WhatsApp infrastructure built for developers.
REST, signed webhooks, realtime events. Spin up an instance in 60 seconds. No Twilio markup. No Meta business-verification ladder. Just an HTTP API that returns predictable JSON.
curl -sX POST https://api.whatisup.dev/v1/instances \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $WHATISUP_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"name": "primary"}'
# → 201 Created
{
"id": "inst_01J5XZ3RX9...",
"name": "primary",
"status": "pending",
"created_at": "2026-05-01T12:34:56Z"
}Infrastructure, not a SaaS chatbot.
WhatIsUp.dev is the layer between your application and WhatsApp. Everything is typed, signed, and observable.
REST API
Instances, messages, webhooks, API keys. JSON in, JSON out. Same Zod schemas the gateway validates against.
Signed webhooks
X-WhatIsUp-Signature: t=…,v1=… verified the same way Stripe does. Automatic retries with exponential backoff.
Realtime SSE
/v1/events streams QR codes and instance state changes. No polling, no WebSocket gymnastics.
Instance lifecycle FSM
pending → qr → connecting → connected → disconnected. Every transition is a typed event.
Single-binary deploy
Postgres, Redis, one Node process. Run on Railway, Fly, Hetzner, or your laptop.
Open contracts
@whatisup/contracts ships every request, response, and webhook payload as a Zod schema. Zero drift.
From zero to first message in five steps.
Curl-first because if it works in curl it works in your stack. The same calls work from Node, Python, Go, anywhere with HTTP.
curl -sX POST https://api.whatisup.dev/v1/instances \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $WHATISUP_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"name": "primary"}'
# → 201 Created
{
"id": "inst_01J5XZ3RX9...",
"name": "primary",
"status": "pending",
"created_at": "2026-05-01T12:34:56Z"
}Realtime architecture, observable from day one.
One Postgres, one Redis, one stateful Node process per region. SSE for clients, BullMQ for retried delivery, prom-client for everything that matters.
Ship messaging in an afternoon.
Free tier covers one instance. Upgrade when you outgrow it.