Chat SDK + WhatsAppConnect your Chat SDK agent to WhatsApp
Chat SDK is the open-source template for building complete chat apps on Next.js and the AI SDK. Novu Connect gives it a voice in WhatsApp, with a real two-way conversation and reliable delivery. Build the agent once, reach users where they already work.
What is Chat SDK
Chat SDK gives you a production chat app out of the box: streaming UI, message history, artifacts, and an agent loop built on the AI SDK. You customize the app, wire in your own tools, and keep the reasoning in your codebase. Chat SDK runs the agent inside your product. It does not carry the conversation to your users. That last mile, reaching a person in Slack and routing their reply back to your agent, is what Novu Connect adds.
- A complete chat UI with streaming, history, and artifacts
- Built on the AI SDK, with tool calling and structured output
- A Next.js app you own, customize, and deploy yourself
- Your agent loop stays in your codebase
Chat SDK in WhatsApp
Novu Connect is the communication layer, the ACI, Agent Communication Infrastructure, bridge between your Chat SDK agent and WhatsApp. Your agent keeps running in your app. Novu delivers its messages to WhatsApp, maps each user, and forwards their replies back to your handler. We never run your agent's reasoning. That is the whole point.
One agent, WhatsApp, resolved in the thread
Novu Connect puts an existing AI agent on WhatsApp with secure two-way conversations, approved message templates, and delivery receipts. Novu is an official Meta Business Partner, so WhatsApp is working in about 5 minutes. A shopper asks where their order is. The agent finds the delay, offers options with quick replies, reroutes to a pickup point, and confirms.
How to connect Chat SDK to WhatsApp
Keep your Chat SDK app
Your chat app, agent loop, and tools stay in your codebase exactly as they are. Novu Connect wraps the input and output, so your Chat SDK logic does not change when you add WhatsApp.
Connect the channel
Run npx novu connect --channel whatsapp --runtime chat-sdk. The CLI scaffolds a bridge route in your app and connects WhatsApp. You can also paste the prompt below into your coding agent and let it wire the bridge for you.
Wire the bridge handler
The CLI prints a requirements file with the bridge route and handler. Point it at your Chat SDK agent so messages from WhatsApp reach the same loop that powers your in-app chat, and replies route back to the same conversation.
Go live
Sign in to keep the agent live, then run your dev server. Your Chat SDK agent now holds a two-way conversation in WhatsApp, and the same agent can reach every other channel from one thread.
Every Chat SDK connect command
npx novu connect --channel whatsapp --runtime chat-sdkPrompt for your coding agent
Connect this project's Chat SDK agent to WhatsApp with Novu using instructions from https://novu.co/agents.md
Full setup for Chat SDK lives in the Chat SDK connect guide.
Chat SDK and WhatsApp, common questions
Connect your Chat SDK agent to another channel
Same agent, built once. Pick where it talks next, and it holds one conversation across every channel.