Wechaty

Elevator Pitch

Wechaty is a conversational RPA SDK that simplifies the process of building chatbots. It’s like a Swiss Army knife for chatbot development, providing a universal interface to various messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and more. With Wechaty, you write your bot code once, and it runs on any of the supported platforms. This means you can focus on creating engaging conversational experiences without worrying about the underlying complexities of each platform’s API. It’s open-source, easy to use, and backed by a vibrant community that’s ready to help you bring your chatbot ideas to life.

Connecting Chatbots

Wechaty is an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) SDK for Chatbot Makers which can help you create a bot in 6 lines of JavaScript, Python, Go, and Java, with cross-platform support including Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Docker.

:spider_web: https://wechaty.js.org
https://github.com/Wechaty/wechaty
https://github.com/Wechaty/wechaty/issues
https://github.com/Wechaty/wechaty-getting-started
🐳 https://hub.docker.com/r/wechaty/wechaty

Breaking News

重磅：绕过登录限制，wechaty免费版web协议重放荣光, @gengchen528, Apr 13, 2021

Voice of Developers

“Wechaty is a great solution; I believe there would be much more users who recognize it.” link
— @Gcaufy, Tencent Engineer, Author of WePY

“太好用，好用的想哭”
— @xinbenlv, Google Engineer, Founder of HaoShiYou.org

”好用到哭“——你们对得起这个评价！ link
— @bigbrother666sh, creator of《社长不见了》剧本杀 NPC DM

“最好的微信开发库” link
— @Jarvis, Baidu Engineer

“Wechaty让运营人员更多的时间思考如何进行活动策划、留存用户，商业变现” link
— @lijiarui, Founder & CEO of Juzi.BOT.

“If you know js … try Wechaty. It’s easy to use.”
— @Urinx Uri Lee, Author of WeixinBot(Python)

“Wechaty is a good project; I hope it can continue! Therefore, I became a contributor in open collective.”
— @Simple

See more at Wiki:Voice Of Developer

Join Us on Discord

Wechaty is used in many ChatBot projects by thousands of developers. To talk with other developers, scan the QR Code below and join our Wechaty Developer Community.

Wechaty Discord Community QR Code

Scan now because other Wechaty developers want to talk with you, too!

Resource

Wechaty has already held lots of talks and got a lot of blogs in the past years; here are all of the wechaty resources:

🚀 The World’s Shortest ChatBot Code: 6 lines of JavaScript


import { WechatyBuilder } from 'wechaty'

const wechaty = WechatyBuilder.build() // get a Wechaty instance
wechaty
  .on('scan', (qrcode, status) => console.log(`Scan QR Code to login: ${status}\nhttps://wechaty.js.org/qrcode/${encodeURIComponent(qrcode)}`))
  .on('login',            user => console.log(`User ${user} logged in`))
  .on('message',       message => console.log(`Message: ${message}`))
wechaty.start()

Notice: Wechaty requires Node.js version >= 16

This bot can log all messages to the console after login by the scan.

You can find Wechaty’s Official Examples at examples/ding-dong-bot.ts and more from our Example Directory.

Requirements

Node.js version 16+
NPM version 7+
TypeScript version 4.4+

Getting Started

Wechaty Starter Repository - https://github.com/wechaty/wechaty-getting-started

We have a Wechaty starter repository for beginners with the simplest setting. It will be work out-of-the-box after you clone & npm install & npm start.

If you are new to Wechaty and want to try it the first time, we’d like to strong recommend you starting from this repository, and using it as your starter template for your project.

Otherwise, please saved the above The World’s Shortest ChatBot Code: 6 lines of JavaScript example to a file named bot.js before you can use either NPM or Docker to run it.

1. Npm

npm init
npm install wechaty

# create your first bot.js file, you can copy/paste from the above "The World's Shortest ChatBot Code: 6 lines of JavaScript"
# then:
node bot.js

2. Docker

Wechaty Starter Repository for Docker - https://github.com/wechaty/docker-wechaty-getting-started

Wechaty Docker supports both JavaScript and TypeScript. To use TypeScript just write in TypeScript and save with extension name .ts, no need to compile because we use ts-node to run it.

2.1. Run JavaScript

# for JavaScript
docker run -ti --rm --volume="$(pwd)":/bot wechaty/wechaty bot.js

2.2. Run TypeScript

# for TypeScript
docker run -ti --rm --volume="$(pwd)":/bot wechaty/wechaty bot.ts

Learn more about Wechaty Docker at Wiki:Docker.

