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Show HN: Give your AI agents access to WhatsApp

Hi, I built Chat-Man because I wanted a cheap way to give my agents access to WhatsApp without integrating a WhatsApp library separately in every project. You get WhatsApp MCP server, so you can connect WhatsApp to an agent and programmatically read, search, extract and send messages - but also have a web UI for non-techies. You can also receive webhooks for incoming messages for starred conversations. What you can do with the MCP? -Read WhatsApp messages and turn them into CRM records -Summarise conversations or groups -Extract structured information from messages -Find messages, participants or other WhatsApp data -Send messages -Manage group memberships Of course.. you always need to follow data protection regulation. The web UI: -Edit group details -See who joined or left -See who is most active -Export group members -Match members against a CSV (e.g. from a CRM) -Bulk message members -Bulk kick members -Create invite links For individual contacts, you can send messages directly from the UI. Why I built it for myself? I needed WhatsApp access for several projects (hermo.ai, florahaus.co.uk, …) and didn't want to pay for a WhatsApp integration for each project. Link: https://chat-man.net https://chat-man.net I’d love to get some feedback, especially from people building agents that need access to WhatsApp. Fabian

kreidema 20d ago
Do I understand correctly that your service works as a registered device into my whatsapp account with full "admin" like access? This seems a bit harsh for the sensitive data that peoples wahatsapp contain? Or am I missing a usecase here where that is unproblematic? Business accounts maybe?
- asteroidburger 20d ago
  Businesses should be using WhatsApp business accounts. They cost money per message sent and don’t support groups, but it’s the officially sanctioned way to do it.
  - fabian_shipamax 20d ago
    Businesses can use the official API which is costly and takes time to set up. Correct.
- fabian_shipamax 20d ago
  Not quite sure what you mean with admin access. There no such concept. But you can basically do anything a user can do - but via MCP.
  - blueplanet200 20d ago
    Exactly. OP meant that it has permission to do anything, hence "admin".
LawrenceKerr 20d ago
Does this require a Meta / WhatsApp business account? If not, is this a solution using WhatsApp Web in the backend (like Baileys does)? If this is the case, how does your solution avoid getting blocked or banned? I used Baileys once in an MVP with only 7 users, and my agent got blocked really quickly after just a few days of using it. So I guess the official path is the only way to go?
- fabian_shipamax 20d ago
  No it doesn’t.
  - fabian_shipamax 20d ago
    If you use it for personal and not excessively you won’t get banned is my experience. You if you start messaging new contacts on a large scale you probably will.
    - thomasjeff1 20d ago
      That is normal when you lose your contacts and do an external backup. WhatsApp thinks I am texting large number of strangers whereas I already know those contacts. Happened to me. Lost access to WhatsApp.
lordgrenville 20d ago
Am I correct in guessing that this is a ToS violation and could lead to getting blocked?
- fabian_shipamax 20d ago
  You are right that this is a consideration and risk. But it can make your life much easier. The reality is that these tool are available now. This is in fact not the first one like this. It can make the work of small businesses or clubs more more efficient.
  - dpoloncsak 20d ago
    ...with the risk of getting banned, you can't reasonably use this for anything 'important'. In order to make my life easier, it probably needs to be doing important stuff. You can't hide behind 'other apps are doing it too', if my 'important business account' or whatever gets banned from using your tool, I'd be upset at you. How do you guarantee your uptime SLA if my account may get banned any second?
- gcgbarbosa 20d ago
  This is ToS violation for sure. OP will soon receive a letter from Zuck's lawyers
TZubiri 20d ago
Breaks ToS Will be used to spam
- liotier 20d ago
  Any opening of proprietary chat to useful tools will be used for spam too. It is a curse.
  - TZubiri 20d ago
    might be orthogonal to whether it's proprietary or Free Software in theory (although correlated in practice), couldn't a communication software be Open Source and free licensed BUT ask that users only use the software in a manual fashion and never automated? A harder version of the clause, that only a specific interface be used, might be contrary to Free Software howeer, as it would infringe in the right to modify (the interface), but not the right to study the software.
lbrito 20d ago
Are people really this nonchalant about giving away their private whatsapp conversations to the likes of Anthropic and Openai?
- dpoloncsak 20d ago
  This can be used locally, no?
  - testycool 20d ago
    And you typically use them for business, not on private accounts.
    - lbrito 20d ago
      Most of the use cases in the page are personal, like Family Group, Sports Group and so on. "Pick members and send them a personal direct message".
  - fabian_shipamax 20d ago
    It’s a cloud product
    - dpoloncsak 20d ago
      Sorry, I may has misphrased what I meant. Can I use this with a local model? Or is it locked to Claude
- robertclaus 20d ago
  I'm much more concerned about the odds that this tool is vibe coded and will leak the conversations everywhere other than the LLM agent I've already vetted.
- addag 20d ago
  Oh gosh, if only it was just the whatsapp chats...
deleted 20d ago
[deleted]
monononon34 20d ago
it looks like a dangerous. i can't trust the LLM
- monononon34 20d ago
  does it have any security system?
catidegla 20d ago
[flagged]
cute_boi 20d ago
how is this different than https://github.com/WhiskeySockets/Baileys https://github.com/WhiskeySockets/Baileys which seems more reliable?
nom 20d ago
Using this will get your WhatsApp account banned sooner or later.
yablak 20d ago
Looked into this a while back. WhatsApp MCP servers attach as a second device to WhatsApp and pull down your message history. Most of the ones I've seen on github do not store the messages encrypted locally. When evaluating these tools, check to see what they store unencrypted on disk. A quick search shows that only one seems to check the boxes: https://github.com/adelaidasofia/whatsapp-mcp https://github.com/adelaidasofia/whatsapp-mcp However I haven't tested it. And it does phone home, you may want to disable that before running it.
- fabian_shipamax 15d ago
  You don’t have to store messages. It’s a feature to make the UI and MCP more powerful
KellyCriterion 20d ago
Take a look at www.superchat.com, they are doing something similar for B2B
lucenacloud 20d ago
nice! i will try it out! amazing!
wisdomajokuu 20d ago
[flagged]
LeadTriageKit 17d ago
[flagged]

