Skip to content

Quickstart

This walkthrough gets you from install to a live WhatsApp feed in about five minutes.

1. Run the setup wizard

pywacli setup

The interactive wizard configures your WhatsApp connection, media storage, database, dashboard theme, logging, and (optionally) AI providers. Everything is saved to ~/.pywacli/config.json. You can re-run it any time, or open it again with pywacli config.

See Configuration for every option in detail.

2. Connect WhatsApp

In a terminal you'll keep open, start the connection:

pywacli connect

A QR code prints in the terminal. On your phone:

  1. Open WhatsApp → Settings → Linked Devices → Link a Device
  2. Scan the QR code shown in the terminal

Once linked, you'll see Connected as …. This terminal now owns the single WhatsApp socket: it streams events, saves them to the database, and hosts a small local command server so other commands (like Send) can reach the same connection.

Keep this terminal open

connect holds the live WhatsApp session. The dashboard, send, and automate flows talk to it. Press Ctrl+C to disconnect cleanly.

3. Watch it live

In a second terminal:

pywacli dashboard

The Rich dashboard shows a real-time message feed and database statistics, refreshed on the interval you configured. Send yourself a WhatsApp message and watch it appear.

4. Send a message

pywacli send

Pick a recent contact (or type a number), choose a quick message or type your own, and it's delivered through the live connect session. See the Send guide.

5. Let AI reply for you (optional)

pywacli automate

Pick a contact, a skill (sales, support, translator, conversation clone, …), and a provider (Ollama, OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, GLM). PyWacli watches for new messages and replies automatically. See the AI Automate guide.

The interactive menu

Prefer a menu? Just run:

pywacli

        P Y W A C L I   M E N U

  1   Dashboard   Launch the WhatsApp dashboard
  2   Config      Open configuration menu
  3   Connect     Connect WhatsApp (QR) — keep this terminal open
  4   Send        Send a WhatsApp message
  5   Automate    AI-powered automated chat
  6   Media       Browse stored media
  7   Init        Install Node.js (Baileys) dependencies
  0   Exit        Exit the application

The menu shows a live indicator for whether a connect session is running in another terminal.