3. Switch Protocol(Puppet)

Wechaty is very powerful that it can run over different protocols. You can specify the protocol by set the environment variable WECHATY_PUPPET to different puppet provider.

If you cannot use Web protocol, you can apply other protocols following the instruction here: https://github.com/wechaty/wechaty/wiki/Support-Developers We provide free token to support developers build a valuable WeChat chatbot.

Currently we support the following puppet providers :

Protocol	Puppet Provider	Environment Variable
Web	PuppetPuppeteer	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-puppeteer`
Windows	PuppetWorkPro	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-service`
Mock	PuppetMock	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-mock`
Web	PuppetWechat4u	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-wechat4u`
iPad	PuppetRock	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-service`
iPad	PuppetPadLocal	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-service`
Windows	PuppetDonut	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-service`
iPad	~~PuppetPadpro~~ DEPRECATED	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-padpro`
iPad	~~PuppetPadchat~~ DEPRECATED	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-padchat`
iPad	~~PuppetPadplus~~ DEPRECATED	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-padplus`
Mac	~~PuppetMacpro~~ DEPRECATED	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-macpro`
Windows	~~PuppetWxwork~~ DEPRECATED	`export WECHATY_PUPPET=wechaty-puppet-service`

Learn more about Wechaty Puppet from the Puppet Wiki:

Puppet Directory: https://github.com/Wechaty/wechaty-puppet/wiki/Directory
Puppet Compatibility: https://github.com/Wechaty/wechaty-puppet/wiki/Compatibility

API

Read the Full Documentation at Wechaty Official API Reference

1 Class `Wechaty`

Main bot class.

A Bot is a Wechaty instance that control a specific wechaty-puppet.

new Wechaty(options?: WechatyOptions)
1. options.name?: string the name of this bot(optional)
2. options.puppet?: string select which puppet provider we want to use. must be one of the:
  1. wechaty-puppet-wechat - Angular Hook for Web Wechat
  2. wechaty-puppet-wechat4u - HTTP API for Web Wechat
  3. wechaty-puppet-padpro - iPad App Protocol
  4. wechaty-puppet-ioscat - iPhone App Hook
  5. wechaty-puppet-mock - Mock for Testing
3. options.puppetOptions?: PuppetOptions options for the puppet provider.

Wechaty	API	Description
event	`login`	emit after bot login full successful
event	`logout`	emit after the bot log out
event	`friendship`	emit when someone sends bot a friend request
event	`message`	emit when there’s a new message
event	`room-join`	emit when anyone join any room
event	`room-topic`	emit when someone change room topic
event	`room-leave`	emit when anyone leave the room
event	`room-invite`	emit when there is a room invitation
event	`scan`	emit when the bot needs to show you a QR Code for scanning
method	`start(): Promise<void>`	start the bot
method	`stop(): Promise<void>`	stop the bot
method	`logonoff(): boolean`	bot login status
method	`logout(): Promise<void>`	logout the bot
method	`currentUser(): ContactSelf`	get the login-ed bot contact
method	`say(text: string): Promise<void>`	let bot say `text` to itself

2 Class `Contact`

All wechat contacts(friends/non-friends) will be encapsulated as a Contact.

Contact	API	Description
static	`find(query: string): Promise<null \| Contact>`	find contact by name or alias, if the result more than one, return the first one.
static	`findAll(query: string): Promise<Contact[]>`	find contact by `name` or `alias`
static	`load(query: string): Contact`	get contact by id
property	`id: readonly string`	get contact id
method	`sync(): Promise<void>`	force reload data for contact , sync data from lowlevel API again
method	`say(text: string): Promise<void \| Message>`	send text, Contact, or file to contact, return the message which the bot sent (only `puppet-padplus` supported).
method	`self(): boolean`	check if contact is self
method	`name(): string`	get the name from a contact
method	`alias(): Promise<string>`	get the alias for a contact
method	`alias(newAlias: string): Promise<void>`	set or delete the alias for a contact
method	`friend(): boolean`	check if contact is friend
method	`type(): ContactType`	return the type of the Contact
method	`province(): string`	get the region ‘province’ from a contact
method	`city(): string`	get the region ‘city’ from a contact
method	`avatar(): Promise<FileBox>`	get avatar picture file stream
method	`gender(): ContactGender`	get gender from a contact

2.1 Class `ContactSelf`

Class ContactSelf is extended from Contact.