kreidema 20d ago

Do I understand correctly that your service works as a registered device into my whatsapp account with full "admin" like access? This seems a bit harsh for the sensitive data that peoples wahatsapp contain? Or am I missing a usecase here where that is unproblematic? Business accounts maybe?

asteroidburger 20d ago
Businesses should be using WhatsApp business accounts. They cost money per message sent and don’t support groups, but it’s the officially sanctioned way to do it.
- fabian_shipamax 20d ago
  Businesses can use the official API which is costly and takes time to set up. Correct.
fabian_shipamax 20d ago
Not quite sure what you mean with admin access. There no such concept. But you can basically do anything a user can do - but via MCP.
- blueplanet200 20d ago
  Exactly. OP meant that it has permission to do anything, hence "admin".

LawrenceKerr 20d ago

Does this require a Meta / WhatsApp business account? If not, is this a solution using WhatsApp Web in the backend (like Baileys does)? If this is the case, how does your solution avoid getting blocked or banned? I used Baileys once in an MVP with only 7 users, and my agent got blocked really quickly after just a few days of using it. So I guess the official path is the only way to go?

fabian_shipamax 20d ago
No it doesn’t.
- fabian_shipamax 20d ago
  If you use it for personal and not excessively you won’t get banned is my experience. You if you start messaging new contacts on a large scale you probably will.
  - thomasjeff1 20d ago
    That is normal when you lose your contacts and do an external backup. WhatsApp thinks I am texting large number of strangers whereas I already know those contacts. Happened to me. Lost access to WhatsApp.

lordgrenville 20d ago

Am I correct in guessing that this is a ToS violation and could lead to getting blocked?

fabian_shipamax 20d ago
You are right that this is a consideration and risk. But it can make your life much easier. The reality is that these tool are available now. This is in fact not the first one like this. It can make the work of small businesses or clubs more more efficient.
- dpoloncsak 20d ago
  ...with the risk of getting banned, you can't reasonably use this for anything 'important'. In order to make my life easier, it probably needs to be doing important stuff. You can't hide behind 'other apps are doing it too', if my 'important business account' or whatever gets banned from using your tool, I'd be upset at you. How do you guarantee your uptime SLA if my account may get banned any second?
gcgbarbosa 20d ago
This is ToS violation for sure. OP will soon receive a letter from Zuck's lawyers

TZubiri 20d ago

Breaks ToS Will be used to spam

liotier 20d ago
Any opening of proprietary chat to useful tools will be used for spam too. It is a curse.
- TZubiri 20d ago
  might be orthogonal to whether it's proprietary or Free Software in theory (although correlated in practice), couldn't a communication software be Open Source and free licensed BUT ask that users only use the software in a manual fashion and never automated? A harder version of the clause, that only a specific interface be used, might be contrary to Free Software howeer, as it would infringe in the right to modify (the interface), but not the right to study the software.

lbrito 20d ago

Are people really this nonchalant about giving away their private whatsapp conversations to the likes of Anthropic and Openai?

dpoloncsak 20d ago
This can be used locally, no?
- testycool 20d ago
  And you typically use them for business, not on private accounts.
  - lbrito 20d ago
    Most of the use cases in the page are personal, like Family Group, Sports Group and so on. "Pick members and send them a personal direct message".
- fabian_shipamax 20d ago
  It’s a cloud product
  - dpoloncsak 20d ago
    Sorry, I may has misphrased what I meant. Can I use this with a local model? Or is it locked to Claude
robertclaus 20d ago
I'm much more concerned about the odds that this tool is vibe coded and will leak the conversations everywhere other than the LLM agent I've already vetted.
addag 20d ago
Oh gosh, if only it was just the whatsapp chats...

deleted 20d ago

[deleted]

monononon34 20d ago

it looks like a dangerous. i can't trust the LLM

monononon34 20d ago
does it have any security system?

catidegla 20d ago

[flagged]

cute_boi 20d ago

how is this different than https://github.com/WhiskeySockets/Baileys https://github.com/WhiskeySockets/Baileys which seems more reliable?

nom 20d ago

Using this will get your WhatsApp account banned sooner or later.

yablak 20d ago

Looked into this a while back. WhatsApp MCP servers attach as a second device to WhatsApp and pull down your message history. Most of the ones I've seen on github do not store the messages encrypted locally. When evaluating these tools, check to see what they store unencrypted on disk. A quick search shows that only one seems to check the boxes: https://github.com/adelaidasofia/whatsapp-mcp https://github.com/adelaidasofia/whatsapp-mcp However I haven't tested it. And it does phone home, you may want to disable that before running it.

fabian_shipamax 15d ago
You don’t have to store messages. It’s a feature to make the UI and MCP more powerful

KellyCriterion 20d ago

Take a look at www.superchat.com, they are doing something similar for B2B

lucenacloud 20d ago

nice! i will try it out! amazing!

wisdomajokuu 20d ago

[flagged]

LeadTriageKit 17d ago

[flagged]