WhatsApp Chatbot using OpenAI API

A simple tutorial on building a WhatsApp chatbot that integrates with the OpenAI API.

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository.
2. Run npm install.
3. Add your OpenAI API key to the .env file.
4. Run node index.js.

Building a Whatsapp Chatbot using OpenAI API

In this tutorial, you will learn how to build a WhatsApp chatbot that replies to messages using the OpenAI API. This tutorial is beginner-friendly and we will go through each step in detail.

Prerequisites

Before we start, ensure you have Node.js v12 or higher installed on your machine. You can download it from here.

Step 1 - Installation of whatsapp-web.js

The first step is to install whatsapp-web.js, which is a simple module that provides APIs for interacting with WhatsApp.

Run the following command:

$ npm i whatsapp-web.js

Step 2 - Installation on No-GUI systems

If you're using a system without a GUI, you need to install the necessary dependencies. Run the following command:

$ sudo apt install -y gconf-service libgbm-dev libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libc6 libcairo2 libcups2 libdbus-1-3 libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libgcc1 libgconf-2-4 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libglib2.0-0 libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libstdc++6 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxss1 libxtst6 ca-certificates fonts-liberation libappindicator1 libnss3 lsb-release xdg-utils wget

Then add the --no-sandbox flag to your puppeteer launch command

new Client({
  puppeteer: {
    args: ['--no-sandbox'],
  }
})

Step 3 - Initialize the Client

Before we can start receiving and sending messages, we need to initialize the client and handle the 'qr' and 'ready' events.

Here's how to do that:

const { Client } = require('whatsapp-web.js');
const client = new Client();

client.on('qr', (qr) => {
  console.log('QR RECEIVED', qr);
});

client.on('ready', () => {
  console.log('Client is ready!');
});

client.initialize();

Step 4 - QR Code Generation

Next, authorize the client to use your WhatsApp account by scanning a QR code with your phone.

Here's how you can generate a QR code:

$ npm i qrcode-terminal

Then, modify your code to use the qrcode-terminal module:

const qrcode = require('qrcode-terminal');

const client = new Client();

client.on('qr', qr => {
  qrcode.generate(qr, {small: true});
});

client.on('ready', () => {
  console.log('Client is ready!');
});

client.initialize();

By scanning the displayed QR code, you should be able to authorize the client.

Step 5 - Listening to Messages

You can listen for incoming messages by adding a 'message' event listener.

client.on('message', message => {
  console.log(message.body);
});

Step 6 - Replying to Messages

You can reply to an incoming message directly using the reply() method:

client.on('message', message => {
  if(message.body === '!ping') {
    message.reply('pong');
  }
});

You can also send a message without quoting the original one, using the sendMessage() function:

client.on('message', message => {
  if(message.body === '!ping') {
    client.sendMessage(message.from, 'pong');
  }
});

OpenAI API Integration

Next, we're going to integrate the OpenAI API to provide intelligent responses to received WhatsApp messages.

Installation

First, install the OpenAI Node API Library. To do this, run the following command:

npm install --save openai
# or
yarn add openai

Usage

To use the OpenAI API, you need to provide your OpenAI API key as follows:

import OpenAI from 'openai';

const openai = new OpenAI({
 apiKey: 'my api key',
});

Replace 'my api key' with your actual OpenAI API key.

To generate responses for WhatsApp messages, modify your 'message' event handler as follows:

client.on('message', async message => {
  const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: message.body }],
    model: 'gpt-3.5-turbo',
  });

  message.reply(response.choices[0]?.message?.content);
});

That's it! You now have a WhatsApp bot capable of giving intelligent responses using the OpenAI API!

For any additional help, please refer to the OpenAI API documentation and the whatsapp-web.js GitHub page.