Weekend project: turning a free Claude.ai account into a WhatsApp receptionist with zero API
Additional-Ladder-24 · reddit · 2026-10-29
A self-taught dev's weekend experiment: no API, just browser scripts turning the free Claude.ai plan into a WhatsApp receptionist, built in 2 hours. A script in the WhatsApp Web console watches allowlisted chats, relays messages via WebSocket to a local Node server, which injects prompts into an open Claude.ai tab and captures the streamed reply before sending it back. Lessons: a rate limiter (5 cmds/min) prevented reply loops; emoji-tagging bot replies avoided self-reply loops; checking delivery-tick icons fixed misclassified messages. Limits: free-tier caps, HTML brittleness, text-only, generic prompt. Not a product, shared for the architecture.
Related event: Dev Builds WhatsApp Receptionist with Free Claude Web, Zero API(2 posts)→
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