowance that grows with the session's age (SEND_PACING_WARMUP_SCHEDULE), a separate cap on new conversations (SEND_PACING_COLD_DAILY_CAP) and a consecutive-failure breaker; R002 in the risk guide lists what it counts. No per-minute cap is enforced, so spacing within a day is up to the caller: bulk sends wait delayBetweenMessages between messages, and single text sends pause behind a typing indicator (SIMULATE_TYPING, on by default). A few messages per minute per session is sustainable; "thousands in an hour" is not. The RATE_LIMIT_* variables are API abuse protection, counted per route and client IP, not a send cap: they throttle dashboard and read traffic too.
Use opted-in recipients. The safest workloads are replies and alerts to people who already expect to hear from you (OTP to your own users, order updates, support replies).
Keep a fallback. For anything auth-critical or revenue-critical, keep an SMS / email / official-Cloud-API path. Do not bet a login flow solely on an unofficial client.
Mind the hosting IP. Cheap datacenter IPs are flagged more aggressively than residential ones. A residential proxy (supported per-session via the proxy settings) can help; it is not a license to spam.
Known platform behaviour (not bugs)
A few things that look like bugs but are actually server-side WhatsApp policy, not OpenWA defects — we track them separately so we can distinguish them from real bugs:
First message to a brand-new contact sometimes never arrives. The API returns success because the message leaves OpenWA, but WhatsApp's server-side reach-out / trust policy drops it at delivery. This is independent of OpenWA. Background in #830.
Accounts that get restricted cannot be "unrestricted" by us. If WhatsApp disables a number, you need to appeal through their channels — OpenWA has no lever to pull.
Some accounts cannot link a new device at all. WhatsApp has added a passkey step to companion linking for some accounts: the phone asks to "Create a passkey" or "Continue on your other device" and the session stays at qr_ready. Neither engine implements that step, so switching engine or using a pairing code does not help, and no OpenWA setting changes it. Avoid logging out or re-linking a session that works, since linking it again may hit the same gate, and keep the fallback from rule 5 above. See the FAQ entry; background in #560.
Compliance
For any deployment where ethical, legal, or regulatory compliance matters (healthcare, finance, large-scale commercial messaging, anything touching end users in the EU/EEA under DMA/GDPR framings), treat OpenWA as not approved and use Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API. OpenWA is an excellent fit for personal projects, internal tooling, automation hobbyists, and learning — it is not a drop-in replacement for the official API in regulated environments.
📖 For the deeper, maintainer-side risk analysis (protocol-change exposure, dependency strategy, security posture), see Risk Management (docs/16).
🎯 Features
Core Features
Feature
Status
Description
REST API
✅
Full WhatsApp API via HTTP endpoints
Multi-Session
✅
Manage multiple WhatsApp accounts
Webhooks
✅
Real-time events with HMAC signature and optional smart pre-dispatch filters
Web Dashboard
✅
Visual management interface
API Key Auth
✅
Secure API authentication
Swagger Docs
✅
Interactive API documentation
Messaging
Feature
Status
Description
Text Messages
✅
Send/receive text messages
Media Messages
✅
Images, videos, documents, audio
Message Reactions
✅
React to messages with emoji
Message Editing
✅
Send edits + live message.edited events on both engines
Bulk Messaging
✅
Send to multiple recipients
Message Status
✅
Track delivery and read receipts
Advanced
Feature
Status
Description
Groups API
✅
Create, manage, join (invite code), and configure groups
Profile Management
✅
Set own display name, about text, and profile picture
Call Handling
✅
call.received events (not reliable on whatsapp-web.js), reject calls and per-session auto-reject (Baileys only)
Channels/Newsletter
✅
WhatsApp Channels support
Labels Management
✅
Organize chats with labels
Proxy Support
✅
Per-session proxy configuration
Rate Limiting
✅
Configurable request limits
CIDR Whitelisting
✅
IP-based access control
Chat Scoping
✅
Per-key allowedChats allowlist (groups and contacts): a key reaches only those chats, and routes not marked safe for it refuse it
Audit Logging
✅
Audit trail for API-key, session, integration-instance, plugin and infra admin operations (message sends and webhook deliveries have tables of their own, not the audit log)
Infrastructure
Feature
Status
Description
SQLite
✅
Zero-config embedded database
PostgreSQL
✅
Production-grade database
Redis
✅
Opt-in queue, rate limits, WebSocket fan-out
S3/MinIO Storage
✅
Live media store (statuses, archived chat media)
Docker
✅
One-command deployment
Health Checks
✅
Kubernetes-ready probes
Data Migration
✅
Export/import between backends
🚀 Quick Start
Option A: Docker (Recommended)
# Clone and start
git clone https://github.com/rmyndharis/OpenWA.git
cd OpenWA
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d
# Access (the dashboard is bundled into the API image and served on the same port)
# Dashboard: http://localhost:2785
# API: http://localhost:2785/api
# Swagger: http://localhost:2785/api/docs
Your API key. The first boot generates an admin API key, prints it once in the log and stores it at
/app/data/.api-key inside the container. Read it with docker exec openwa-api cat /app/data/.api-key
(the file has no trailing newline, so the shell prompt follows the key on the same line; copy only the key),
then use it to sign in to the dashboard and as the X-API-Key header wherever this README shows
YOUR_API_KEY. Later boots log only a masked prefix. See API Key.
