Peter Steinberger’s wacli brings WhatsApp to the command line: sync, search, send
What it is
wacli is a third‑party WhatsApp CLI built on top of whatsmeow that aims to give you a local, searchable archive of your chats — sync, fast offline search, message send, and basic contact/group management. It has been reported that this tool uses the WhatsApp Web protocol and is not affiliated with WhatsApp. Core implementation is in place and the repo includes design notes (see docs/spec.md) for anyone who likes a peek under the hood.
What’s new and how it works
The project is at versioned releases (recently 0.2.0). That update added nicer search/list output (display text for reactions, replies, and media types), a send option to override a file’s display name, and optional device-label/platform overrides via environment variables. Sync runs as a continuous, non‑interactive loop after an initial auth step (QR code); output is human readable by default with a --json option for scripts. The repo credits Vicente Reig’s whatsapp-cli as a major influence — this is clearly standing on the shoulders of what came before.
Install and quick uses
You can install via Homebrew (brew install steipete/tap/wacli) or build locally with Go (go build -tags sqlite_fts5 -o ./dist/wacli ./cmd/wacli). Typical flow: pnpm wacli auth to scan a QR and bootstrap sync, then pnpm wacli sync --follow to keep a running capture. Useful commands: pnpm wacli messages search "meeting", pnpm wacli history backfill --chat
Why it matters
There’s something plain satisfying about being able to grep your WhatsApp history offline. Who hasn’t cursed a chat app’s search bar? This tool promises more control — local index, backfill hooks, and programmatic output for automation. Caveats: backfills are best‑effort and rely on your primary device, and, of course, this is a third‑party project under its own license. If you want a nerdy, command‑line way to tame your message archive, wacli is worth a spin.
Sources: github.com/steipete, Hacker News
Comments