whatsapp-chatgpt-bot-csharp

WhatsApp ChatGPT AI Chatbot in C# 🤖

A general-purpose, customizable WhatsApp AI Chatbot in C# 🔷 that can understand text 📝, audio 🎵 and images 🖼️, and reply your clients 💬 about anything related to your business 🏢 directly on WhatsApp ✅. Powered by OpenAI GPT4o 🚀 (other models can be used too) and Wassenger WhatsApp API 🔗.

Now supports GPT-4o with text + audio + image input 📝🎵🖼️, audio responses 🔊, and improved RAG with function calling 🛠️ and external API calls support 🌐

Find other AI Chatbot implementations in Python, Node.js and PHP

🚀 Get started for free with Wassenger WhatsApp API in minutes by connecting your existing WhatsApp number and obtain your API key ✨

Features

• 🤖 Fully featured chatbot for your WhatsApp number connected to Wassenger
• 💬 Automatic replies to incoming messages from users
• 🌍 Multi-language support - understands and replies in 90+ different languages
• 🎤 Audio input/output - transcription and text-to-speech capabilities
• 🖼️ Image processing - can analyze and understand images
• 👥 Human handoff - allows users to request human assistance
• ⚙️ Customizable AI behavior and instructions
• 🔧 Function calling capabilities for external data integration
• 📊 Memory management with conversation history and rate limiting
• 🚦 Smart routing with webhook handling and error management
• 🔒 Secure with proper error handling and logging
• 🔄 Modern C# with .NET 9, dependency injection, and async/await patterns

Contents

• Features
• Quick Start
• Requirements
• Configuration
  • API Keys Setup
  • Bot Customization
• Usage
  • Local Development
  • Production Deployment
• Deployment
  • Docker
  • Render
  • Heroku
  • Railway
  • Fly.io
  • Azure App Service
• Architecture
• Testing
• Development
• Customization
• API Endpoints
• Troubleshooting
• Resources
• Contributing
• License

Quick Start

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/wassengerhq/whatsapp-chatgpt-bot-csharp.git
   cd whatsapp-chatgpt-bot-csharp
   

2. Install .NET 8 SDK:

   • Download from: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8.0
   • Verify installation: dotnet --version

3. Configure environment:

   cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env file with your API keys (see Configuration section)
   

4. Run the bot (development mode):

   cd src/WhatsAppChatBot
   dotnet run
   

Requirements

• .NET 9.0 SDK or later
• WhatsApp Personal or Business number
• Wassenger API key - Sign up for free
• OpenAI API key - Sign up for free
• Ngrok account (for local development) - Sign up for free

Configuration

Edit the .env file with your API credentials:

# Required: Wassenger API key
API_KEY=your_wassenger_api_key_here

# Required: OpenAI API key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

# OpenAI model to use (gpt-4o, gpt-4, gpt-3.5-turbo)
OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-4o

# Required for local development: Ngrok auth token
NGROK_TOKEN=your_ngrok_token_here

# Optional: Specific WhatsApp device ID
DEVICE=

# Optional: Webhook URL for production deployment
WEBHOOK_URL=https://yourdomain.com/webhook

# Server configuration
PORT=8080
LOG_LEVEL=Information

# Development mode (auto-initializes services)
DEV=true

API Keys Setup

1. Wassenger API Key:

   • Sign up at Wassenger
   • Go to API Keys
   • Create a new API key and copy it to API_KEY in .env

2. OpenAI API Key:

   • Sign up at OpenAI
   • Go to API Keys
   • Create a new API key and copy it to OPENAI_API_KEY in .env

3. Ngrok Token (for local development):

   • Sign up at Ngrok
   • Get your auth token from the dashboard
   • Copy it to NGROK_TOKEN in .env

Bot Customization

Edit src/WhatsAppChatBot/Config/BotConfig.cs to customize:

• Bot instructions and personality
• Welcome and help messages
• Supported features (audio, images, etc.)
• Rate limits and quotas
• Whitelisted/blacklisted numbers
• Labels and metadata settings

Usage

Local Development

1. Start the development server:

   cd src/WhatsAppChatBot
   dotnet run
   

2. The bot will:

   • Start a local HTTP server on port 8080
   • Optionally create an Ngrok tunnel automatically
   • Register the webhook with Wassenger
   • Begin processing WhatsApp messages

3. Send a message to your WhatsApp number connected to Wassenger to test the bot.

Production Deployment

1. Set environment variables on your server:

   export WEBHOOK_URL=https://yourdomain.com/webhook
   export API_KEY=your_wassenger_api_key
   export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key
   export PRODUCTION=true
   

2. Build and run:

   dotnet build -c Release
   dotnet run --configuration Release
   

3. Make sure your server can receive POST requests at /webhook

Deployment

You can deploy this bot to any cloud platform that supports .NET 8.

