Your agent already runs 24/7 on your server. This puts it in the app you use all day.
TWO WAYS IN, and the easy one is the default: link your OWN WhatsApp number. You scan a QR code — the kit relays it from your headless server into the setup page, so there is nothing to install and no terminal to look at — and from then on you talk to your agent in your own "Message yourself" chat. No Meta developer account, no business app, no webhook, no access token that expires after 24 hours. It is about a minute.
The other way is a separate business number over Meta's official Cloud API, for when other people should be able to message the agent. That path is still here, fully guided, with the connection test — it just is not the thing you have to do first.
Hermes has a built-in WhatsApp Business (Cloud API) channel — the official, Meta-supported one. What it normally needs is a public HTTPS webhook, four credentials in the right environment variables, and a lot of clicking around in Meta's console. This kit turns that into a page with four steps, and your PocketCorp already has the public HTTPS address Meta requires.
What you get
- A guided setup page linked from your dashboard: paste three values from your Meta app and they are checked against Meta's API before anything is saved
- The callback URL and verify token, ready to copy into Meta's webhook form — no tunnel, no port forwarding, no dynamic DNS
- A connection test that walks the whole path the way Meta does — the listener, the app secret it needs to trust Meta's signatures, the verify token, and the public HTTPS URL — and tells you exactly which hop is broken
- An allow-list: your agent answers your number and nobody else
- A real test message sent through Meta, so you know it works before you rely on it
- Your agent can message you first with a one-line command, within Meta's 24-hour window
- A skill installed for your agent, so it can diagnose the connection itself when you ask
Credentials are written into Hermes' own ~/.hermes/.env on your server and never leave it. The kit does not proxy, read or store your messages — Hermes handles those directly.
What you need: a free Meta developer account (developers.facebook.com). Meta gives you a test phone number that can message up to five numbers of your choosing, which is enough for personal use; a business number of your own follows Meta's normal pricing. Note that the access token on Meta's setup page expires after 24 hours — the setup page shows you how to swap in a permanent one, and it is worth doing straight away.
Requires the Hermes agent (choose Hermes when deploying a new PocketCorp). During installation, approve the sudo prompts from your dashboard when asked — or enable auto-approval in the top right of the dashboard first, then it's completely hands-free.