channel-setup

Channel Setup

When to Use

Use this skill when wiring a freshly connected channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger, email, phone number) into code, or when deciding which sender ID to pass to the API.

The two-layer model

Zavu has two objects that beginners often conflate:

Layer	What it is	Where it lives
Account	The connection to a provider: a WhatsApp Business Account, a Facebook Page, an Instagram account, a Telegram bot, an email domain, a phone number	Connected in the dashboard (Accounts, Phone Numbers) or via partner invitations
Sender	The API handle that ROUTES accounts: what you pass as Zavu-Sender, what carries the webhook and the AI agent	GET /v1/senders

Billing: accounts are what you pay for (a WhatsApp account, a channel connection, a phone number). Senders are free — they are the view that groups your accounts under one sending identity.

Connecting always yields a ready sender. When an account is connected and no sender references it, Zavu creates one automatically, named after the account (the WhatsApp verified name, the Page name, the @username). The first sender of a project becomes the default. Partner-invitation connects have always worked this way; every connect surface now does.

Finding the sender to send from

GET /v1/senders is the answer to "what can I send with, and from where?". Each sender's channels array is the source of truth for capability — computed from its actual configuration, not inferred:

{
  "id": "sender_12345",
  "name": "Acme Store",
  "channels": ["whatsapp", "sms", "voice"],
  "isDefault": true
}

• An empty channels array means the sender cannot send anything yet (a phone number alone does not enable SMS).
• Omit Zavu-Sender to use the project's default sender.
• To target a specific one, pass its ID as a header inside the send params object: 'Zavu-Sender': "sender_12345".

Per-channel wiring

You connected...	The sender...	Send with
WhatsApp (embedded signup or invitation)	auto-created, channels includes whatsapp once the account is active	channel: "whatsapp"
Messenger Page / Instagram account	auto-created, named after the Page/@username	channel: "messenger" / "instagram"
Telegram bot	attached via POST /v1/senders/{senderId}/telegram (bot token from @BotFather)	channel: "telegram"
Email domain (verified)	attach with emailAddress on sender create/update	channel: "email"
Nothing yet (zero-setup start)	enableSmsOneway: true on POST /v1/senders or PATCH /v1/senders/{senderId} — no number, no credential, active immediately; recipients cannot reply	channel: "sms_oneway"
Phone number	route it to a sender (PATCH /v1/phone-numbers/{id} with senderId) — that is what turns SMS on; add enableVoice for calls	channel: "sms" / "voice"