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Custom code + WhatsApp

Connect your Custom code agent to WhatsApp

No framework required. Connect the agent loop you already wrote to every channel your users are on. 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.

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Connect your Custom code agent to WhatsApp with Novu Connect

What is Custom code

Custom code means the agent is fully yours: your own loop, your own model calls, your own tools, no framework in between. Novu does not care how your agent thinks. The bridge hands your handler each incoming message with its conversation context, and whatever your handler returns goes back to the user. That last mile, reaching a person in Slack and routing their reply back to your agent, is what Novu Connect adds.

  • Any model provider and any agent loop you already run
  • A plain handler: message in, reply out
  • Conversation context and user identity handled for you
  • No framework dependency to adopt

Custom code in WhatsApp

Novu Connect is the communication layer, the ACI, Agent Communication Infrastructure, bridge between your custom 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 Custom code to WhatsApp

  1. Keep your agent

    Your loop, model calls, and tools stay in your codebase exactly as they are. Novu Connect wraps the input and output, so your agent code does not change when you add WhatsApp.

  2. Connect the channel

    Run npx novu connect --channel whatsapp --runtime custom-code. 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.

  3. Wire the bridge handler

    The CLI prints a requirements file with the bridge route and handler. Point the handler at your agent: it receives each WhatsApp message with conversation context, and whatever it returns routes back to the same conversation.

  4. Go live

    Sign in to keep the agent live, then run your dev server. Your agent now holds a two-way conversation in WhatsApp, and the same agent can reach every other channel from one thread.

Every Custom code connect command

$npx novu connect --channel whatsapp --runtime custom-code

Prompt for your coding agent

Connect this project's Custom code agent to WhatsApp with Novu using instructions from https://novu.co/agents.md

Full setup for Custom code lives in the Custom code connect guide.

Custom code and WhatsApp, common questions

Yes. That is what the custom-code runtime is for. The bridge is a plain handler: Novu passes in each WhatsApp message with its conversation context, and whatever you return goes back to the user.

Connect your Custom code agent to another channel

Same agent, built once. Pick where it talks next, and it holds one conversation across every channel.

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