Circles - personal WhatsApp for AI agents

Hosted remote MCP for your personal WhatsApp number. Ask Claude, ChatGPT or Instinct what you missed in your groups, read voice notes as text, find files and reply, only in the chats you choose (OAuth 2.1).

View on usecircles.app

Hosted MCP Server

npx add-mcp 'https://app.usecircles.app/api/mcp'

Installs into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and more

Documentation

The WhatsApp MCP for your personal number, hosted and ready

Give Claude, ChatGPT, Instinct or any MCP client the WhatsApp chats you choose. There is nothing to install, no bridge on your laptop and no WhatsApp Business account. Connect with a tap, an address or a token, and your agent gets messages it can use right away: voice notes as text, files ready to open, senders by name.

Circles is a remote WhatsApp MCP server. It links your existing WhatsApp number as a linked device, keeps the chats you open in sync, and serves them to your agent at https://app.usecircles.app/api/mcp with OAuth. Per-chat permissions, voice notes transcribed in Hebrew and English, files on request, reading and writing by default. Free for 2 chats for up to 3 months, Plus $14.90 and Pro $29.90 a month, with 14 days of Pro free, as of November 2026.

Updated 2026-11-01

Circles at a glance

Everything an agent, or the person choosing one, needs to know in one table.

	Circles
What it is	A hosted service that links your WhatsApp and serves the chats you choose to AI agents. Your agent does the thinking.
Your number	Your personal WhatsApp, as a linked device. Same number, same app on your phone. No WhatsApp Business.
MCP endpoint	`https://app.usecircles.app/api/mcp` (remote, over HTTP)
Sign-in for agents	OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and dynamic client registration, or a bearer token you create
Connecting	Instinct: one tap, then send. Claude, ChatGPT: one address and an approval. Claude Code, Cursor, Grok: a token and one config block.
Tools	9: allowed_chats, activity, people, catch_up, search, documents, group_members, get_media, send
Voice notes	Transcribed automatically (Hebrew and English), delivered inline as text, searchable
Photos and documents	Kept and handed to the agent on request, up to 50 MB each
History	All available history in the chats you allow, on every plan: what WhatsApp shares at linking plus everything after. You can keep less (full history, or the last 90, 60 or 30 days).
Permissions	Per chat: hidden, read, or read and send. Hidden chats do not exist for agents.
Sending	Every plan. On by default on a newly linked number; set any chat to read only or hidden. No daily quota. Never retried automatically.
Also	An HTTP API with OpenAPI 3.1 for agents that do not speak MCP
Price	Free: $0, 2 chats, for up to 3 months from linking. Plus: $14.90 a month, up to 10 chats. Pro: $29.90 a month, every chat you allow. Every plan does everything. 14 days of Pro free, no card.

Agent-ready from the first call

Circles prepares every message before your agent sees it. Your agent spends its turn answering you.

Voice notes arrive as text. Every voice note and audio file Circles holds is transcribed automatically, in Hebrew and English, and the transcript sits inside the message. Your agent can search what people typed and what they said.
Files arrive ready to open. Photos, PDFs, documents and videos are kept and announced with name, type and size. The agent fetches one with a single call when it needs it. Older files are pulled from your phone on request.
Senders by name. Senders come back by the name you saved, with their number wherever WhatsApp shows it. Someone you never saved may appear by number.
Cheap questions stay cheap. activity says which chats moved and how much, with no text, so "what did I miss?" costs a fraction of reading everything.
Refusals that help. Ask for a chat that is not open and the answer names what is open. "No messages" and "you cannot see that chat" are never confused.
All available history. Everything WhatsApp syncs to a linked device, often years of it, plus everything new, searchable across every chat you allow. Every plan sees all of it, Free included.

This is what an agent gets back when it catches up on a parents group (shortened):

{
  "chat": "Oak Street parents",
  "messages": [
    {
      "from": "Dana",
      "at_iso": "2026-10-26T06:12:00.000Z",
      "body": "",
      "media": {
        "kind": "voice",
        "duration_seconds": 41,
        "transcript_state": "done",
        "transcript": "Quick update: the trip moved to Thursday, buses leave at 8:15, bring a hat and a packed lunch."
      }
    },
    {
      "from": "Yossi",
      "at_iso": "2026-10-26T07:03:00.000Z",
      "body": "Permission slip attached, please sign by Wednesday",
      "media": {
        "kind": "document",
        "filename": "trip-permission.pdf",
        "state": "available",
        "fetch_with": "get_media",
        "ref": "r1_..."
      }
    }
  ]
}

The nine tools

Tools appear only when the agent may use them: an agent without send permission never even sees send.

