Wacrawl

Use this for WhatsApp Desktop archive questions. wacrawl is read-only against WhatsApp data and writes only its own archive.

Sources

• DB: ~/.wacrawl/wacrawl.db
• Source: ~/Library/Group Containers/group.net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.shared
• Repo: ~/Projects/wacrawl
• CLI: wacrawl

Refresh

Check source/archive health:

wacrawl doctor

Import a fresh local snapshot:

wacrawl import

Inspect counts:

wacrawl status

Encrypted Git backup:

wacrawl backup status
wacrawl backup push

Query Workflow

1. Refresh/import if the question depends on recent WhatsApp state.
2. Resolve chat, sender, date range, media needs, and keyword.
3. Use CLI for chats/messages/search; use JSON for scripts.
4. Report exact date spans, counts, chat names/JIDs, and import freshness.

Common commands:

wacrawl chats --limit 20
wacrawl messages --after 2026-01-01 --limit 50
wacrawl --json search "query" --from-them

Safety

Do not write into the WhatsApp app container. Do not send messages; this tool is archive/read-only.

Verification

For repo edits:

go test ./...
make test

Then smoke:

wacrawl doctor
wacrawl status