Wacli

wacli

Use wacli when the user asks you to message someone on WhatsApp, search/sync history, or analyze/open their chats and draft responses. Do NOT use wacli for routine user chats without explicit instruction; the user (Seyed) chats with you directly on a different platform.

Safety

• Require explicit recipient + message text when sending.
• Confirm recipient + message before sending.
• If anything is ambiguous, ask a clarifying question.

Stale lock handling

Before any command, check if a wacli sync --follow process is running stale:

ps aux | grep wacli | grep -v grep

If a sync process is days old and blocking, kill it:

kill <pid>

Then run wacli doctor again. The lock clears in ~1 second.

Auth + sync

• First check version, auth state, and lock status: wacli version && wacli doctor && wacli auth status --json.
• wacli sync --follow (continuous sync)
• wacli doctor

Find chats + messages

• wacli chats list --limit 20 --query "name or number"
• wacli messages list --chat <jid> --limit 10 — get recent messages from a chat (no search term needed)
  • Add --json for machine-readable output with full message metadata
• wacli messages search "query" --limit 20 --chat <jid>
• wacli messages search "invoice" --after 2025-01-01 --before 2025-12-31

History backfill

• wacli history backfill --chat <jid> --requests 2 --count 50

Send

• Text: wacli send text --to "+14155551212" --message "Hello! Are you free at 3pm?"
• Group: wacli send text --to "1234567890-123456789@g.us" --message "Running 5 min late."
• File: wacli send file --to "+14155551212" --file /path/agenda.pdf --caption "Agenda"

Outbound replies

When a lead replies to an outbound WhatsApp message, especially with objections or skepticism, handle the emotion before the sale. See references/outbound-reply-patterns.md for reply templates and trust-rebuilding patterns.

Notes

Chat triage & draft workflow

When the user asks you to analyze their open WhatsApp chats and prepare responses:

1. Check for stale sync processes first: ps aux | grep "wacli sync" | grep -v grep
2. Run wacli doctor to verify auth
3. wacli chats list --limit 30 to see unread counts
4. wacli messages list --chat <jid> --limit 10 to read recent context
5. Prioritize by: recency (today > yesterday) > unread count > DM > business context
6. Present a structured overview with priority tiers and draft responses

Pitfalls

• Stale sync process blocks commands. A wacli sync --follow left running for days holds the lock. Kill it with kill <pid> before reading.
• wacli doctor shows LOCKED=true, CONNECTED=false — normal for local DB reads. FTS5 is readable even disconnected.
• wacli messages search requires a query. Use wacli messages list to browse recent messages regardless of content.
• wacli chats list has no --unread-only flag. Filter manually from unread_count column.
• LLM context budget. Batch chat reads via delegate_task (max 3 at a time) when analyzing 10+ chats.

Pitfalls

LaunchAgent store lock

macOS has a LaunchAgent com.wacli.sync that auto-starts wacli sync --follow on login and keeps it alive (KeepAlive=true). This holds an exclusive lock on ~/.wacli/store/ and blocks all other wacli operations (backfill, search, send) with store is locked (another wacli is running?).

To temporarily stop it for a single operation:

launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.wacli.sync
pkill -f "wacli sync"
rm -f ~/.wacli/store/LOCK

To permanently disable:

launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.wacli.sync
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.wacli.sync.plist

The LaunchAgent is at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.wacli.sync.plist.

Search by name

wacli messages search "Name" is accent-sensitive. Use lowercase for broader matching. For JIDs, always use --json output and parse with Python.

Store unlock race

After killing the sync process, another instance may immediately respawn (KeepAlive). Wait 2 seconds between kill and operation. Use pkill -f "wacli sync" not just kill <PID>.

• Use --json for machine-readable output when parsing.
• Backfill requires your phone online; results are best-effort.
• WhatsApp CLI is not needed for routine user chats; it's for messaging other people.
• JIDs: direct chats look like <number>@s.whatsapp.net; groups look like <id>@g.us (use wacli chats list to find).