---
title: "WhatsMCP MCP server — documentation"
description: "Connect an MCP client to a real WhatsApp account — endpoint, OAuth or API key, pairing, all 42 tools, cursor-based polling, webhooks, refusals and the security model."
url: "https://whatsmcp.com/docs/mcp"
---

# MCP server documentation

## Quick start

```
1. Create a workspace     →  https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/register
2. Link a WhatsApp number →  Console → Pair device (scan the QR with your phone)
3. Give your client       →  https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp
                             …and sign in when it asks. No key to paste.
```

For Claude Code that is two commands:

```sh
claude mcp add --transport http wamcp https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp
claude mcp login wamcp
```

Then ask your agent: *“list my WhatsApp accounts and show me the last few messages.”*

Clients that cannot sign in — `curl`, CI, anything without OAuth — take a key in a header instead: [mint one](#create-an-api-key), then see [Connect your client](#connect-your-client).

## Register

Sign-up is self-serve and free — no card, no sales call.

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Create an account** | [https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/register](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/register) |
| **Sign in** | [https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/login](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/login) |

You give a name and an email address. We send a confirmation link; opening it is where you choose a password. Confirming creates your **workspace** (tenant) on the free plan and drops you into a short setup wizard that walks the three steps that turn a bare account into a working integration: **link a number**, **mint a key**, and — optionally — **point a webhook** at your endpoint. It is derived from what you have actually done rather than a checklist you tick, so it disappears once you are set up and comes back if you unlink everything.

Everything lives in the console:

| Console page | What it is for |
| --- | --- |
| [Fleet](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/fleet) | Every linked number and whether it is connected |
| [Pair device](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/pair) | Link a new WhatsApp number by QR |
| [API keys](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/keys) | Mint and revoke keys; copy-paste connection examples |
| [Webhooks](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/webhooks) | Inbound delivery endpoint and its recent attempts |
| [Connections](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/connections) | Clients you signed in with OAuth, and a revoke button per client |
| [Usage](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/usage) | Messages sent against your plan’s caps |
| [Help](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/help) | The connection details for *your* workspace, and which tools your plan includes |

Per-number pages (Messages, **Contacts**, Calls) hang off each account in the same console.

## Link a WhatsApp number

WhatsMCP connects as a **linked device**, the same mechanism as WhatsApp Web. Your phone stays the primary device and can stay in your pocket afterwards.

**From the console:** open [Pair device](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/pair), then on the handset go to **WhatsApp → Settings → Linked devices → Link a device** and scan the code.

![The console's Pair device page: a QR code above a four-stage progress indicator reading code, scanned, syncing, ready.](https://whatsmcp.com/_astro/console-pair-device.DTCyWKD0_epE5e.webp)

The code rotates roughly every 20 seconds and the page refreshes itself, so a stale QR never sits there failing to scan. The stepper underneath tracks the whole run: the handset accepts the code (**scanned**), the device logs in and pulls its history (**syncing**), and only then is the number **ready** to use.

**From the agent**, with the `wa_pair_account` tool:

```jsonc
// 1. start pairing — returns a QR as a base64 PNG for the user to scan
wa_pair_account()
→ { "pair_id": "…", "state": "qr", "qr_png_base64": "iVBORw0…", "instructions": "…" }

// 2. the code rotates about every 20 seconds — poll for the current one
wa_pair_status({ "pair_id": "…" })
→ { "state": "qr",     "qr_png_base64": "…" }     // show the new image
→ { "state": "paired", "instructions": "Linked. …" }  // done
```

Once `state` is `paired` the number appears in `wa_list_accounts` and is ready to use. `wa_unpair_account` disconnects it again.

## Create an API key

**Optional.** A client that can sign in with OAuth never needs one — skip to [Connect your client](#connect-your-client). Keys are for `curl`, for CI, and for clients that cannot do OAuth.

[Console → API keys](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/keys) → **Create key**.

Keys look like `wamcp_live_XXXXXXXXXXXX_…` and are **shown exactly once** — we store only a hash, so a lost key is replaced, never recovered. Mint one key per client or per environment and revoke individually.

