How do I install Hellohop?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Hellohop need an API key?

The publisher lists these environment variables: GATEWAY_API_TOKEN, GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID, GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND, GATEWAY_API_URL.

What transport does Hellohop use?

Hellohop runs locally over stdio.

When was Hellohop last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-07. Read WhatsApp chats and groups, and send messages when allowed, through the HelloHop API.

Hellohop MCP server

Power your agent

Add this server

The publisher's own command. Not a PlugMCP endpoint.

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Local command

npx -y [email protected]

Credentials from the publisher

GATEWAY_API_TOKEN — The channel's API token.
GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID — The channel ID the token belongs to.
GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND — Set to 1 or true to enable the send tools. Off by default.
GATEWAY_API_URL — API base URL. Defaults to https://api.hellohop.app/v1.

Claude Code has no install link for a local command. Copy the command below and run it in a terminal.

shClaude Code

1GATEWAY_API_TOKEN=<secret> GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID=<value> GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND=<value> GATEWAY_API_URL=<value> claude mcp add app.hellohop-hellohop -- npx -y hellohop-mcp@0.3.2

Run in a terminal.

jsonClaude Desktop

1{2  "mcpServers": {3    "app.hellohop-hellohop": {4      "command": "npx",5      "args": [6        "-y",7        "[email protected]"8      ],9      "env": {10        "GATEWAY_API_TOKEN": "<secret>",11        "GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID": "<value>",12        "GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND": "<value>",13        "GATEWAY_API_URL": "<value>"14      }15    }16  }17}

claude_desktop_config.json

Local · npmPublisher installStep-by-step: add this in Claude

Remote URL or a command on your machine? How the two installs differ

Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

A new server you create. It is not this listing's official endpoint. Use the publisher install when you want their URL and their credentials.

Launch

Server facts

Local

Transport: stdio
Version: 0.3.2

Tools

No tool list yet. Remote servers get one after the first health check.

FAQ

Questions

hellohop-mcp

HelloHop is an independent WhatsApp API for developers: send and receive messages, automate groups and communities, and get signed webhooks, from $25 per number per month with a free sandbox.

This is the HelloHop MCP server. It lets an MCP client (for example Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Cursor) work with one channel of the public API: read the channel's status, the chats it has observed, recent messages, its groups and communities, and a contact. Sending (a text, media by URL, a poll, a reaction) is off by default and available only when you turn it on. Docs: https://hellohop.app/docs/mcp. HelloHop is not affiliated with or endorsed by WhatsApp or Meta.

Install

Requires Node.js 22 or later. Run it with npx, no separate install step:

npx -y hellohop-mcp

Your MCP client starts the server for you once it is configured (see Claude Desktop and Claude Code below). The server reads its settings from the environment variables listed under Environment.

Tools

Tool	Request	Notes
`channel_status`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}`	`include_safety: true` also reads `GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/safety`.
`list_chats`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/chats`	Up to 100 chats from the channel's own log.
`read_messages`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/chats/{chat}/messages`	Up to `limit` messages (default 50, at most 500); `next_before` goes back as `before`. `chat` is sent as written, for example `[email protected]`.
`list_groups`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/groups`	Asks WhatsApp; do not poll (a throttled number answers 429 `whatsapp_rate_limited`).
`get_group`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/groups/{group}`	Asks WhatsApp.
`get_community`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/communities/{community}`	Asks WhatsApp.
`list_community_subgroups`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/communities/{community}/subgroups`	Asks WhatsApp.
`get_contact`	`GET {base}/sessions/{channel}/contacts/{who}`	The channel's stored contact entry; does not ask WhatsApp.
`send_text`	`POST {base}/sessions/{channel}/messages/text`	Only when `GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND=1`. Body `{to, text}`, plus `quoted` if given.
`send_media`	`POST {base}/sessions/{channel}/messages/{kind}`	Only when `GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND=1`. `kind` is `image`, `video`, `audio`, `voice` or `document`; body `{to, url}` plus `caption`, `filename`, if given. The gateway fetches the URL.

Not exposed, on purpose: group and community invite links (an agent could paste an open invite into a chat), media download (bytes, not JSON) and webhook configuration.

get_group returns the group's participant list, which is your own group data, so it enters the MCP client's context like any other tool result. Use it only with a client you trust with those member identities.