Docker Deployment

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t whatsapp-chatbot .

# Run the container
docker run -d \
  --name whatsapp-chatbot \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e API_KEY=your_wassenger_api_key \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key \
  -e WEBHOOK_URL=https://yourdomain.com/webhook \
  -e PRODUCTION=true \
  whatsapp-chatbot

Render

# Create render.yaml for automated deployment
cat > render.yaml << EOF
services:
  - type: web
    name: whatsapp-chatbot
    env: docker
    dockerfilePath: ./Dockerfile
    envVars:
      - key: API_KEY
        value: your_wassenger_api_key
      - key: OPENAI_API_KEY
        value: your_openai_api_key
      - key: PRODUCTION
        value: true
      - key: PORT
        value: 8080
EOF

# Connect your GitHub repo to Render and deploy automatically
# Or deploy manually:
# 1. Push to GitHub
# 2. Connect repo in Render dashboard
# 3. Set environment variables in Render UI

Heroku

# Login and create app
heroku login
heroku create your-whatsapp-bot

# Set environment variables
heroku config:set API_KEY=your_wassenger_api_key
heroku config:set OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key
heroku config:set PRODUCTION=true

# Create heroku.yml for container deployment
cat > heroku.yml << EOF
build:
  docker:
    web: Dockerfile
run:
  web: dotnet run --configuration Release
EOF

# Set stack to container
heroku stack:set container

# Deploy
git add .
git commit -m "Deploy to Heroku"
git push heroku main

Railway

# Install Railway CLI
npm install -g @railway/cli

# Login and deploy
railway login
railway new

# Deploy with environment variables
railway add --name API_KEY --value your_wassenger_api_key
railway add --name OPENAI_API_KEY --value your_openai_api_key
railway add --name PRODUCTION --value true

# Deploy from current directory
railway up

Fly.io

# Install flyctl
curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

# Initialize and configure
flyctl auth login
flyctl launch --name whatsapp-chatbot

# Create fly.toml configuration
cat > fly.toml << EOF
app = "whatsapp-chatbot"
primary_region = "iad"

[build]
  dockerfile = "Dockerfile"

[env]
  PRODUCTION = "true"
  PORT = "8080"

[[services]]
  http_checks = []
  internal_port = 8080
  processes = ["app"]
  protocol = "tcp"
  script_checks = []

  [[services.ports]]
    force_https = true
    handlers = ["http"]
    port = 80

  [[services.ports]]
    handlers = ["tls", "http"]
    port = 443
EOF

# Set secrets
flyctl secrets set API_KEY=your_wassenger_api_key
flyctl secrets set OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key

# Deploy
flyctl deploy

Azure App Service

# Create resource group
az group create --name rg-whatsapp-bot --location "East US"

# Create App Service plan
az appservice plan create --name asp-whatsapp-bot --resource-group rg-whatsapp-bot --sku B1 --is-linux

# Create web app
az webapp create --resource-group rg-whatsapp-bot --plan asp-whatsapp-bot --name your-app-name --runtime "DOTNETCORE:8.0"

# Configure app settings
az webapp config appsettings set --resource-group rg-whatsapp-bot --name your-app-name --settings \
  API_KEY=your_wassenger_api_key \
  OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key \
  PRODUCTION=true

# Deploy
dotnet publish -c Release
cd src/WhatsAppChatBot/bin/Release/net9.0/publish
zip -r ../../../../../deploy.zip .
az webapp deployment source config-zip --resource-group rg-whatsapp-bot --name your-app-name --src deploy.zip

Architecture

The C# implementation follows modern .NET patterns and clean architecture:

src/
├── WhatsAppChatBot/
│   ├── Api/                    # API clients
│   │   ├── OpenAIClient.cs        # OpenAI API integration
│   │   └── WassengerClient.cs     # Wassenger API integration
│   ├── Bot/                    # Core bot logic
│   │   ├── ChatBot.cs             # Main bot processing
│   │   └── FunctionHandler.cs     # Function calling system
│   ├── Config/                 # Configuration management
│   │   └── BotConfig.cs           # Centralized configuration
│   ├── Controllers/            # HTTP layer
│   │   └── WebhookController.cs   # API endpoints and webhook handling
│   ├── Models/                 # Data models
│   │   ├── OpenAIModels.cs        # OpenAI API models
│   │   ├── WassengerModels.cs     # Wassenger API models
│   │   └── WebhookModels.cs       # Webhook and general models
│   ├── Services/               # Business services
│   │   ├── MemoryStore.cs         # In-memory caching and state
│   │   └── NgrokTunnel.cs         # Development tunnel management
│   ├── Program.cs              # Application entry point
│   ├── appsettings.json        # Application configuration
│   └── WhatsAppChatBot.csproj  # Project file
├── .env.example                # Environment template
├── Dockerfile                  # Docker configuration
└── README.md