The key *is* the workspace. Every tool is scoped to it: there is no tenant argument to pass and no way for one workspace to reach another’s messages.

## Connect your client

Any MCP client that speaks **Streamable HTTP** will work. There is one endpoint:

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Endpoint** | `https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp` |

There are two ways to prove who you are against it.

**OAuth — recommended, and what every client below does by default.** The client reads the server’s own metadata, registers itself, and sends you to the console to approve it. Nothing is pasted anywhere: no key is created, none is stored in a config file, and you can revoke one client without touching the others from [Console → Connections](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/connections).

**An API key** — `Authorization: Bearer <your key>`, or `x-api-key: <your key>` for clients that reserve `Authorization` for a token they manage themselves. Use it for `curl`, for CI, and for clients that cannot do OAuth. See [Create an API key](#create-an-api-key).

### Claude Code

```sh
claude mcp add --transport http wamcp https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp
```

Then run `/mcp` inside Claude Code, pick **Authenticate**, and sign in in the browser window it opens. `claude mcp login wamcp` does the same thing from the shell. `claude mcp list` should then show `wamcp` connected.

With a key instead, and no sign-in step:

```sh
claude mcp add --transport http wamcp https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY"
```

### Claude Desktop and claude.ai

Open **Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector**, put the endpoint in the URL field, leave **Authentication** on **OAuth**, and sign in when Claude asks. The dialog discovers the flow on its own.

> **The authentication type is fixed when the connector is added.** A connector created with a header or an API key never switches itself to OAuth later — delete it and add it again.

To use a key here instead, set **Authentication** to **None** and add one entry under **Additional request headers**:

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Header name** | `x-api-key` |
| **Value** | `YOUR_KEY` |

Paste the key on its own — no `Bearer` in front of it. `Authorization` is not offered in that dialog: it is kept for the OAuth token Claude manages itself. Header values are stored once and never shown again, so if the connector will not connect, replace the header rather than trying to read it back — a wrong key and a missing one look identical from the outside.

If you edit the configuration file instead of using the dialog, it has no such restriction:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wamcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### ChatGPT

Turn on **Developer mode** under **Settings → Security and login** (availability depends on your ChatGPT plan), then go to **Plugins**, press **+**, and give it the endpoint.

**OAuth is the only way in here.** ChatGPT cannot present a custom API key to an MCP server, so the key path in this page does not apply to it — there is no header field to put one in. The sign-in flow is the whole configuration.

### Codex

```sh
codex mcp add wamcp --url https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp
codex mcp login wamcp
```

Or write the same server into `~/.codex/config.toml` directly. `auth` defaults to `"oauth"`:

```toml
[mcp_servers.wamcp]
url = "https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp"
auth = "oauth"
```

To use a key instead, keep it in the environment rather than in the file:

```toml
[mcp_servers.wamcp]
url = "https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "WHATSMCP_API_KEY"
```

```sh
export WHATSMCP_API_KEY=wamcp_live_…
```

Codex sends that as `Authorization: Bearer …`. If you would rather set headers yourself, use `http_headers` for static values and `env_http_headers` to pull them from the environment.

### Every other client

Clients differ in where they keep configuration, but they all need the same thing: the endpoint added as a **remote HTTP** (not stdio) server. A client that supports OAuth will find the sign-in flow by itself once it has the URL. One that does not needs the key in `Authorization`, or in `x-api-key` where it will not let you set `Authorization`.

If a client only offers “a command to run”, it does not support remote servers — there is no local process to point it at.

### How the OAuth flow works

Worth reading only if you are integrating a client of your own, or wondering what your agent just agreed to. Everything here is standard OAuth 2.1 — no custom handshake.

The server publishes two metadata documents, which is how a client bootstraps with nothing but the endpoint URL:

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| [`/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource`](https://app.whatsmcp.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource) | RFC 9728 — names the resource and points at its authorization server |
| [`/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server`](https://app.whatsmcp.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server) | RFC 8414 — the endpoints, grants and scopes below |

A client registers itself either by **Dynamic Client Registration** (RFC 7591, at `/oauth/register`) or by publishing a **Client ID Metadata Document** whose URL is its client id — both are supported, and the vendors above use one or the other. Then it is an ordinary authorization-code flow with **PKCE** (`S256` only): you land on the consent page at `/console/oauth/authorize`, approve, and the code is exchanged at `/oauth/token`. Authorization codes are single-use, refresh tokens rotate on every use, and a retired refresh token being replayed revokes the whole grant rather than issuing another. Tokens are bound to this resource (RFC 8707) and revocable at `/oauth/revoke` (RFC 7009).

