🔧 Install & Update

You probably already have run the docker run command during ⚡ Quick Start guide:

docker run -it --rm -p 3000:3000 --name waha devlikeapro/waha

To make it production-ready, you need to configure a few more parameters to make it secure, reliable, and easy to manage.

Requirements#

System Requirements#

You can use any operating system for host system (Linux, Windows or macOS) as long as you have Docker installed, and it can run Linux containers.

💡 We recommend using Linux with Debian or Ubuntu based distributions.

We strongly recommend using VPS or servers with minimum 2CPU and 2GB RAM configuration for the project even for a single session. If you want to host more sessions - please check the numbers in FAQ.

Pre-requisites#

Before proceeding, make sure you have the latest version of docker and docker compose installed.

We recommend using Docker version equal to or higher than the following:

$ docker --version
Docker version 26.1.3, build b72abbb
$ docker compose version
Docker Compose version v2.27.0

Install#

Docker#

1. Install Docker on your VM

# example in ubuntu
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
apt install docker-compose-plugin

Pull Image#

Follow the instructions below:

docker pull devlikeapro/waha

docker login -u devlikeapro -p {KEY}
docker pull devlikeapro/waha-plus
docker logout

# Download the image
docker pull devlikeapro/waha:arm
# Rename it, so you can use devlikeapro/waha image in other place
docker tag devlikeapro/waha:arm devlikeapro/waha

docker login -u devlikeapro -p {KEY}
docker pull devlikeapro/waha-plus:arm
docker logout

# Rename it, so you can use devlikeapro/waha image in other place
docker tag devlikeapro/waha-plus:arm devlikeapro/waha-plus

WAHA#

2. Download the required files

# Download the env file template
wget -O .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devlikeapro/waha/refs/heads/core/.env.example
# Download the Docker compose template
wget -O docker-compose.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devlikeapro/waha/refs/heads/core/docker-compose.yaml

3. Tweak the .env and docker-compose.yaml according to your preferences. Refer to the available environment variables in ⚙️ Configuration.

Some important environment variables you MUST change:

• WAHA_API_KEY=sha512:{SHA512_HEX_OF_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE}
  • Default Api Key is admin
  • Read more about 🔒 Security
• WAHA_DASHBOARD_USERNAME=admin - 📊 Dashboard
• WAHA_DASHBOARD_PASSWORD=admin
• WHATSAPP_SWAGGER_USERNAME=admin - you can set the same as WAHA_DASHBOARD_USERNAME
• WHATSAPP_SWAGGER_PASSWORD=admin - you can set the same as WAHA_DASHBOARD_PASSWORD

# update .env file with your values
nano .env
# update docker-compose.yaml - like image
# Remove "mongodb" and "minio" services if you don't need them
# Leave "waha" service as it is
nano docker-compose.yaml

uuidgen | tr -d '-'
> 00000000000000000000000000000000

echo -n "00000000000000000000000000000000" | shasum -a 512
> 98b6d128682e280b74b324ca82a6bae6e8a3f7174e0605bfd52eb9948fad8984854ec08f7652f32055c4a9f12b69add4850481d9503a7f2225501671d6124648  -

4. Get the service up and running.

docker compose up -d

5. Your WAHA installation is complete. Please note that the containers are not exposed to the internet, and they only bind to the localhost. Set up something like Nginx or any other proxy server to proxy the requests to the container.

ssh -L 3000:localhost:3000 user@you.address.here

services:
  waha:
    image: devlikeapro/waha-plus
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

docker compose up -d

6. Now, open http://localhost:3000/dashboard and login with the credentials you’ve set

By default you can use:

• Dashboard - admin/admin
• Swagger - admin/admin
• Api Key - admin

Nginx#

👉 Replace <YOUR_DOMAIN_OR_IP> with your domain name in the following steps (use lowercase).

