wacrawl

Use wacrawl to snapshot local WhatsApp Desktop data into a separate SQLite archive and search it offline.

When to Use

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• inspect local WhatsApp Desktop history without opening the app
• archive chats into a local SQLite database for repeat queries
• search WhatsApp messages locally with filters
• list chats, recent messages, or archive status from a read-only import

Requirements

• local WhatsApp Desktop data on the same machine
• enough local disk for ~/.wacrawl/wacrawl.db
• understand that this is read-only inspection, not message sending

Setup

• Default source: ~/Library/Group Containers/group.net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.shared
• Default archive DB: ~/.wacrawl/wacrawl.db
• First sanity check:
  • wacrawl doctor
• First import:
  • wacrawl import

Common Commands

• Doctor: wacrawl doctor
• Import fresh snapshot: wacrawl import
• Archive status: wacrawl status
• List chats: wacrawl chats --limit 20
• Recent messages: wacrawl messages --limit 20
• One chat: wacrawl messages --chat [email protected] --limit 50
• Search: wacrawl search "release notes"
• Filtered search: wacrawl --json search "invoice" --from-them --after 2026-01-01

Notes

• wacrawl is read-only and does not send messages.
• It copies WhatsApp SQLite files into a temp snapshot before import.
• Use --source to override the WhatsApp Desktop container path.
• Use --db to archive somewhere other than ~/.wacrawl/wacrawl.db.