Troubleshooting & FAQ

It re-pairs (shows a QR) on every restart

You’re almost certainly running on the in-memory store, which loses credentials when the process exits. Use a durable backend (SQLite, Postgres, …) for the auth domain, and keep a stable sessionId across runs — changing it orphans the previous credentials. See Stores.

The client doesn't reconnect after a drop

By design — zapo does not auto-reconnect. Listen for the connection event with status: 'close' and call connect() again (skip it when isLogout is true). See the reconnection pattern.

My media sends but has no preview / dimensions / waveform

Media still uploads without @zapo-js/media-utils — but without it there’s no processor to generate thumbnails/previews, image-video dimensions, or voice-note waveforms, so it can render as a plain attachment or with no preview. For proper media, install it (npm i @zapo-js/media-utils, plus ffmpeg/ffprobe) and wire a processor through the media option. See Media.

Prefer a stream over a Buffer for media

Pass a file path (string) or a Readable stream to media, not a Buffer — zapo streams the bytes through the pipeline so memory stays flat for large files. On download, prefer downloadToFile/download over downloadBytes.

Proxy isn't being used

The proxy.ws leg needs the ws package (the runtime’s native WebSocket can’t take an HTTP Agent). Media/link-preview legs use an undici dispatcher. See the proxy examples for SOCKS/HTTP/HTTPS and IPv4/IPv6.

Which JID do I reply to in a group?

Always reply to event.chatJid (the group JID), never a participant’s JID. When you have a peer’s LID, prefer the LID — it’s the privacy-preserving, forward-compatible identity. See Identities (PN vs LID).

I receive my own outgoing messages

That’s multi-device sync — your own sends come back on the message event flagged isSender: true. Filter them out if you only want inbound traffic. See Receiving messages.

How do I type the message handler in TypeScript?

Import the event type from the package root — all coordinator and event types are exported:

import type { WaIncomingMessageEvent, WaGroupCoordinator } from 'zapo-js'

client.on('message', (event: WaIncomingMessageEvent) => { /* ... */ })
const groups: WaGroupCoordinator = client.group

Can I register a brand-new number (mobile)?

No. Mobile connections are stable, but zapo intentionally does not provide a registration API — registering a number is complex and requires a physical phone. You connect with already-registered credentials. See Mobile connections.

QR or 8-digit code — which should I use?

Both work. QR is the default (auth_qr event). For an 8-digit code, call client.auth.requestPairingCode(phone) after the auth_pairing_required event. See Authentication.

logout() vs disconnect()

disconnect() closes the socket but keeps credentials so you can resume later. logout() unlinks the device server-side and clears stored state (per logoutStoreClear). See Authentication.

A business/newsletter operation throws

Architecture in depth

Understand the layers to debug at the protocol level.

Low-level API

Inspect raw stanzas with the debug events and lowlevel.

Documentation Index

​Still stuck?

Architecture in depth

Low-level API

Still stuck?