Is there an official WhatsApp MCP server?
No. Meta publishes the WhatsApp Business Cloud API, not an MCP server, and that API is built for a brand: a separate business number, message templates submitted for approval, and a twenty-four hour window in which you may answer a customer. Community MCP servers fill the gap two ways — a headless browser signed into WhatsApp Web, which breaks whenever the interface moves, or a thin wrapper on that same Business API, which inherits every one of its constraints. Neither lets an assistant answer a friend, a supplier or a client from your own number. Nilyo does: it pairs the number you already use, by QR code, and exposes it to any MCP client as tools — read a conversation, resolve a contact by name, reply in the thread, download a voice note.
Your own number, paired the way the desktop app pairs
Connecting is the QR code you already know: open WhatsApp on your phone, scan, done. The session is held on the Nilyo side and the agent never sees it. The code refreshes about every forty seconds, so if you leave the page open you may need a fresh one — that is WhatsApp’s behaviour, not a bug. From then on the assistant works inside your real history, with the same groups and the same contacts.
One URL, OAuth, about two minutes
The server is at https://nilyo.com/mcp over streamable HTTP. Add it as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client and choose OAuth: the client registers itself, opens a browser once, and you sign in and authorize the accounts the agent may reach. No key to generate, nothing to paste into a config file.
Send to a person, not to a phone number
The natural request is “send a WhatsApp to Ada”, so resolution is a first-class step: messaging_resolve_recipient ranks your existing conversations by most recent exchange and falls back to your contacts. If two people could match, nothing is sent and the candidates come back for you to pick. whatsapp_is_number_registered checks a number is actually on WhatsApp before a first contact, which saves a message that would go nowhere.
“Send a WhatsApp to Ada asking if Thursday still works.”
“Did anyone message me on WhatsApp about the invoice this week?”
Voice notes and attachments come back as files
A large share of real WhatsApp traffic is not text. Attachments are returned as binary, so an assistant can transcribe a voice note, read a PDF quote or describe a photo of a delivery slip and act on what is inside, instead of reporting that a message contains an attachment it cannot open.
“Transcribe the voice notes I received this morning and tell me what needs an answer.”
Twenty new conversations a day, and that is on purpose
Starting a brand new conversation is the sensitive action on WhatsApp — it is what gets numbers reported and banned. Nilyo allows twenty new chats per day per account, spaced fifteen seconds apart, and returns an explicit limit error rather than pushing through. Replies inside conversations that already exist are not limited, because answering people who wrote to you is exactly what a normal account does all day.
Common questions
Does WhatsApp have an official MCP server?
No. Meta publishes the WhatsApp Business Cloud API for brand numbers; there is no official MCP server. Third-party ones are typically a browser driving WhatsApp Web, or a wrapper on that Business API with its templates and its twenty-four hour reply window. Nilyo is a hosted MCP server that connects the number you already use, by QR code, so an agent reads and answers in your existing conversations — no brand number, no templates, no reply window.
Do I need a WhatsApp Business account?
No. Nilyo pairs a personal or business WhatsApp account by QR code, the same pairing the official desktop app uses. Template approval and the Business Cloud API only apply to the brand-number route.
Will my number get banned?
The risk comes from unsolicited mass first contacts. New conversations are capped at twenty a day and spaced fifteen seconds apart, and replies in existing chats are unrestricted — which is the shape of normal human usage.
Can the agent read group conversations?
Yes. Chat listings mark one-to-one chats, groups and channels, so an assistant can filter what it reads and you can ask it to summarize a group without answering in it.
Is this WhatsApp Web automation?
No. There is no browser. The connection layer speaks the protocol directly, which is why a WhatsApp interface change does not break it and why pacing is applied before a message is sent.
How WhatsApp works with Nilyo
Connection. Scan a QR code shown in the conversation (WhatsApp › Linked devices), or type a pairing code on your phone. The line stays linked like any other device.
What your agent can do. Contacts and chats, message history, text, media and native voice notes, reactions, groups, checking whether a number is on WhatsApp.
Pacing and safety. 20 new conversations per day with 15 seconds between them; existing chats are not limited beyond serialization.
- “Send a WhatsApp to Julien” resolves the person among your recent chats and contacts; two matches mean the agent asks.
- Disconnecting from the phone marks the account for reconnection; the same account is re-linked with a new QR, never duplicated.
All WhatsApp guides
Related guides
Give Nilyo to your agent.
Paste one setup link. Your agent can guide OAuth, account connection and the first useful action.