Seven scopes are advertised and recorded on each grant:

| Scope | Covers |
| --- | --- |
| `wa:accounts` | Listing your numbers, plan and service version |
| `wa:read` | Messages, chats, contacts, profiles, groups, calls, media |
| `wa:send` | Sending, reacting, editing, group and blocklist changes |
| `wa:pair` | Linking and unlinking numbers |
| `wa:webhooks` | Registering and managing inbound delivery |
| `wa:egress:socks5`, `wa:egress:wireguard` | Per-account egress configuration |

> **Scope is recorded, not enforced at the tool layer.** Which tools a grant can actually reach is decided by your **plan**, exactly as it is for an API key. Treat the scope list as a description of what the connection is for, not as a sandbox.

Grants are listed and revocable at [Console → Connections](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/connections). Revoking one there disconnects that client and nothing else.

### Check it by hand

```sh
curl -s https://app.whatsmcp.com/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'
```

Two things catch people out when driving the endpoint directly:

-   **The reply may be server-sent-event framed** — one `data:` line per message.
-   **A tool result is text that is itself JSON**, so it is parsed twice.

The endpoint is **stateless** (MCP 2026-07-28 removed protocol sessions), so it needs no sticky routing and it is safe to call from anywhere.

## Tools

42 tools. Which ones appear in `tools/list` depends on your plan — a tool your plan does not include is **absent**, not present-and-refusing. [Console → Help](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/help) lists the set *your* workspace gets, marked against what your plan includes.

**Start with `wa_list_accounts`.** Every other tool takes an `account_id` from it, and an account is usable only while its `state` is `connected`.

### Accounts, pairing and plan

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_list_accounts` | Lists your linked numbers: `account_id`, `phone`, `push_name`, `state` (`pairing`, `connected`, `disconnected`, `logged_out`, `locked`) |
| `wa_pair_account` | Starts linking a new number; returns a QR as a base64 PNG |
| `wa_pair_status` | Polls a pairing; returns a fresh code while one is waiting |
| `wa_unpair_account` | Disconnects a linked number |
| `wa_get_plan` | Your plan, its limits, and usage so far against the message and account caps — call it to see why a send was refused, or how much headroom is left |
| `wa_get_version` | The version of the service you are talking to |

### Messaging

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_send_message` | Sends text, an image, a document or audio from one of your numbers |
| `wa_list_messages` | Reads messages across accounts, oldest first, paged by cursor |
| `wa_get_chat` | Recent messages for one account, no cursor — a one-off catch-up |
| `wa_get_media` | Downloads a received attachment by `message_id` (base64 + mime) |

### Message operations

Each of these acts on a message that already exists, so each one takes the `message_id` that `wa_list_messages` gave you.

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_react` | Reacts with an emoji; an empty reaction removes one you sent |
| `wa_edit_message` | Edits a message you sent — WhatsApp accepts an edit for about 20 minutes |
| `wa_delete_message` | Deletes for everyone. WhatsApp has no true delete; this revokes the message, which every modern client honours |
| `wa_set_presence` | Announces typing (`composing`/`paused`) to a chat, or sets an account `available`/`unavailable`. Fire-and-forget — there is no delivery confirmation |

### Contacts and profiles

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_list_contacts` | The account’s address book, paged |
| `wa_search_contacts` | Finds contacts by name or number |
| `wa_get_profile` | Looks up who a number is on WhatsApp: whether it is registered, its public name, about text, picture, and a business’s categories, contact details and hours |

Unlike the two above it, `wa_get_profile` asks WhatsApp rather than reading the local store. An empty about or picture means the peer has not shared it **with this account**, not that they have none.

