setup

setup is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from Rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin. It costs 21 tokens per session (1,358 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

An interactive setup guide for connecting Claude Code to WhatsApp as a linked device, similar to WhatsApp Web. It walks through phone linking, connection checks, and access setup.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to link a phone by QR code or phone number, check WhatsApp connection status, and configure the channel before use.
Why use it?
It removes the guesswork from connecting the service for the first time and explains what to do when the connection is waiting, disconnected, or already active.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Installs and runs on its own, but its text points at files inside its plugin — anything it tells you to read at a ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} path is only there once the plugin is installed. Installing the plugin gets both.

Part of the whatsapp-channel plugin — 4 skills, 1 hook, 1 MCP server shipped together

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin/setup
Any agent
npx skills add Rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin --skill setup
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install whatsapp-channel, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 4 skills, 1 hook, 1 MCP server.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for setup

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin/setup.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin/setup)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin/setup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin/setup.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 21 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,358 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00021 $0.01358
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00679
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00272
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00136

Measured 5d ago against content hash 403884caca2a, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

setup scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 5d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/setup/SKILL.md · 113 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 113 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

WhatsApp Channel Setup

You are guiding the user through first-time WhatsApp channel setup. Follow these phases in order. Be conversational, not robotic. Ask one question at a time.

Phase 1: Welcome & Prerequisites

Tell the user:

  • This plugin connects Claude Code to WhatsApp as a linked device (like WhatsApp Web)
  • They'll need their phone with WhatsApp open nearby
  • The setup takes about 2 minutes

Phase 2: Device Linking

Check the connection status by calling the whatsapp_status tool.

If status is connected:

  • Skip to Phase 4. Tell the user they're already linked.

If status is pairing and a qr_image_path is present:

  • Read the QR image file and display it to the user.
  • Tell them: "Open WhatsApp on your phone → Settings → Linked Devices → Link a Device → scan this QR code"
  • If a pairing_code is also available, mention: "If you can't scan the QR, tap 'Link with phone number instead' and enter: [code]"
  • Wait for confirmation. Call whatsapp_status again to check if connection succeeded.

If status is disconnected:

  • Tell the user the server needs to start first. They should restart Claude Code with the WhatsApp channel enabled:
    claude --dangerously-load-development-channels plugin:whatsapp-channel@whatsapp-claude-plugin
    
    Explain that this flag is required every launch — it registers the plugin as a channel so incoming messages wake the session in real time. Without it, tools load but messages sit unanswered until something prompts Claude to check.

Phase 3: Phone Number (Optional)

Ask the user:

"Would you like to save your phone number for future re-pairing? This lets the server offer a numeric pairing code as a backup if QR scanning isn't available. You can skip this."

If yes:

  • Ask for their phone number with country code (e.g., 886912345678, no + or spaces)
  • Save it to ~/.whatsapp-channel/.env:
    WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER=<their number>
    
  • Confirm it's saved.

If no, skip to Phase 4.

Read the full file on GitHub · 113 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 5d ago First seen · 113 lines · 21 tokens per session scan A 403884caca2a

Subscribe to this mod's changes

setup is a skill published in the GitHub repository Rich627/whatsapp-claude-plugin (79 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 21 tokens to every session and 1,358 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.