ContactSelf	API	Description
method	`avatar(file: FileBox): Promise<void>`	set avatar for bot
method	`qrcode(): Promise<string>`	get qrcode for bot
method	`signature(text: string): Promise<void>`	set signature for bot

2.2 Class `Friendship`

Send, receive friend request, and friend confirmation events.

Friendship	API	Description
static	`add(contact: Contact, hello?: string): Promise<void>`	send a friend invitation to contact
method	`accept(): Promise<void>`	accept Friend Request
method	`hello(): string`	get the hello string from a friendship invitation
method	`contact(): Contact`	get the contact from friendship
method	`type(): FriendshipType`	return the Friendship Type(unknown, confirm, receive, verify)

3 Class `Message`

All wechat messages will be encapsulated as a Message.

Message	API	Description
static	`find(query: string): Promise<null \| Message>`	find message in cache and return the first one
static	`findAll(query: string): Promise<Message[]>`	find messages in cache, return a message list
method	`from(): Contact`	get the sender from a message
method	`to(): Contact`	get the destination of the message
method	`room(): null \| Room`	get the room from the message.(If the message is not in a room, then will return `null`)
method	`text(): string`	get the text content of the message
method	`say(text: string): Promise<void \| Message>`	reply a Text, Media File , or contact message to the sender, return the message which the bot sent (only `puppet-padplus` supported).
method	`type(): MessageType`	get the type from the message
method	`self(): boolean`	check if a message is sent by self
method	`mention(): Contact[]`	get message mentioned contactList.
method	`mentionSelf(): boolean`	check if a message is mention self
method	`forward(to: Contact): Promise<void>`	Forward the received message
method	`age(): number`	the number of seconds since it has been created
method	`date(): Date`	the time it was created
method	`toFileBox(): Promise<FileBox>`	extract the Media File from the Message, and put it into the FileBox.
method	`toContact(): Promise<Contact>`	get Share Card of the Message

4 Class `Room`

All wechat rooms(groups) will be encapsulated as a Room.

Room	API	Description
static	`create(contactList: Contact[], topic?: string): Promise<Room>`	create a new room
static	`find(query: string): Promise<null \| Room>`	Try to find a room by filter. If get many, return the first one.
static	`findAll(query: string): Promise<Room[]>`	Find all contacts in a room
static	`load(query: string): Room`	load room by room id
property	`id: readonly string`
event	`join`	emit when anyone join any room
event	`topic`	emit when someone change room topic
event	`leave`	emit when anyone leave the room
event	`invite`	emit when receive a room invitation
method	`sync(): <Promise<void>`	force reload data for room, sync data from lowlevel API again.
method	`say(text: string): Promise<void \| Message>`	Send text,media file, contact card, or text with mention @mention contact inside Room, return the message which the bot sent (only `puppet-padplus` supported).
method	`add(contact: Contact): Promise<void>`	Add contact in a room
method	`del(contact: Contact): Promise<void>`	Delete a contact from the room
method	`quit(): Promise<void>`	Bot quit the room itself
method	`topic(): Promise<string>`	GET topic from the room
method	`topic(newTopic: string): Promise<void>`	SET topic from the room
method	`announce(text: string): Promise<void>`	SET/GET announce from the room
method	`qrcode(): Promise<string>`	Get QR Code of the Room from the room, which can be used as scan and join the room.
method	`alias(contact: Contact): Promise<string>`	Return contact’s roomAlias in the room
method	`roomAlias(contact: Contact): Promise<string \| null>`	Same as function alias
method	`has(contact: Contact): Promise<boolean>`	Check if the room has member `contact`
method	`memberAll(query?: string): Promise<Contact[]>`	Find all contacts or with specific name in a room
method	`member(query: string): Promise<null \| Contact>`	Find all contacts in a room, if get many, return the first one.
method	`memberList():Promise<Contact[]>`	get all room member from the room
method	`owner(): null \| Contact`	Get room’s owner from the room.

4.1 Class `RoomInvitation`

Accept room invitation

RoomInvitation	API	Description
method	`accept(): Promise<void>`	accept Room Invitation
method	`inviter(): Contact`	get the inviter from room invitation
method	`roomTopic(): Promise<string>`	get the room topic from room invitation
method	`date(): Promise<Date>`	the time it was created
method	`age(): Promise<number>`	the number of seconds since it has been created

TEST

Wechaty is fully automatically tested by unit and integration tests, with Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) support powered by CI like Travis, Shippable and Appveyor.

