Run WAHA on your Mac in under ten minutes

WAHA runs on top of Docker, and that is the only prerequisite. Install Docker Desktop for Mac, launch it, and wait for the whale icon in the menu bar to go steady before you carry on.

brew install --cask docker

Or download it directly from docker.com. Once it is running, confirm the daemon is alive:

docker --version
docker info | head -5

Not sure which chip you have? Ask the machine:

uname -m

WAHA writes a credentials file and a sessions folder into whatever directory you run it from. Give it a home of its own so nothing lands in your home folder by accident.

mkdir -p ~/waha && cd ~/waha

Apple Silicon needs the ARM build. Pull it, then tag it as devlikeapro/waha so every later command works unchanged.

Intel Macs use the standard image, so this is a single pull.

# Download the ARM image
docker pull devlikeapro/waha:arm

# Rename it, so you can use devlikeapro/waha everywhere else
docker tag devlikeapro/waha:arm devlikeapro/waha

docker pull devlikeapro/waha

It is roughly a gigabyte, so this is the slow step. Good moment to fill the kettle.

This one-off command creates a .env file in your folder holding the dashboard login and your API key.

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/app/env devlikeapro/waha init-waha /app/env

You will get output along these lines:

Credentials generated.

Dashboard and Swagger:
  - Username: admin
  - Password: 11111111111111111111111111111111

API key:
  - 00000000000000000000000000000000

cat ~/waha/.env

This runs WAHA in the foreground on port 3000, with your sessions folder mounted so logins survive a restart.

docker run -it \
  --env-file "$(pwd)/.env" \
  -v "$(pwd)/sessions:/app/.sessions" \
  --rm -p 3000:3000 \
  --name waha devlikeapro/waha

Leave that Terminal window running and open the dashboard at localhost:3000/dashboard. Sign in with the username and password from step 3, then connect to the server using the API key.

If port 3000 is already taken by something else, remap it and use the new port everywhere below:

lsof -i :3000

Have your phone to hand with WhatsApp installed. In the dashboard the default session starts at STOPPED.

• Start the default session, leaving every setting as it comes.
• Wait for the status to reach SCAN_QR, then click the camera icon.
• On your phone, go to Settings, Linked devices, Link a device and scan the code.
• The status moves to WORKING. You are connected.

Swap 123123 for your own number without the plus sign, keeping the @c.us suffix, and swap the placeholder key for the real one from your .env file.

curl -X 'POST' \
  'http://localhost:3000/api/sendText' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "X-Api-Key: 00000000000000000000000000000000" \
  -d '{
  "chatId": "[email protected]",
  "text": "Hi there!",
  "session": "default"
}'

fetch('http://localhost:3000/api/sendText', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Accept': 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'X-Api-Key': '00000000000000000000000000000000'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    chatId: "[email protected]",
    text: "Hi there!",
    session: "default"
  })
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data))
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

import requests

url = "http://localhost:3000/api/sendText"
headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "X-Api-Key": "00000000000000000000000000000000"
}
data = {
    "chatId": "[email protected]",
    "text": "Hi there!",
    "session": "default"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=data, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

Prefer clicking to typing? Open Swagger at localhost:3000/#/chatting, authorise with your API key, expand POST /api/sendText, hit Try it out, drop your number in and Execute.

Press Ctrl+C in the running Terminal window to stop the server. Your session data stays in ~/waha/sessions, so the next start will not ask you to scan again.

# Stop it from another tab
docker stop waha

# Pull the latest build
docker pull devlikeapro/waha

# Start it again
cd ~/waha && docker run -it --env-file "$(pwd)/.env" \
  -v "$(pwd)/sessions:/app/.sessions" \
  --rm -p 3000:3000 --name waha devlikeapro/waha

docker logs -f waha