### Blocklist

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_block_contact` | Blocks a contact — they can no longer call or message this account |
| `wa_unblock_contact` | Unblocks one again |
| `wa_list_blocked` | Everyone this account has blocked |

All three report *who*, not just a number: each entry carries the number, the name this account’s address book has for them (absent for someone never saved on the phone) and the country the number belongs to. WhatsApp does not record **when** a contact was blocked, so no date is available.

### Groups and channels

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_list_groups` | Groups an account has joined — JID, name, member count |
| `wa_list_channels` | Channels an account follows — JID, name, subscriber count |
| `wa_join_group` | Joins a group from an invite link |
| `wa_follow_channel` | Follows a Channel from its link |
| `wa_leave_chat` | Leaves a group or unfollows a channel |
| `wa_list_group_members` | A group’s members, each with JID, phone and admin flag |
| `wa_create_group` | Creates a group; returns its JID and invite link |
| `wa_delete_group` | Removes every other member, then leaves (WhatsApp has no true delete) |

### Group administration

Every one of these follows WhatsApp’s own rules: a mutation that needs admin fails without it, rather than silently doing nothing.

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_add_participants` / `wa_remove_participants` | Adds or removes members by phone number or JID |
| `wa_promote_participants` / `wa_demote_participants` | Grants or revokes admin |
| `wa_set_group_name` | Renames the group |
| `wa_set_group_description` | Sets its description |
| `wa_set_group_locked` | Restricts name/description/photo to admins, or opens them to everyone |
| `wa_set_group_announce` | Restricts posting to admins (an “announcement” group), or opens it |
| `wa_get_group_invite_link` | Returns the invite link, or with `reset` revokes it and issues a new one |

### Calls

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_list_calls` | Call history, oldest first, paged — direction, peer, `answered`, `seconds`, `reason`, `codec` |

### Webhooks *(paid plans)*

| Tool | Does |
| --- | --- |
| `wa_set_webhook` | Registers an HTTPS endpoint for inbound messages; returns a signing secret shown **once** |
| `wa_get_webhook` | Shows the endpoint, whether it is enabled, when it last succeeded |
| `wa_enable_webhook` | Pauses or resumes delivery **without** changing the endpoint or its secret |
| `wa_delete_webhook` | Stops delivery; messages remain readable through the tools |

Reach for `wa_enable_webhook` rather than deleting and recreating when you only want deliveries to stop for a while: deleting issues a new secret, and everything verifying the old one breaks.

## Contacts

Your agent should not have to make you be the address book. Two tools read the contacts **synced from the phone the account is linked to**, so an agent can turn *“message Alice”* into a number on its own.

Both read the account’s **local** contact store. Nothing here talks to WhatsApp: no lookups are performed against the network, and asking is free of any rate cost beyond your plan’s ordinary request throttling.

### `wa_list_contacts` — the whole address book

```jsonc
wa_list_contacts({ "account_id": "acct_…", "limit": 500 })
→ {
    "contacts": [
      { "phone": "447700900111", "name": "Alice Perreira", "name_source": "saved",
        "jid": "447700900111@s.whatsapp.net" },
      { "phone": "447700900222", "name": "Bakery",         "name_source": "business", "jid": "…" },
      { "phone": "447700900333", "name": "dave",           "name_source": "push",     "jid": "…" }
    ],
    "total": 482,
    "next_cursor": "447700900333",
    "has_more": true
  }
```

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `phone` | International form, digits only — pass this straight to `wa_send_message`. Empty for a LID-form contact whose number this account has never been told |
| `name` | The best available display name |
| `name_source` | **`saved`** — what the account owner wrote in their own address book · **`business`** — a verified business name · **`push`** — what the contact calls *themselves*, vouched for by nobody |
| `jid` | WhatsApp’s own identifier |
| `total` | How many contacts matched **before** the page limit, so a model can tell a page from the whole book |
| `next_cursor` / `has_more` | Page until `has_more` is false to read everything |

Paging is by cursor over a stable order (sorted by phone), so it never repeats or skips a row. Default page 500, maximum 2000.

