send

This skill should be used when the user says "send a WhatsApp", "send WhatsApp to", "message someone on WhatsApp", "/meta", or wants to send a WhatsApp text or template message to one or more phone numbers via the Meta Business API.

Send WhatsApp messages via the Meta WhatsApp Business API.

Parse the user's request to extract:

  • Recipients: one or more phone numbers (comma-separated)
  • Message type: plain text OR a named template with optional parameters
  • Message content: the text body, or template name + positional params

If no recipients or message are provided, print usage for both formats and show credential status (Step 1), then stop.

Step 1 — Load credentials

cat ~/.claude/channels/whatsapp/.env

Extract:

  • META_WA_PHONE_NUMBER_ID
  • META_WA_ACCESS_TOKEN
  • META_WA_API_VERSION (default: v18.0 if unset)

If META_WA_PHONE_NUMBER_ID or META_WA_ACCESS_TOKEN are missing, stop and tell the user:

"WhatsApp not configured. Use the configure skill (or say 'configure WhatsApp') to save your credentials first."

Step 2 — Parse the request

Format A — text message:

<numbers> <message text...>
  • First token(s) before the message: comma-separated phone numbers
  • Remainder: message body

Format B — template message:

template <numbers> <template_name> [param1 param2 ...]
  • First token: literal template
  • Second token: comma-separated phone numbers
  • Third token: template name
  • Remaining tokens: positional params for {{1}}, {{2}}, etc.

Step 3 — Normalize each phone number

Apply these rules in order:

  1. Strip spaces, dashes, and parentheses.
  2. Starts with + → use as-is.
  3. Starts with 00 → replace leading 00 with +.
  4. Exactly 10 digits → prepend +91 (India default).
  5. Otherwise → prepend +.

Step 4 — Send messages

Text message

For each normalized number, run:

curl -s -X POST \
  "https://graph.facebook.com/${META_WA_API_VERSION}/${META_WA_PHONE_NUMBER_ID}/messages" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${META_WA_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{
    \"messaging_product\": \"whatsapp\",
    \"recipient_type\": \"individual\",
    \"to\": \"NORMALIZED_NUMBER\",
    \"type\": \"text\",
    \"text\": {
      \"preview_url\": false,
      \"body\": \"MESSAGE_TEXT\"
    }
  }"

Template message

Build a params array from positional args: [{"type":"text","text":"param1"}, ...]

For each normalized number, run:

curl -s -X POST \
  "https://graph.facebook.com/${META_WA_API_VERSION}/${META_WA_PHONE_NUMBER_ID}/messages" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${META_WA_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{
    \"messaging_product\": \"whatsapp\",
    \"to\": \"NORMALIZED_NUMBER\",
    \"type\": \"template\",
    \"template\": {
      \"name\": \"TEMPLATE_NAME\",
      \"language\": {\"code\": \"en_US\"},
      \"components\": [{
        \"type\": \"body\",
        \"parameters\": PARAMS_ARRAY
      }]
    }
  }"

Omit components entirely if no params were provided.

Step 5 — Report results

For each number:

  • Success (messages[0].id present in response): ✓ Sent to <number> — ID: <message_id>
  • Error: show error.message from response verbatim

Final summary line: X of Y sent successfully.

Never print the access token. If it must appear in output, mask it as EAAx....

Common errors

  • 401 — Token expired. Tell the user to re-run the configure skill with a fresh token.
  • 400 — Invalid number, unknown template, or wrong param count — display Meta's error message verbatim.