The public API forwards only limit (1 to 500) and before on the conversation read, so read_messages pages with those two and no other query string reaches the API. The other list tools take no paging parameters.

A chat is sent in the URL path without percent-encoding, because the API refuses any path containing %. A chat containing anything other than letters, digits and @ . : _ + - is refused before a request is made.

Every request sends Authorization: Bearer <token>. A successful response is returned as JSON text. An HTTP error is returned as a tool error with status, code and error, plus retry_after (and window, resets_at, ambiguous, id) when the API sends them. The token is redacted from every string returned, success bodies included. Nothing is retried automatically, and a redirect is refused rather than followed.

Environment

Variable	Required	Meaning
`GATEWAY_API_URL`	no	Your API base. Defaults to `https://api.hellohop.app/v1`, the public API. Must be https (http is accepted only for localhost).
`GATEWAY_API_TOKEN`	yes	The channel's API token. It is never logged.
`GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID`	yes	The channel ID the token belongs to.
`GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND`	no	Set to exactly `1` or `true` to enable the send tools (`send_text`, `send_media`, `send_poll`, `react`, `unreact`, `delete_message`). Any other value, or unset, leaves them off.

If a required variable is missing the server writes the reason to stderr and exits with status 1.

Sending is off by default

Without GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND=1 no send tool is registered: a client cannot see or call them, and the server never contacts a send endpoint. With it on, every call sends a real WhatsApp message from the linked number (a reaction, its removal and a delete included) and counts as one against the channel's daily send cap if it has one (an operator can exempt a channel from the cap).

A send can succeed without saying so

A failed send_text carries delivery: "unknown" when the message may have been sent anyway: no response arrived, the API answered ambiguous: true (a 504 send_unconfirmed, with the id of the row it logged), or the answer was any other 502 or 504. Do not send it again. Check read_messages for that chat first. Sending it again is how the same message reaches a real person twice.

Prompt injection: read and send together let strangers steer sends

read_messages puts text written by third parties, anyone who can message the number, into the model's context. With GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND=1 in the same server, that text can instruct the model to send messages, to anyone, with any content. This is not solved by trusting the client or the person using it: the instructions come from the messages being read.

Run reading and sending as two separate client configurations:

a read-only entry, without GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND, for anything that reads messages;
a send entry, with GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND=1, enabled only in a session that needs to send, with every send_text call approved by a person who reads its to and text.

The send entry still registers the read tools, so a session using it is exposed the moment it reads messages. Keep that session away from read_messages unless you trust everyone who can message the number.

Claude Desktop

Add an entry to mcpServers in claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hellohop-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "hellohop-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GATEWAY_API_TOKEN": "<CHANNEL_TOKEN>",
        "GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID": "<CHANNEL_ID>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add "GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND": "1" to env to enable sending. Restart Claude Desktop after editing the file.

Claude Code

claude mcp add hellohop-mcp \
  -e GATEWAY_API_TOKEN=<CHANNEL_TOKEN> \
  -e GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID=<CHANNEL_ID> \
  -- npx -y hellohop-mcp

Add -e GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND=1 before -- to enable sending.

Both clients store the token in their configuration file in plain text. Use the channel's own token, never an operator credential.

Cursor

Add the same entry to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in a project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hellohop-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "hellohop-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GATEWAY_API_TOKEN": "<CHANNEL_TOKEN>",
        "GATEWAY_CHANNEL_ID": "<CHANNEL_ID>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Sending stays off unless you add "GATEWAY_ALLOW_SEND": "1" to env.

Example requests

Once connected, ask your assistant in plain language. For example:

"What is the status of my channel?" (calls channel_status)
"Show the last 20 messages in my chat with [email protected]." (calls read_messages)
"List the groups this number is in." (calls list_groups)

License

MIT. Full documentation: https://hellohop.app/docs/mcp

Add this server

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install Hellohop?

Does Hellohop need an API key?

What transport does Hellohop use?

When was Hellohop last checked?

Documentation

hellohop-mcp

Install

Tools

Environment

Sending is off by default

A send can succeed without saying so

Prompt injection: read and send together let strangers steer sends

Claude Desktop

Claude Code

Cursor

Example requests

License