Build chatbots and integrations on your WhatsApp inbox

1. Get an API key

In your WACRM workspace, open Settings → Developers → Create API key. The key (format wak_live_…) is shown once — we store only a SHA-256 hash of it, so copy it immediately. Revoke and re-issue keys from the same panel at any time.

Send it on every request as a Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer wak_live_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Base URL: https://wacrm.bitlancetechhub.com. All requests and responses are JSON. A key is scoped to the workspace that created it and can act only on that workspace's data.

2. Send a message

POST/api/v1/messages

Free-form text — allowed only inside the 24-hour customer service window (i.e. the customer messaged you within the last 24 hours):

curl -X POST https://wacrm.bitlancetechhub.com/api/v1/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer wak_live_XXXX" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "919876543210",
    "type": "text",
    "text": "Hi! Your order has shipped 🎉"
  }'

Template message — required outside the 24-hour window and for any first-touch message. The template must be Approved on Meta (list them with GET /api/v1/templates). params fills the body's {{1}}, {{2}}… variables in order; header_value is required when the template has a media header (public https URL) or a header variable:

curl -X POST https://wacrm.bitlancetechhub.com/api/v1/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer wak_live_XXXX" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "919876543210",
    "type": "template",
    "template_name": "order_update",
    "language": "en_US",
    "params": ["Rahul", "#1042"],
    "header_value": "https://example.com/banner.jpg"
  }'

Success response:

{
  "success": true,
  "message_id": "wamid.HBgMOTE2Mzk4…",
  "contact_id": "18fe6dff-…",
  "conversation_id": "cc1a8c7f-…"
}

The contact and conversation are created automatically if they don't exist yet, and the message appears in the inbox thread as a bot message.

Error responses

3. List templates

GET/api/v1/templates

Returns the Approved templates your key can send — name, language, category, header shape, body text (with its {{N}} placeholders), and footer. Use it to know how many params a template needs and whether it wants a header_value.

curl https://wacrm.bitlancetechhub.com/api/v1/templates \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer wak_live_XXXX"

4. Contacts

GET/api/v1/contacts?phone=919876543210

Look up a contact by phone (country code required, no + needed). 404 when not found.

POST/api/v1/contacts

curl -X POST https://wacrm.bitlancetechhub.com/api/v1/contacts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer wak_live_XXXX" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "phone": "919876543210", "name": "Rahul Saini" }'

Idempotent by phone number — creating an existing contact returns it with "created": false.

5. Receive messages (webhook)

Set your endpoint URL in Settings → Developers → Webhook. You get a signing secret (format whsec_…). Every inbound WhatsApp message is then POSTed to your URL within moments of arriving:

POST <your-url>
Content-Type: application/json
X-Wacrm-Event: message.received
X-Wacrm-Signature: sha256=<hex HMAC-SHA256 of the raw body>

{
  "event": "message.received",
  "created_at": "2026-09-03T15:40:00.000Z",
  "data": {
    "contact": { "id": "…", "phone": "919876543210", "name": "Rahul" },
    "conversation_id": "…",
    "message": {
      "whatsapp_message_id": "wamid.…",
      "type": "text",
      "text": "I want to order",
      "media_url": null,
      "interactive_reply_id": null,
      "timestamp": "2026-09-03T15:39:58.000Z"
    }
  }
}

Verify the signature before trusting a delivery — same pattern Meta uses for its own webhooks:

// Node.js / Express — use the RAW body, not re-serialized JSON
const crypto = require('crypto');

function verify(rawBody, signatureHeader, secret) {
  const expected =
    'sha256=' +
    crypto.createHmac('sha256', secret).update(rawBody).digest('hex');
  return crypto.timingSafeEqual(
    Buffer.from(expected),
    Buffer.from(signatureHeader || '')
  );
}

• Respond with a 2xx within 5 seconds — do slow work async.
• Delivery is best-effort (no retries yet); the last delivery error is shown in Settings → Developers for debugging.
• Button taps and WhatsApp Flow submissions arrive with interactive_reply_id / readable text, so bots can branch on them.

6. Rate limits

• POST /api/v1/messages — 60 requests/minute per workspace.
• Read endpoints — 120 requests/minute.
• POST /api/v1/contacts — 60 requests/minute.

WhatsApp's own pair limit (~1 message / 6 s per recipient) applies on top — see the 429 handling above.

7. n8n chatbot in 3 nodes

1. Webhook node (POST) — paste its URL into Settings → Developers. Every customer message triggers the flow.
2. Your logic — an AI Agent node, a Switch on {{$json.data.message.text}}, or anything else.
3. HTTP Request node — POST to /api/v1/messages with your wak_live_… key in the Authorization header to reply.

The whole exchange — customer message and bot reply — is visible to your team in the WACRM inbox, and a human can take over the conversation at any point.