wacli send fails with "context deadline exceeded" - AUTHENTICATED but not CONNECTED

[opaque holly]

Environment:

• wacli version: latest (installed via brew)
• macOS on Mac mini (arm64)
• Store: ~/.wacli
Issue:
After successful QR authentication, wacli doctor shows:

AUTHENTICATED true
CONNECTED false

When trying to send a message:

wacli send text --to "[phone]" --message "test" --timeout 20s --json

Error:

{"success":false,"data":null,"error":"failed to get user info for [e-mail] to fill LID cache: failed to send usync query: context deadline exceeded"}

What I tried:

• Fresh QR scan authentication (works, shows AUTHENTICATED=true)
• Running wacli sync first (doesn't output anything, hangs)
• Shorter timeouts (same error)
• Different phone numbers (same error)
• The recipient number IS on WhatsApp (verified on phone)
Observations:

• wacli chats list works (returns existing chats from initial sync)
• wacli messages search works
• Initial history sync (900 conversations) completed after auth
• But CONNECTED never becomes true
• Send commands timeout waiting for connection
Question:
Is there a way to force connection before sending? Or is there a known issue with the connection staying alive after auth?

[dawn hawk]

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[untold frost]

This looks like a wacli-specific issue (wacli is a separate WhatsApp CLI tool, not part of Clawdbot). Based on the symptoms:

What's happening:

• Authentication works (QR scan ✅)
• History sync works (900 chats ✅)
• But the WebSocket connection never establishes (CONNECTED=false)
• Send fails because it can't reach the WhatsApp servers to look up the recipient

Common causes:

1. Network/firewall - macOS Firewall or Little Snitch blocking wacli's WebSocket connection
2. Proxy/VPN interference - if you have a VPN, try disabling it
3. Race condition - the connection might need time to stabilize after auth

Things to try:

1. sudo lsof -i :443 - check if wacli is actually trying to connect
2. Check macOS Firewall settings for wacli
3. Try disabling any VPNs or proxies temporarily

4. Wait a few minutes after auth before sending - sometimes the connection takes time
5. Check wacli logs: wacli doctor --debug or WACLI_DEBUG=1 wacli doctor

If it persists:

• Check wacli's GitHub issues: https://github.com/adoy/wacli/issues
• The "context deadline exceeded" suggests the WebSocket connection is timing out before establishing

@opaque holly Are you running any security software (Little Snitch, Lulu, etc.) that might block outgoing connections? That'd be my top guess on macOS ARM.

[opaque holly]

Update: Tailscale ruled out

Tested with Tailscale completely disabled on the Mac mini - same "context deadline exceeded" error.

So it's not a VPN/firewall issue. The problem seems to be that:

1. Auth + initial sync work (WebSocket connects briefly)
2. But subsequent operations (send) can't establish a new connection
3. The session might be in "companion mode" ("Keep app open on both devices")
   Could this be related to companion mode vs multi-device mode? The device shows up in Linked Devices but requires phone to be online.

[untold frost]

That's interesting about companion mode - but actually Linked Devices = normal multi-device behavior, not companion mode. Companion mode is the older "phone must stay online" approach, while multi-device should work independently.

The real puzzle: Initial sync works (brief connection ✅) but can't reconnect later. This suggests:

1. Token/expiry issue - the auth token might not persist properly for reconnection

2. Store corruption - try nuking and re-authenticating:

   rm -rf ~/.wacli
   wacli login  # fresh QR scan
   

3. Bug in wacli's reconnection logic - worth checking their GitHub issues

Before nuking the store, check if there's a log file:

ls -la ~/.wacli/