### `wa_search_contacts` — find one person

```jsonc
wa_search_contacts({ "account_id": "acct_…", "query": "+44 7700 900111" })
```

Matching is case-insensitive and ignores punctuation in numbers, so `"+44 7700 900111"` finds a contact stored as `447700900111`. It looks at saved names, business names, the name the contact publishes for themselves, and the number. An empty result means no match — not an error.

### Things worth knowing

-   **A newly linked account starts with an empty address book.** Contacts arrive from the phone by app-state sync shortly after linking, so “no contacts” right after pairing is usually “not synced yet”. The tool says so in a `note` rather than letting an agent report that a customer with 500 contacts has none.
-   **Only numbers saved on the phone itself** are contacts. Someone you have chatted with but never saved has no address-book entry — but they do appear as a `peer` in `wa_list_messages`.
-   **If the account is offline**, the read refuses with `account_not_connected` and a retry-after, rather than returning an empty book that reads as “you know nobody”.
-   The console shows the same address book per number under **Contacts**, if you would rather look with your eyes.

## Reading incoming messages

**The server never pushes to your agent.** Nothing can interrupt a model when a message arrives, so your agent reads on its own schedule — and a **cursor** is what makes that reliable.

`wa_list_messages` returns messages oldest-first, each with a `cursor`, plus a `next_cursor` for the page and `has_more`. Pass a cursor back as `after_cursor` to get **only what has arrived since** — no gaps, no duplicates, even for two messages in the same millisecond, which a timestamp cannot promise.

```
after = 0
repeat:
    r = wa_list_messages(after_cursor = after)
    for m in r.messages:
        if m.direction == "inbound":
            handle(m)                 # e.g. reply with wa_send_message
    after = r.next_cursor             # advance — only newer rows next time
    if not r.has_more:
        sleep(a while)                # caught up; poll again later
```

Each row says who and where:

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `direction` | `inbound` (received) or `outbound` (sent by you) |
| `peer` | The other party’s number. **In a group or channel this is the individual sender**, not the conversation |
| `chat` | The conversation JID — `…@g.us` for a group, `…@newsletter` for a channel |
| `chat_kind` | `dm`, `group`, `channel` or `broadcast` |
| `kind` / `text` | The content kind and the body (only text carries a body — fetch the rest with `wa_get_media`) |
| `at`, `message_id` | RFC3339 timestamp, and WhatsApp’s id |

To reply: in a **DM** send `to` the peer’s number; in a **group or channel** send `to` the `chat` JID — sending to the individual peer would start a private chat instead.

> **In Claude Code**, the `/loop` command automates exactly this: it polls on a cadence, acts when the message appears, and stops. See running loops with `/tasks`.

For a one-off catch-up on a single account rather than a poll, `wa_get_chat` returns recent messages without a cursor.

## Webhooks

If you would rather not poll, `wa_set_webhook` delivers each inbound message to an HTTPS endpoint as it arrives *(paid plans)*.

```json
{
  "event": "message.inbound",
  "delivery_id": "01JB…",
  "tenant_id": "01JA…",
  "account_id": "01J9…",
  "account_phone": "447700900000",
  "message_seq": 48210,
  "message_id": "3EB0…",
  "chat_jid": "447700900111@s.whatsapp.net",
  "peer": "447700900111",
  "kind": "text",
  "body": "are you open on Sunday?",
  "at": "2026-09-02T14:21:07Z"
}
```

`account_phone` is **your own** number that received the message — what a routing rule, a CRM or a support queue is usually keyed on. `message_seq` is the same cursor `wa_list_messages` uses, so a consumer that missed a delivery can reconcile instead of guessing.

Each request carries:

| Header | Value |
| --- | --- |
| `X-WAMCP-Signature` | `t=<unix>,v1=<hex hmac-sha256>` |
| `X-WAMCP-Delivery` | The delivery id, for idempotency |
| `X-WAMCP-Event` | The event name, so you can route without parsing the body |

**Verify the signature** — recompute `HMAC-SHA256(secret, "<unix>" + "." + <raw body>)` and compare in constant time, rejecting a stale timestamp:

```python
import hashlib, hmac, time

def verify(secret: str, header: str, body: bytes, tolerance: int = 300) -> bool:
    parts = dict(p.split("=", 1) for p in header.split(","))
    ts, sig = parts["t"], parts["v1"]
    if abs(time.time() - int(ts)) > tolerance:
        return False
    mac = hmac.new(secret.encode(), f"{ts}.".encode() + body, hashlib.sha256)
    return hmac.compare_digest(mac.hexdigest(), sig)
```

Answer `2xx` to acknowledge. One attempt is bounded at 10 seconds; a failure is retried with exponential backoff up to 8 attempts, and answering `410 Gone` stops delivery of that message permanently — it is the endpoint saying it is never coming back. Recent attempts and their outcomes are visible in [Console → Webhooks](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/webhooks).

