WhatCLI

A pure Command Line Interface (CLI) for interacting with the WhatsApp backend.

Note: WhatCLI is strictly a command-line tool. There are absolutely no plans to add any kind of UI. It is designed to be composable, fast, and terminal-native.

Features

Currently Implemented

• Authentication: Login via QR code and securely manage sessions (login, logout)
• Session Management: Check connection status (status, doctor)
• Messaging: Send text messages (send)
• Media Support: Send images and documents (send-image, send-document, media)
• Chat Management: List recent chats and fetch conversations (chats, history)
• Group Support: List and inspect WhatsApp groups (groups, group)
• Contact Management: Search, alias, and manage WhatsApp contacts (contacts, contact)
• Interactivity: Reply to and react to specific messages (reply, react)
• Search: Search through locally stored messages (search)
• Automations: Trigger auto-replies or reactions based on regex or keywords (wacli rule)
• Daemon Mode: Background service that owns the connection, stores messages, and serves IPC (daemon)

Usage Highlights

Starting the Daemon

WhatCLI now runs a background daemon that handles connections and IPC.

wacli daemon
# Or to run without printing live messages:
wacli daemon --quiet

This daemon architecture makes the DB fast and allows other commands (send, chats) to interact instantly over IPC.

Login Flow

You can log in by scanning a QR code provided in the terminal:

wacli login

Planned / Future Features

• Plugin System: Integrate with npm packages to allow custom extensions, scripts, and deeper integrations.
• Group Administration: Create groups, add/remove participants, modify group info.
• Scheduled Messages: Queue messages to be sent at a specific future time.
• Bulk Actions: Send broadcast messages to multiple contacts.
• Exporting: Export chat history to structured formats like JSON or CSV.

Philosophy

whatcli is built for developers and power users who want to script or interact with WhatsApp without leaving the terminal. By adhering to a strict CLI-only approach (no UI), it can be easily integrated into shell scripts, cron jobs, and other automation pipelines.

Comparison with Similar Tools

While tools like wa-automate-nodejs (open-wa) and whatsapp-web.js share the goal of automating WhatsApp, they differ fundamentally in architecture and target audience. WhatCLI is a ready-to-use application, whereas others are libraries.

Feature / Tool	WhatCLI	wa-automate / whatsapp-web.js	Baileys (Library)
Type	Ready-to-use CLI & Daemon	Node.js Library (SDK)	Node.js Library (SDK)
Technology	Native WebSocket Protocol	Headless Browser (Puppeteer)	Native WebSocket Protocol
Resource Usage	Very Low	High (Runs full Chromium)	Very Low
Setup Required	None (Zero coding required)	Requires writing custom scripts	Requires writing custom scripts
Built-in Database	Yes (SQLite)	No	No
Built-in Automations	Yes (Rule Engine)	No	No
Daemon / IPC	Yes	No	No