Apps

🧩 Apps are built-in connections that integrate WAHA with other services in a few steps.

WAHA Team fully supports 🧩 Apps.

Available Apps#

Apps available to connect:

• ChatWoot - use your WhatsApp in ChatWoot CRM

Configuration#

To use 🧩 Apps , you need to configure the following environment variables in addition to the standard ⚙️ Configuration:

Apps:

• WAHA_APPS_ENABLED=True - Enables the 🧩 Apps functionality
• WAHA_PUBLIC_URL=https://w.example.com — the publicly available link to the dashboard (use this if WAHA_BASE_URL is set to an internal address for Docker).
• REDIS_URL=redis://:redis@redis:6379 - Specifies the Redis URL required for processing background jobs
• WHATSAPP_DEFAULT_ENGINE=GOWS - Sets the recommended engine for reliable WhatsApp automation
• WAHA_API_KEY_PLAIN=0000000000000000 - plain password required for Apps in environment variables
  • It’s a quick solution, we’re working on removing it so you can use sha512 version as in WAHA_API_KEY

ChatWoot App:

• WAHA_APPS_CHATWOOT_LANGUAGES_FOLDER=/app/.languages - folder for additional languages (if language exists it’ll override templates in the original templates)
• RACK_TIMEOUT_SERVICE_TIMEOUT=60 — increases the default Rack timeout to 60s (default is 15s).

Jobs:

You can configure a background worker http://localhost:3000/jobs

• WAHA_APPS_JOBS_CONCURRENCY=50 - Maximum number of jobs processed concurrently
• WAHA_APPS_JOBS_REMOVE_ON_COMPLETE_AGE=259200 - Remove completed jobs after 3 days (in seconds)
• WAHA_APPS_JOBS_REMOVE_ON_COMPLETE_COUNT=1000 - Maximum number of completed jobs to keep
• WAHA_APPS_JOBS_REMOVE_ON_FAIL_AGE=2678400 - Remove failed jobs after 31 days (in seconds)
• WAHA_APPS_JOBS_REMOVE_ON_FAIL_COUNT=1000 - Maximum number of failed jobs to keep

Note: *_AGE parameters are specified in seconds by default.

Under the hood it uses bullmq.

How it works#

Apps connect WhatsApp with external services using Redis as a message broker.

Apps architecture consists of:

• HTTP API, Worker, and Session on WAHA side
• Redis acts as the central message broker.
• External Services, like ChatWoot

kroki {type=mermaid}
architecture-beta
    group waha(cloud)[WAHA]
        service api(server)[HTTP API] in waha
        service worker(server)[Worker] in waha
        service session(internet)[Session] in waha
    service redis(database)[Redis]

    group app(cloud)[ChatWoot] 
        service 3api(internet)[HTTP API] in app

    api:L --> R:session
    redis:R <--> B:worker
    redis:T <-- B:session
    3api:L --> R:api
    worker:R --> B:3api
    worker:T --> B:api

WhatsApp to External Service Flow:

• When a new message arrives in WhatsApp, WAHA captures it and publishes a message event to Redis.
• The Worker then picks up this event, processes it, and forwards the message to ChatWoot via its API.
• After successful delivery, the job is marked as processed in Redis.

kroki {type=mermaid}
sequenceDiagram
    participant WA_Session as WhatsApp
    participant Redis as Redis
    participant Worker as Worker
    participant ChatWoot as ChatWoot API

    WA_Session ->> WA_Session: Receive a new message
    WA_Session ->> Redis: 'message.any' event
    Redis ->> Worker: Fire Job
    Worker ->> ChatWoot: Send message via ChatWoot API
    ChatWoot -->> Worker: 200 OK
    Worker -->> Redis: Mark job as processed

External Service to WhatsApp Flow:

• When a new message is created in ChatWoot, it calls the WAHA API webhook.
• The API saves this job to the Redis queue, from which the Worker retrieves it.
• The Worker then requests the WAHA API to send the message to WhatsApp.
• After WhatsApp confirms delivery, the API acknowledges the Worker, which then marks the job as processed in Redis.

kroki {type=mermaid}
sequenceDiagram
    participant ChatWoot as ChatWoot API
    participant WA_API as WAHA API
    participant Redis as Redis
    participant Worker as Worker
    participant WA_Session as WhatsApp

    ChatWoot ->> ChatWoot: New message created
    ChatWoot ->> WA_API: Call Webhook
    WA_API -->> ChatWoot: 200 OK
    WA_API ->> Redis: 'message_created' event
    Redis ->> Worker: Fire Job
    Worker ->> WA_API: /api/sendText
    WA_API ->> WA_Session: Send message to WhatsApp
    WA_Session -->> WA_API: ACK: Server
    WA_API -->> Worker: 200 OK
    Worker -->> Redis: Mark job as processed

You can use the WAHA Jobs Dashboard at http://localhost:3000/jobs for monitoring Worker and it’s jobs:

Apps SDK#

This section is currently under development. Check back soon for detailed information about the integration architecture and workflow.