Using Podman instead of Docker?
Podman rootless mode requires the socket to be running and DOCKER_HOST to be set:
Add the export line to your ~/.bashrc to make it permanent.
Option B: Local Development
Source installs on Linux x64/arm64 hosts using glibc need glibc 2.34 or newer for the shipped better-sqlite3 prebuild, including when PostgreSQL is selected. Use a newer host (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, RHEL 9+) or the published Docker image on older hosts; see the startup troubleshooting note.
# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/rmyndharis/OpenWA.git
cd OpenWA
# Install the locked dependencies (includes dashboard)
npm ci
# Start API + Dashboard (config is auto-generated on first run)
npm run dev
# Access (in dev the dashboard runs on the Vite server with hot reload)
# Dashboard: http://localhost:2886
# API: http://localhost:2785/api
# Swagger: http://localhost:2785/api/docs
The first boot writes the admin API key to data/.api-key (read it with cat data/.api-key; the file has no trailing newline, so copy only the key).
Use npm install instead when intentionally changing dependencies. OpenWA's committed lockfile uses
registry artifacts only, so npm 12 works with its secure default that blocks Git dependencies; do not
disable that policy globally.
🔒 Security Architecture
Docker Socket Proxy
The production stack never exposes /var/run/docker.sock directly to the application container. Instead, a dedicated docker-proxy sidecar (based on tecnativa/docker-socket-proxy) acts as the sole gateway to the Docker daemon:
Only the operations needed for container orchestration are enabled (CONTAINERS, IMAGES, VOLUMES, PING, plus the POST method switch). The application connects via the DOCKER_HOST=tcp://docker-proxy:2375 environment variable, which DockerService detects automatically. Note this is an operational gateway, not a fine-grained privilege boundary: with POST enabled the proxy admits every method to the enabled paths and cannot scope container-create payloads, so a compromised API container would be host-root-equivalent — see SECURITY.md for the full threat model, mitigations, and how to disable the proxy if you don't use the built-in datastore orchestration.
Non-root Container Execution
The production image never runs the Node.js process as root. On startup, the container follows this chain:
dumb-init (PID 1)
└─ docker-entrypoint.sh (root — fixes named-volume ownership via chown)
└─ gosu openwa node dist/main (drops to the openwa user)
dumb-init is PID 1 and forwards signals (SIGTERM, etc.) for graceful shutdown.
docker-entrypoint.sh runs as root only long enough to chown the named-volume mount points so the openwa user can write to them.
gosu performs a clean exec-based privilege drop — no su or sudo wrappers, so the node process is the direct child of dumb-init.
Named volumes (e.g. openwa-data) get their ownership corrected automatically on every start, so no manual chown step is needed after volume creation.
The image can also start as the openwa user directly (uid/gid 997: --user 997:997, or the Helm chart's podSecurityContext). The entrypoint then skips the chown and the gosu drop and needs no added capabilities, provided /app/data is writable by that uid.
🏭 Production Deployment
For production, use the main docker-compose.yml with optional services:
# Basic production (SQLite, local storage)
docker compose up -d
# Also start the PostgreSQL container (configure it first, see below)
docker compose --profile postgres up -d
# Also start PostgreSQL, Redis and MinIO (configure them first, see below)
docker compose --profile full up -d
Profile
Services
postgres
PostgreSQL database
redis
Redis (queue, rate limits, WebSocket fan-out)
minio
S3-compatible storage (MinIO fork pgsty/silo)
full
All services above
A profile only starts the container; OpenWA keeps using SQLite and local storage until it is told
to use the new service. The simplest route is Dashboard > Infrastructure: pick the built-in
option, save, and restart from there, and OpenWA starts the container itself. The built-in storage
option creates its own openwa-minio container, so do not also start the minio or full profile
for it. The same goes for built-in PostgreSQL and Redis: each built-in option creates its own
container, and the compose profiles are for the manual .env route below. The compose minio
service starts only once S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID and S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY are set in the .env next to
docker-compose.yml; if it was already started without them, run docker rm -f openwa-minio before
you enable built-in storage. To use a profile directly, set these in the .env next to
docker-compose.yml first:
PostgreSQL refuses to initialize a new volume with an empty password, MinIO refuses to start
without one, and a production boot rejects default credentials such as openwa or minioadmin.
