Build A Chat Bot

This guide walks you through setting up a basic WhatsApp chatbot using Lipachat APIs. It assumes you’ve already joined the sandbox or connected your own WhatsApp Business number.

🪝 Step 1: Set Up Your Webhook

Navigate to the Lipachat Dashboard → Settings → Webhook

Set the Webhook URL to point to your server endpoint that will handle incoming messages.

Example:

https://yourdomain.com/webhook

When a customer sends a message on WhatsApp, Lipachat will send a POST request to your webhook with the message payload.

📩 Step 2: Handle Incoming Message

Example payload:

{
     "messageId": "c94ced08-5f40-46b7-a88d-7d4fbe113fe9",
     "from": "CUSTOMER_PHONE_NUMBER",
     "to": "WHATSAPP_NUMBER",
     "profileName": "CUSTOMER_NAME",
     "type": "TEXT",
     "text": "Text Content"
}

Your backend logic should parse this payload and determine the appropriate response (e.g., predefined replies or bot logic).

📤 Step 3: Respond with a Message

Once your bot determines a reply, call the Free-Form Message API to respond.

Text reply example:

curl --location 'https://gateway.lipachat.com/api/v1/whatsapp/message/text' \
--header 'apiKey: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "message": "Hello world",
    "messageId": "e66fc7b8-680f-4887-8dc8-ee062d65b54f",
    "to": "254XXXXXXX",
    "from": "254110090747"
}'

🖼 Optional: Respond with Media

Use the Send Media API to reply with images, PDFs, audio, or video.

Media reply example:

curl --location 'https://gateway.lipachat.com/api/v1/whatsapp/media' \
--header 'apiKey: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "messageId": "5d3f62c3-eb8f-4150-8941-bdceb0f429bb",
    "to": "254XXXXX",
    "from": "254110090747",
    "mediaType": "IMAGE",
    "mediaUrl": "https://picsum.photos/id/237/200/300",
    "caption": ""
}'

Other supported message types are: Buttons, Interactive Lists, Contacts, Location, and Flows.

Summary: End-to-End Flow

1. The customer sends a message via WhatsApp

2. Lipachat delivers the message to your Webhook

3. Your chatbot processes the message

4. Your system calls Send Message or Send Media API

5. The customer receives the bot reply on WhatsApp