Tool	What it does	Good for
`allowed_chats`	The chats open to agents and what may be done in each	Knowing the whole world before it starts
`activity`	Which chats moved since a time, with counts and no text	"What did I miss?" for almost nothing
`catch_up`	Messages since a time, in one chat or all of them, names resolved, voice notes as text	Summaries, digests, follow-ups
`search`	Text search in one chat or all, including what was said in voice notes	"Did anyone mention the plumber?"
`people`	Who you talk with across open chats, and where	Context about the people in your life
`group_members`	Members of one open group, by name, admins marked	"Who is in the building committee?"
`documents`	Every PDF, Word file and sheet sent in open chats	"Find the contract Avi sent in June"
`get_media`	One photo, document, video or audio file	Reading the file itself
`send`	A message or file, in chats open for sending (every chat, by default)	Replies you asked for

Hosted or self-hosted WhatsApp MCP?

Open-source WhatsApp MCP servers are a fine choice if you want to run one. Here is the honest difference.

	Self-hosted (open source)	Circles
Setup	Clone a repo, run a bridge and an MCP server, scan a QR code from your computer	Link from your phone, connect your agent with a tap, an address or a token
Runs when your laptop sleeps	No, unless you run a server	Yes, hosted
Works with Claude on the web and phone	Needs a public URL and auth you build	Yes, remote MCP with OAuth
Voice notes	Audio files; transcription is yours to add	Transcribed automatically, Hebrew and English
Which chats the agent sees	Usually everything	Only the chats you open, set per chat for all your agents
Sending	Usually unrestricted	On by default, narrowed per chat, logged, never retried
Cost	Free, plus your time and a server	Free for 2 chats; Pro $29.90 a month

More detail, and when self-hosting is the better call: Circles vs self-hosted WhatsApp MCP servers.

You decide what your agents see

Every chat has one of three levels. Hidden: it does not exist for agents, not in lists, not in search, not even named in a refusal. Read: agents can read and search it, and there is no way to send. Read and send: an agent may also write there, as you. A newly linked number starts its chats at read and send, and you set any chat to read only or hidden whenever you like.

Every request an agent makes, including the ones Circles refused, is in your activity log. Disconnect an agent and its access ends at once. How Circles keeps your chats in your hands.

Questions and answers

Is there a WhatsApp MCP server for Claude?

Yes. Circles is a hosted WhatsApp MCP server that Claude connects to as a custom connector, with one address and an approval. It works with your personal number and only the chats you choose.

Is there a remote WhatsApp MCP server URL?

Yes: https://app.usecircles.app/api/mcp. It is a remote MCP server over HTTP with OAuth 2.1, so clients that support custom connectors can add it by address. You need a Circles account with your number linked.

Do I need WhatsApp Business or a second number?

No. Circles links your existing personal WhatsApp as a linked device, the same way WhatsApp Web does. You keep using WhatsApp on your phone as usual.

Does it transcribe voice notes?

Yes. Voice notes and audio files are transcribed automatically, in Hebrew and English, and the text arrives inside the message for your agent to read and search.

Can the agent send messages as me?

Yes, by default: a newly linked number opens its chats for reading and sending. You set any chat to read only, or hide it, whenever you like, and every send is in your activity log. A send is never retried automatically.

Can WhatsApp disconnect or ban my number?

Any unofficial client, such as a linked device not made by WhatsApp, is outside its terms, and no one can promise a linked device will never be logged out. Circles sends one message at a time, never broadcasts, and connects each customer through a dedicated IP address shared with no one else.

How much does a WhatsApp MCP cost?

Circles has plans from $0: Free for 2 chats for up to 3 months, Plus at $14.90 a month for up to 10, and Pro at $29.90 a month for every chat you allow, with 14 days of Pro free. Every plan reads and writes. Your agent's own subscription is separate.