To test Wechaty, run:

npm test

Get to know more about the tests from Wiki:Tests

CREATING WECHATY PLUGIN

Creating and publishing a Wechaty Plugin is simple. Simply expose your module as a function that takes 1 parameter: wechaty. When your plugin is imported by Wechaty, it will pass itself in as the argument, and so you are free to add any configuration that Wechaty supports.

import { WechatyPlugin } from 'wechaty'

export default const MyPlugin: WechatyPlugin = (wechaty: Wechaty) => {
  // ...
}

The config exist so the user can pass in customizations to your Plugin. In documenting your Wechaty Plugin, you would lay out your supported config for the user.

See:

📝 RELEASE NOTES

Latest Release(All releases here)
Changelog

Views Since Feb 15, 2019

POWERED BY WECHATY

✨ Wechaty Badge

[![Powered by Wechaty](https://img.shields.io/badge/Powered%20By-Wechaty-brightgreen.svg)](https://wechaty.js.org)

Get more embed html/markdown code from Wiki:Badge

Projects Using Wechaty

Pull Request is welcome to add yours!

Learn more about Projects Using Wechaty at Wiki:Projects Using Wechaty

Find a Good Server

The best practice for running Wechaty Docker/NPM is using a VPS(Virtual Private Server) outside of China, which can save you hours of time because npm install and docker pull will run smoothly without any problem.

The following VPS providers are used by the Wechaty team, and they worked perfectly in production. You can use the following link to get one in minutes. Also, doing this can support Wechaty because you are referred by us.

Location	Price	Ram	Payment	Provider
Singapore	$5	512MB	Paypal	DigitalOcean
Japan	$5	1GB	Paypal	Linode
Korea	$10	1GB	Alipay, Paypal	Netdedi
Singapore	$3.5	512MB	Alipay, Wechat	Vultr

💩 The Story

In 2017 …

Huan’s daily life/work depends on too much chat on wechat.

Almost 14,000 wechat friends in May 2014, before wechat restricts a total number of friends to 5,000.
Almost 400 wechat rooms, and most of them have more than 400 members.

Can you imagine that? He was dying…

So a tireless bot working for me 24x7 on wechat, monitoring/filtering the most important message is badly needed. For example, it highlights discussion which contains the KEYWORDS which he want to follow up(especially in a noisy room). ;-)

At last, It’s built for huan’s personal study purpose of Automatically Testing.

Stargazers over time

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. [Contribute].

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! 🙏 [Become a backer]

Multi-language Wechaty

Wechaty - RPA SDK for Chatot Makers (TypeScript)
Python Wechaty - RPA SDK for Chatbot Makers written in Python
Go Wechaty - RPA SDK for Chatbot Makers written in Go
Java Wechaty - RPA SDK for Chatbot Makers written in Java(Kotlin)
Scala Wechaty - RPA SDK for Chatbot Makers written in Scala
PHP Wechaty - RPA SDK for Chatbot Makers written in PHP
.Net(C#) Wechaty - RPA SDK for Chatbot Makers written in .NET(C#)

History

main v1.11 (Nov 22, 2021)

Working on reduxify the Wechaty ecosystem for applying the CQRS pattern.

v1.10 (Nov 21, 2021)

Second beta release of Wechaty, with all ecosystem npm modules with version v1.10 (wechaty-puppet, wechaty-puppet-service, etc)

v1.0 (Sep 2021)

Release v1.0 of Wechaty is the first beta release of Wechaty.

v0.69

v0.69: Supports ES Modules (with CJS dual support) (#2232)

v0.68 (Aug 27, 2021)

TLS support (#2231)
The latest CommonJS version

Creators

Huan (LinkedIn), 🐧 Tencent TVP of Chatbot・🤖 Chatie Architect・⭐️ GitHub Star・🚀 YC W19・🌐 Microsoft RD & AI MVP・🦾 Google ML GDE ・🤠 Serial Entrepreneur・🔥 Burner
Rui (李佳芮), Microsoft AI MVP & RD, Co-founder & CEO of Juzi.BOT (YC W19 Alumni)

Cite Wechaty

To cite this project in publications:

@misc{Wechaty,
  author = {Huan Li, Rui Li},
  title = {Wechaty: Conversational SDK for Chatbot Makers},
  year = {2016},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  journal = {GitHub Repository},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/wechaty/wechaty}},
}

Copyright & License

Code released under the Apache-2.0 License
Docs released under Creative Commons