Testing

The project includes built-in health checks and validation:

API Connection Test

# Test the API endpoints
curl http://localhost:8080/

Webhook Test

# Simulate a webhook request
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/webhook \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "event": "message:in:new",
    "data": {
      "chat": {"id": "test", "fromNumber": "123", "type": "chat"},
      "fromNumber": "123",
      "body": "Hello"
    }
  }'

Send Message Test

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/message \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "phone": "1234567890",
    "message": "Test message",
    "device": "your-device-id"
  }'

Development

Project Structure

The solution follows clean architecture principles:

• Controllers: Handle HTTP requests and responses
• Services: Business logic and external service integration
• Models: Data transfer objects and domain models
• Configuration: Centralized configuration management
• Dependency Injection: Built-in .NET DI container

Key Classes

• ChatBot - Main bot processing logic with message filtering and routing
• OpenAIClient - OpenAI API integration with chat, audio, and image support
• WassengerClient - Wassenger API integration for WhatsApp messaging
• FunctionHandler - AI function calling system for external integrations
• WebhookController - HTTP request routing and webhook handling
• BotConfig - Centralized configuration management with environment variables
• MemoryStore - In-memory caching and conversation state management
• NgrokTunnel - Development tunneling for local testing

Running in Development

# Run with hot reload
dotnet watch run

# Run with specific environment
dotnet run --environment Development

# Run tests (if you add them)
dotnet test

Adding NuGet Packages

dotnet add package PackageName

Customization

Bot Instructions

Edit the AI behavior in Config/BotConfig.cs:

private const string DefaultBotInstructions =
    "You are a helpful assistant...";

Function Calling

Add custom functions in Bot/FunctionHandler.cs:

["getBusinessHours"] = new()
{
    Name = "getBusinessHours",
    Description = "Get business operating hours",
    Parameters = new { type = "object", properties = new { } },
    Handler = GetBusinessHours
}

Rate Limits

Adjust limits in Config/BotConfig.cs:

public class LimitsConfig
{
    public int MaxInputCharacters { get; set; } = 1000;
    public int MaxOutputTokens { get; set; } = 1000;
    public int ChatHistoryLimit { get; set; } = 20;
    // ... more limits
}

Adding New API Integrations

1. Create a new client in the Api/ folder
2. Define models in Models/
3. Register in Program.cs dependency injection
4. Use in ChatBot or create new services

API Endpoints

• GET / - Bot information and status
• POST /webhook - Webhook for incoming WhatsApp messages
• POST /message - Send message endpoint
• GET /sample - Send sample message
• GET /files/{id} - Temporary file downloads

Swagger Documentation

When running in development mode, visit:

• http://localhost:8080/swagger

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "No active WhatsApp numbers"

   • Verify your Wassenger API key
   • Check that you have a connected WhatsApp device in Wassenger

2. "WhatsApp number is not online"

   • Ensure your WhatsApp device is connected and online in Wassenger dashboard

3. Webhook not receiving messages

   • Check that your webhook URL is accessible from the internet
   • Verify firewall settings
   • Check logs for webhook registration errors

4. OpenAI API errors

   • Verify your OpenAI API key is valid
   • Ensure the model name is correct
   • Check your OpenAI account usage and billing

Debug Mode

Enable detailed logging by setting in .env:

LOG_LEVEL=Debug

Or in appsettings.Development.json:

{
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Debug"
    }
  }
}

Common Environment Issues

• Port already in use: Change PORT in .env
• Ngrok not found: Install ngrok or set NGROK_PATH
• .NET version: Ensure .NET 8.0 SDK is installed

Resources

• .NET Documentation
• ASP.NET Core Documentation
• Wassenger Documentation
• OpenAI API Documentation
• C# Language Reference
• GitHub Issues

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
6. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
7. Open a Pull Request

Development Guidelines

• Follow C# coding conventions
• Use async/await for all I/O operations
• Add XML documentation for public APIs
• Include unit tests for new functionality
• Update README for new features

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

---

Built with ❤️ using C# and .NET 8, powered by the Wassenger API.

Performance & Scalability

This C# implementation offers several advantages:

• High Performance: .NET 8 runtime optimizations and compiled code
• Memory Efficient: Proper disposal patterns and memory management
• Concurrent Processing: Async/await and Task-based processing
• Scalable: Built-in dependency injection and service lifetime management
• Production Ready: Comprehensive logging, error handling, and health checks

Security Features

• Input Validation: All webhook inputs are validated
• Rate Limiting: Built-in message quotas and conversation limits
• Secure Configuration: Environment-based secrets management
• Error Handling: Comprehensive exception handling without information leakage
• HTTP Security: Modern ASP.NET Core security defaults