The dashboard is bundled into the API image and served by NestJS on the API port, so it
needs no profile — it is always available wherever openwa-api runs. For TLS/public exposure,
put your own reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, a cloud load balancer, or a k8s Ingress) in front;
see the nginx example in docs/12-troubleshooting-faq.md.
Development vs Production
Development (docker-compose.dev.yml): SQLite, local storage, API serves the bundled dashboard
Production (docker-compose.yml): Configurable database, profiles for optional services
Official GHCR images are published as multi-arch manifests for:
linux/amd64
linux/arm64
To run a published image instead of building from source, add a docker-compose.override.yml next to
docker-compose.yml:
Run docker compose pull openwa-api && docker compose up -d --no-build. To upgrade, update the checkout
first (git pull, or git checkout v<version> when pinning), then run the same command: the override
replaces only the image, and docker-compose.yml forwards an explicit variable list with no env_file,
so an outdated copy drops the variables a newer release adds and keeps the old service definitions. Pin a
release by replacing latest with its version number. Once the image is pulled, Compose runs it and
builds nothing. The service keeps its build: section, so if the pull fails (a mistyped tag, no registry
access) Compose falls back to building from source and tags that build with the published name;
--no-build makes that case fail instead. For the same reason, do not use --build or
docker compose build with this override.
🔌 Ports
Service
Port
Description
API & Dashboard
2785
REST API + bundled web dashboard (same port)
Swagger
2785/api/docs
Interactive API docs — off under NODE_ENV=production unless ENABLE_SWAGGER=true
Dashboard (dev)
2886
Vite dev server with hot reload (npm run dev)
📡 API Examples
Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your admin key (see Quick Start for where to find it).
# Start the session
curl -X POST http://localhost:2785/api/sessions/{sessionId}/start \
-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
# Get QR code (scan with WhatsApp)
curl http://localhost:2785/api/sessions/{sessionId}/qr \
-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
Smart filters (optional): add a filters object to fire the webhook only when conditions match
(AND), e.g. { "conditions": [{ "field": "sender", "operator": "is", "value": ["[email protected]"] }] }.
Fields: sender / recipient / chatId / body / type / mentions / fromMe / hasMedia /
isGroup / kind. A webhook with no filters behaves exactly as before. Use chatId to allowlist
specific groups or DMs (e.g. { "field": "chatId", "operator": "is", "value": ["120…@g.us"] }).
See the API specification for the full schema.
🤖 MCP Server (AI Agents)
OpenWA can expose a curated set of tools over the Model Context Protocol so AI agents (Claude, Cursor, …) can drive WhatsApp. It is off by default and additive — every REST route keeps working unchanged.
Set MCP_ENABLED=true to mount a stateless Streamable-HTTP transport at POST /mcp on the existing server (same port, no extra process). It mounts 26 read-only tools by default — session, message, contact, group, webhook, label and automation-rule reads — because the surface is read-only unless you opt out. Add MCP_READONLY=false to mount all 52 tools, adding the write tier (send, reply, group operations). Either way it is a focused surface rather than the full API, so agents aren't overwhelmed.
MCP_ENABLED=true npm run start:prod # or set MCP_ENABLED in your .env / compose
Point an MCP client at it (e.g. for Claude Code, a .mcp.json at your project root):
The key can be passed as Authorization: Bearer … or X-API-Key: …. Every tool call goes through the same API-key auth, role, and per-session scoping as REST.
Security guidance:
Mint a dedicated, least-privilege key for the agent — a non-admin, session-scoped key (OPERATOR role at most). The plaintext key is shown only once on creation; to rotate, create a new key and delete the old one.
The key must not carry an IP allow-list (allowedIps) — there is no genuine client IP over MCP, so such a key is rejected.
Set MCP_READONLY=true to mount only the read tools (no sends/writes).
Set MCP_RATE_LIMIT_MAX (default 60) to limit tool calls per API key per window.
Set MCP_RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS (default 60000) to control the sliding window size in milliseconds.
Do not expose /mcp to the public internet without a fronting auth proxy. For a self-hosted, locally-reached deployment the static API key is appropriate; public exposure should use OAuth 2.1 (not yet built).
🛠 Tech Stack
Layer
Technology
Runtime
Node.js 22 LTS; Linux glibc source installs on x64/arm64: 2.34+
Framework
NestJS 11.x
Language
TypeScript 6.x
WA Engine
whatsapp-web.js (default) / baileys — set ENGINE_TYPE
OpenWA is free and open source. If it saves you time or helps your business, you can support its development by buying me a coffee.
Disclaimer
OpenWA is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with Meta Platforms, Inc., WhatsApp LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. The official WhatsApp website can be found at whatsapp.com. The name "WhatsApp" as well as related names, marks, emblems, and images are registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Use it at your own risk; you are responsible for complying with WhatsApp's terms and the law where you operate.
📄 License
This project is licensed under the MIT License – free for personal and commercial use.
