About CodeChat
CodeChat WhatsApp API is a server you run yourself that exposes WhatsApp messaging functions over a REST API. It is meant for building multi-service chats, support bots and other systems that use WhatsApp, and callers can work in any programming language because they only make HTTP requests.
The setup guide uses Docker for infrastructure, with PostgreSQL as a required database managed through Prisma migrations, Node.js installed through NVM and the process kept running with pm2. Configuration comes from an environment file copied from the provided development example. The project is written in TypeScript, released under the Apache-2.0 licence and documented on its own docs site.
Key features
- REST API for WhatsApp chats and bots
- Language-agnostic HTTP interface
- PostgreSQL storage with Prisma migrations
- Docker-based infrastructure setup
- Process management with pm2
Good fit for
- →WhatsApp customer service bots
- →Multi-service chat integrations
- Tags
- api
- rest-api
- bot
- nodejs
- typescript
- postgresql
- prisma
- self-hosted
- automation
CodeChat: questions and answers
- What is CodeChat used for?
- CodeChat is a self-hosted REST API server in Node.js and TypeScript for building WhatsApp chat services, bots and automations without writing Node code yourself. It is a good fit for WhatsApp customer service bots and multi-service chat integrations.
- Is CodeChat open source?
- Yes. CodeChat is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at code-chat-br/whatsapp-api and is written mainly in TypeScript.
- Is CodeChat free?
- Yes. CodeChat is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host CodeChat?
- Yes. CodeChat can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is CodeChat an alternative to?
- CodeChat is an open-source alternative to Twilio. Other open-source alternatives to Twilio include OpenWA, Fonoster and FreeSWITCH.
- Is CodeChat actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to CodeChat was on 11 July 2026, and the latest release is v1.3.7, published on 15 May 2026. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.
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