## Sending

```jsonc
wa_send_message({
  "account_id": "acct_…",
  "to": "447700900111",          // international form, digits only — or a …@g.us / …@newsletter JID
  "text": "on my way"
})
→ { "status": "sent", "message_id": "3EB0…", "request_id": "01JB…" }
```

Attachments ride the same tool. `text` becomes the caption where one applies:

| Argument | Limit | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `image_base64` + `image_mime` | 5 MiB decoded | JPEG or PNG |
| `document_base64` + `document_mime` + `document_filename` | 20 MiB decoded | Any file; the filename is what the recipient sees |
| `audio_base64` + `audio_mime` (+ `audio_seconds`, `audio_ptt`) | 16 MiB decoded | `audio_ptt: true` sends a voice note. Audio has no caption |

**Check the returned `status`. The three values mean different things:**

| `status` | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `sent` | Delivered to WhatsApp; `message_id` is set |
| `queued` | Accepted but **not yet confirmed**. It may still arrive — **do not send it again.** Reconcile it later in `wa_list_messages` by its `request_id` |
| `refused` | Nothing was sent; `refusal.reason` says whether retrying helps |

An agent that treats `queued` as failure will send your customer the same message twice.

## Groups and channels

Listing groups and channels is part of the read surface. **Joining, leaving, messaging and group management require the account to be opted into group and channel messaging on its bridge** — ask us to switch it on for a number. Without it the account refuses these calls, and the refusal says so verbatim rather than failing generically.

Group management (`wa_create_group`, add/remove, promote/demote, delete) follows WhatsApp’s own rules: mutations that need admin fail without it. `wa_delete_group` removes every other member and then leaves, because WhatsApp has no true delete.

## Refusals and error handling

A tool that declines does **not** raise a protocol error — it returns a structured refusal, so a model can read it and decide what to do:

```json
{
  "refused": true,
  "reason": "account_not_connected",
  "message": "this account's bridge is not currently connected, so its contacts cannot be read; it reconnects on its own",
  "retry_after_seconds": 30
}
```

| `reason` | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `invalid_request` | Bad or missing arguments, or an id that does not exist in your workspace |
| `account_not_connected` | The number is offline. It reconnects on its own — retry |
| `account_locked` | WhatsApp has locked this account; `message` carries the reason |
| `quota_exceeded` | Your plan’s send cap for the window |
| `plan_required` | The capability is on a higher plan |
| `throttled` | Too many requests, or the account did not answer in time — retry |

`retry_after_seconds` absent or `0` means **retrying will not help**.

At the transport level: an invalid or revoked key gets `401` (never `500`, so a client does not retry a dead credential forever), and the endpoint is rate-limited per source address.

## Security model

-   **The credential is the identity.** An API key and an OAuth grant resolve to the same thing: a workspace, decided at the edge before any tool runs. It travels on the request context, never as a tool argument, so there is no field in which one workspace could name another.
-   **A foreign id reads as “no such account”**, not “forbidden” — probing reveals nothing.
-   **Keys are stored hashed**, shown once at creation, and revocable individually.
-   **OAuth grants are revocable per client** from [Console → Connections](https://app.whatsmcp.com/console/connections). Authorization codes are single-use and refresh tokens rotate; replaying a retired one revokes the grant rather than issuing another.
-   **Webhook bodies are signed** with HMAC-SHA256 over a timestamped payload.
-   Your WhatsApp account remains yours: WhatsMCP is a linked device, and you can remove it at any time from the handset (**Settings → Linked devices**) or with `wa_unpair_account`.