Quick start

Setup an XMPP server component

slidge-whatsapp uses the Jabber Component Protocol to connect to an XMPP server. slidge-whatsapp itself needs to have a JID without a local part, such as whatsapp.example.org. In a typical deployment, slidge-whatsapp runs on the same host as the XMPP server and connects to it via localhost. This requires adequate configuration of the XMPP server, and depends on the XMPP server software you are using.

This documentation explains how to do that for prosody and ejabberd. It might be outdated and you may want to check the official, up-to-date documentation of the XMPP server you are using. If you know how to set up slidge with other XMPP servers, please contribute to the docs. ;-)

Prosŏdy

Add a component block below the appropriate virtualhost in prosody.cfg.lua

Component "whatsapp.example.org"
  component_secret = "some-secret-string"

ejabberd

listen:
  -
    ip: 127.0.0.1
    port: 5347
    module: ejabberd_service
    hosts:
      whatsapp.example.org:
        password: some-secret-string

Launch the daemon

Start slidge-whatsapp with:

slidge-whatsapp \
  --jid whatsapp.example.org \
  --secret some-secret-string \
  --home-dir /somewhere/writable

Next steps

Next, you probably want to set up attachments to support bridging files from WhatsApp to XMPP.