V5.4: Your session, your key

Your compact session can travel with an encryption key you control. OpenWA 5.4 accepts a key from your config, an environment variable or a mounted Docker secret, while keeping the encrypted session file as two values: auth and data.

🔒️ Choose your keyCopy Anchor Link

import { create } from '@open-wa/wa-automate';

const client = await create({
  sessionId: 'sales',
  sessionDataEncryptionKeyFile: '/run/secrets/openwa-session-key',
});

The file contains a base64-encoded 32-byte random key. Alternatively, pass sessionDataEncryptionKey or set OPENWA_SESSION_DATA_ENCRYPTION_KEY. The environment variable is read automatically. Use one key source, and keep the same key and session ID across containers. Store the key separately from the session file.

Omit the key settings to use OpenWA's baked default. Existing filename, path and S3 settings remain available.

🚚 Pairing and resetsCopy Anchor Link

Compact authentication is the only path; legacyDataDirAuth is removed. Moving from a browser profile or changing keys requires a fresh QR scan. Reset a saved session with sessionData: 'NUKE', then remove that setting after pairing.

Key settings are redacted from debug responses and startup events. Verbose environment logs show variable names only. Live browser/S3 acceptance for this integration remains unverified.

Read the session storage guide for storage and pending-message replay details.

🔖 Version alignmentCopy Anchor Link

22 companion packages move to 5.4.0 with no separate feature changes.