1. Configure Nginx to serve as a frontend proxy.

sudo apt-get install nginx
cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

nano <YOUR_DOMAIN_OR_IP>.conf

2. Use the following Nginx config and replace the <YOUR_DOMAIN_OR_IP> in server_name.

server {
  server_name <YOUR_DOMAIN_OR_IP>;

  # Point upstream to WAHA Server
  set $upstream 127.0.0.1:3000;

  location /.well-known {
    alias /var/www/ssl-proof/waha/.well-known;
  }

  location / {
    proxy_pass_header Authorization;
    proxy_pass http://$upstream;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Ssl on; # Optional

    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_buffering off;

    client_max_body_size 0;
    proxy_read_timeout 36000s;
    proxy_redirect off;
  }
  listen 80;
}

3. Verify and reload your Nginx config by running the following command.

nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx

Here are two scenarios for setting up HTTPS:

HTTPS - Let’s Encrypt#

If you have a domain name (e.g., yourdomain.com) that points to your server’s IP address, you can use Let’s Encrypt to get free, trusted SSL certificates:

1. Run Let’s Encrypt to configure SSL certificate. (replace <YOURDOMAIN.COM>!)

apt install certbot
apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx

mkdir -p /var/www/ssl-proof/waha/.well-known
certbot --webroot -w /var/www/ssl-proof/waha/ -d <YOURDOMAIN.COM> -i nginx

2. Your WAHA installation should be accessible from the https://yourdomain.com now.
3. Change WAHA_BASE_URL=https://<YOURDOMAIN.COM> in the .env file and restart the WAHA service

# Change the WAHA_BASE_URL in .env
nano .env
# Restart the WAHA service
docker compose up -d
docker compose restart

HTTPS - Self-Signed Certificate#

We recommend using Let’s Encrypt free certificate if you have public IP and DNS name.

However, if you don’t have a domain name or are using a private IP address, you can create a self-signed certificate for IP-based access, expand the details below:

mkdir -p /etc/nginx/ssl
cd /etc/nginx/ssl

cat > ip-cert.cnf << 'EOL'
[req]
default_bits = 2048
prompt = no
default_md = sha256
distinguished_name = dn
x509_extensions = v3_ca

[dn]
C=US
ST=State
L=City
O=Organization
OU=Department
CN=<YOUR_IP_ADDRESS>

[v3_ca]
subjectAltName = @alt_names

[alt_names]
IP.1 = <YOUR_IP_ADDRESS>
EOL

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout ip-cert.key -out ip-cert.crt -config ip-cert.cnf

cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
nano <YOUR_DOMAIN_OR_IP>.conf

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <YOUR_IP_ADDRESS>;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name <YOUR_IP_ADDRESS>;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/ip-cert.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/ip-cert.key;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    # Point upstream to WAHA Server
    set $upstream 127.0.0.1:3000;

    location / {
        proxy_pass_header Authorization;
        proxy_pass http://$upstream;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Ssl on; # Optional

        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_buffering off;

        client_max_body_size 0;
        proxy_read_timeout 36000s;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx

# Change the WAHA_BASE_URL in .env to use https
nano .env
# Add or modify: WAHA_BASE_URL=https://<YOUR_IP_ADDRESS>
# Restart the WAHA service
docker compose up -d
docker compose restart

Update#

When there’s a new version of WAHA, you can update it with these simple commands:

➕ WAHA Plus image:

# Login if you're using WAHA Plus
docker login -u devlikeapro -p {KEY}
docker compose pull
docker logout

docker compose up -d

👉 If you specified exact version in docker-compose.yml, like

image: devlikeapro/waha-plus:latest-2024.7.8

remember to change it to latest-{YEAR}.{MONTH}.{BUILD} to get the latest version.

WAHA Core image:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Get logs, restart, stop#

# Stop all containers
docker compose down
# Start all containers, apply new configuration
docker compose up -d
# Restart all containers
docker compose restart
# Show logs in real time
docker compose logs -f
# Show logs - since interval
docker compose logs --since 1h  

What’s next?#