wacli

Use wacli send text with the recipient's phone number and message, for example wacli send text --to "+14155551212" --message "Hello". For groups, use the group JID ending in @g.us, and for attachments use wacli send file with a file path and optional caption.

Run wacli messages search with your query, optionally filtering by chat JID or date range with --after and --before. Use wacli chats list first to find the correct chat JID, and add --json for machine-readable output.

Use wacli only when explicitly asked to message a third party or to search and sync WhatsApp history. Routine conversations with the user on WhatsApp are routed automatically and should not go through this tool.

No, history backfill requires your phone to be online because it requests older messages through the linked device. Results are best-effort, so some older messages may not be retrieved.

Run wacli auth to complete QR-code login and initial sync, then use wacli sync --follow for continuous syncing. The wacli doctor command checks the setup, and data is stored in ~/.wacli unless overridden with --store.