Watch WhatsApp from ChatGPT
Subscribe to WhatsApp updates and let ChatGPT respond to your instructions.
MCP Events lets ChatGPT Work watch a WhatsApp conversation and act when an update arrives. For example: “Watch this customer conversation. When they ask for a quote, draft a reply using our price list.”
Enable the endpoint
Run Easy API with an API key and MCP enabled:
{
"apiKey": "your-private-api-key",
"mcp": { "enabled": true }
}Connect its publicly reachable HTTPS MCP endpoint to your ChatGPT plugin using the Easy API key. The endpoint serves MCP 2.0, protocol revision 2026-07-28. Event subscriptions are available in ChatGPT Work web chats, desktop Work chats with Cloud selected, and dots.
OpenWA advertises these events alongside its tools:
| Event | When it arrives | Subscription filter |
|---|---|---|
message.received | A new incoming message, excluding this account's sends | Optional exact chatId |
ack.changed | A message acknowledgement changes | Optional exact chatId; snapshots without that field won't match |
session.state.changed | The linked session changes state | No arguments |
Use the conversation ID returned by OpenWA. Ask ChatGPT what to monitor and what it should do; ChatGPT manages events/subscribe, refresh and events/unsubscribe.
Payloads and delivery
Message updates contain sessionId, messageId, optional chatId, from and body, plus truncated. Message text is capped at 4,000 characters. ChatGPT can use messages.get with messageId to read the full available message. Acknowledgements contain the message ID, acknowledgement value and available conversation ID. State updates contain the current and available previous state.
OpenWA verifies the callback before sending WhatsApp data. It signs each request using the secret supplied by ChatGPT, validates public HTTPS destinations for each connection and rejects redirects. A successful HTTP response acknowledges receipt; ChatGPT processes the event asynchronously. Transient failures receive bounded retries, with the same event ID. 410 and 413 responses aren't retried. Deliveries can repeat or arrive out of order.
Subscriptions and pending deliveries persist in a private SQLite file under .open-wa/. Keep that directory on persistent storage when running in a container. Events missed while OpenWA is offline aren't replayed: cursor is always null.
Subscription settings
{
"mcp": {
"enabled": true,
"events": {
"enabled": true,
"storePath": ".open-wa/mcp-events.sqlite",
"lifetimeMs": 86400000
}
}
}The default granted lifetime is one day. OpenWA returns refreshBefore so ChatGPT can renew it. A shorter requested lifetime is honored. A request for no expiration still receives a finite lifetime. Set mcp.events.enabled to false to expose tools without subscriptions.
Read the generated event contracts or download AsyncAPI.
The OpenAI MCP Extensions SDK provides sidebar views, file handlers, mentions and forms. This integration uses the standard event subscription methods and doesn't require that UI SDK. OpenAI MCP Events requirements, OpenAI MCP Extensions.
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