What is WhatsApp MCP (finereli)?
WhatsApp MCP, by Eli Finer (finereli on GitHub), links to your WhatsApp account as a linked device, the way WhatsApp Web does, imports the history WhatsApp hands a new device and lets an MCP client list chats, read them, search across them, find chats you have not answered and fetch photos, voice notes and documents. It cannot send, edit or delete anything; there is no tool for it.
It runs as a Cloudflare Worker with one Durable Object per person, or on your own machine under Docker. You can use the free hosted beta at whatsapp.finereli.com, which signs you in with Google and has limited seats, or deploy your own copy with a password only you know. The repository is MIT-licensed TypeScript, created on 18 October 2026, with about 415 stars and commits as recent as 10 November 2026. It talks to WhatsApp through the unofficial Baileys library, pinned to a release candidate.
How to install WhatsApp MCP (finereli)
https://whatsapp.finereli.com/mcpIs WhatsApp MCP (finereli) worth it?
The design choices are what earn this a review. There is no send tool, on purpose, which removes the worst failure of a messaging agent. Messages, chat and contact names and WhatsApp's own session keys are encrypted at rest under a random data key, which is itself wrapped by a key from your password (PBKDF2-SHA256, 600,000 rounds) or from the hosted login service. Phone numbers are stored as keyed hashes, and search runs through per-block filters over about 128 messages each, so a copied database shows activity patterns and message lengths but not who or what.
The README is unusually plain about where that protection ends, and the reader should be too. It is not end-to-end encryption: while your agent is asking, the server holds the key and reads your messages in plain text, and whatever the agent reads goes to its model provider. On the hosted beta the operator runs the login service and could derive your key; only a self-hosted copy with OWNER_PASSWORD removes that. There is no confirmation step before an agent reads a chat, and every person in those chats is in the copy without having agreed.
The account risk is real if small. It uses the WhatsApp Web protocol through Baileys, which WhatsApp's terms discourage, and the author warns WhatsApp could restrict or close an account that does it. Hosted accounts connect from Cloudflare datacentre addresses, which may draw more attention than a phone. Syncing only happens when an agent asks, because nothing can decrypt without you signed in; WhatsApp only queues messages for a linked device for a limited time, so a long gap can mean a relink.
The rival is lharries/whatsapp-mcp, at about 6,870 stars the best-known server, but it can send messages and has not had a commit since July 2025. This one is less than a month old, tested against one real account by the author's own admission, and leaves edits and deletes untested. Self-hosting on Cloudflare costs $5 a month and a few minutes with wrangler, and that is the version we would trust with a personal history.
Where it earns its place
A parent juggling school, sports and family group chats
Catch up on what the family group decided this week
Ask the agent to summarise the group since Monday; it tops up from WhatsApp if the copy is over ten minutes old, then reads the chat. Free on the hosted beta; $5 a month self-hosted.
A freelance designer who agrees work with clients over WhatsApp
Find what a client said about the brief and the deadline
search_messages takes several exact-word queries at once across every chat, and get_media fetches the attached PDF. Search is whole words, not fuzzy, so ask for 'deadline' and 'invoice*' rather than a paraphrase.
A sole trader who replies to customers from a personal number
See which customers are still waiting for a reply
unanswered_chats lists direct chats where the other person wrote last. The agent drafts replies for you to send from the phone, since the server itself cannot send.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Hosted: sign in with Google at whatsapp.finereli.com, scan the QR code under WhatsApp Linked Devices and add https://whatsapp.finereli.com/mcp. Self-hosted: clone, npm install, create a KV namespace, set OWNER_PASSWORD (12+ characters) and npm run deploy, or docker compose up behind a TLS proxy.
- Integrations
- 11 tools: list_chats, get_messages, search_messages, unanswered_chats, get_media, transcribe_audio, unnamed_chats, set_contact_names, sync_now, link_status and relink. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and other remote-MCP clients via OAuth.
- Data and privacy
- Messages stored in SQLite inside a Cloudflare Durable Object, AES-256-GCM encrypted at rest; timestamps, message types and rough lengths stay readable. Decrypted in memory during requests. Media is fetched on demand, not stored. Dashboard deletion removes everything.
- Cost at scale
- Self-hosted for one person: the $5/month Workers Paid plan. Run as a service, the README estimates about $10 a month at worst for 100 people at the default caps, more likely $5 to $7.
- Limits
- Hosted accounts capped at 250,000 messages and 300 MB by default; imports only what WhatsApp sends a new device, once per link; exact-word search; some chats appear as bare numbers until named.
What’s good
- Read-only: no send, edit or delete tools
- Encrypted at rest; numbers stored as keyed hashes
- Self-host on Cloudflare or Docker with your own password
- Delete everything and unlink from the dashboard
What’s not
- Unofficial protocol; WhatsApp could restrict the account
- Hosted beta operator can derive your key
- Plain text in memory during each request
- Under a month old; tested on one real account
Best for
People who want an agent to find things in their personal WhatsApp history and are willing to self-host for the privacy that implies.
WhatsApp MCP (finereli) alternatives
WhatsApp MCP (finereli): common questions
- Is WhatsApp MCP (finereli) worth it?
- A carefully reasoned, read-only way to let an agent search your WhatsApp, provided you run your own copy and accept the account risk WhatsApp's terms imply. We rate it 3.8 out of 5.
- How much does WhatsApp MCP (finereli) cost?
- Free and open source (MIT). Hosted beta free with limited seats. Self-hosting on Cloudflare needs the $5/month Workers Paid plan; voice-note transcription costs about $0.0005 a minute on Workers AI.
- What are the downsides of WhatsApp MCP (finereli)?
- Unofficial protocol; WhatsApp could restrict the account; hosted beta operator can derive your key; plain text in memory during each request; under a month old; tested on one real account.
- Who is WhatsApp MCP (finereli) best for?
- People who want an agent to find things in their personal WhatsApp history and are willing to self-host for the privacy that implies.
- How much does WhatsApp MCP (finereli) cost for a team or in production?
- Self-hosted for one person: the $5/month Workers Paid plan. Run as a service, the README estimates about $10 a month at worst for 100 people at the default caps, more likely $5 to $7.
- Is WhatsApp MCP (finereli) safe for company data?
- Messages stored in SQLite inside a Cloudflare Durable Object, AES-256-GCM encrypted at rest; timestamps, message types and rough lengths stay readable. Decrypted in memory during requests. Media is fetched on demand, not stored. Dashboard deletion removes everything.
- What are the best WhatsApp MCP (finereli) alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Slack MCP Server and Google Workspace MCP servers.
Answers checked Nov 13, 2026.