How to run your WhatsApp business number with Claude

What you need

• A Claude account that can add custom connectors. Anthropic decides which plans can do this, and it changes from time to time, so check their help pages if you cannot find the option.
• A Spaces account. Your trial starts when you connect a chat account, with no card needed.
• The WhatsApp account your customers already message you on.
• A short note about your business: what you sell, prices, opening hours and the things you never want promised. You will paste it into Claude later.
• About ten minutes for the setup, and a little longer to try it on a few real messages.

Step 1: connect your WhatsApp account to Spaces

You scan a QR code with the phone that has the number, the same way you would link WhatsApp on a computer. Your account stays yours, and you keep using it on your phone as normal.

Once it is connected, the account shows in your Spaces dashboard. Connecting does not send anything. It only means Spaces can read and send on that account when an AI agent you have added asks it to.

Use the business number your customers already message, whether it lives in WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business app on your phone. A number with a long history of real conversations is the safest choice. A brand-new number gets no new chats at all from Spaces for its first 24 hours, though replies to people who message you go out from day one.

Step 2: add Spaces to Claude

1. Open Customize, then Connectors, then Add custom connector.
2. Name it Spaces and paste https://api.spacesos.com/mcp as the URL.
3. Choose Sign in, then sign in to Spaces and approve access.
4. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an owner adds it once under Organization settings, then Connectors.

To check it worked: Open the Search and tools menu in a chat. Spaces and its tools are listed.

You sign in on Spaces' own page during this step, so Claude never sees your WhatsApp login or your Spaces password. If Spaces does not show up:

• Open a new chat and check the Spaces connector is turned on in it.
• Sign in to Spaces again from the connector, in case the first sign-in did not finish.
• Remove the connector and add it again, checking the address is exactly https://api.spacesos.com/mcp.
• If it still does not appear, Anthropic's help pages have their current steps, and our Claude setup page has ours.

Step 3: try it

Open a new chat in Claude, make sure Spaces is turned on, and ask in plain words:

• What came in on the business WhatsApp since yesterday evening?
• Which chats are still waiting for a reply from us?
• Draft replies to the booking questions and show me before sending.
• Remind Emma at 9am tomorrow that her appointment is at 11.

Start with a question that only reads, like the first one. It shows you that Claude can see your WhatsApp messages before you let it send anything. Then try a draft, read it carefully, and only then let it send.

Good to know

Claude acts when you ask it to in a chat. It does not watch your inbox on its own. For replies around the clock, use an agent that runs all the time, such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw or Hermes, or set up a Spaces routine that sends set replies to set questions.

In practice, treat Claude as a quick helper you sit down with a few times a day: first thing, at lunchtime and before you close. Each time, ask what came in, check its drafts and let it send the ones you are happy with. Customers who message in between wait until your next session, just as they would if you were answering by hand.

A Spaces routine is not an AI. It sends a reply you wrote in advance when something happens, such as a new message or a keyword. That makes it a good way to send "Thanks for your message, we will reply first thing tomorrow" after hours, while Claude writes the real answers in your next session.

Keep one Claude Project for the business number, with your prices, hours and rules in its instructions, and start every WhatsApp session from inside it.

A day on the business number

Claude works in sessions, so the trick is to put those sessions where they help most. Here is a rhythm that suits most small businesses that take bookings or orders over WhatsApp. Move the times to fit your day.

Three short sessions a day is enough for most numbers. Customers who write in between wait a few hours at most, which is about what they would wait if you were answering by hand between jobs.

A worked example: the morning catch-up

Here is how an opening session might go for a dog grooming salon with two groomers. Names and details are examples.

Claude knew the prices and the puppy rule because they were in the Project instructions. It did not move Bella in a diary, because Spaces gives Claude your messages and not your booking system, so the owner checked Friday was free first.

Set up a Claude Project for the number

A Project keeps instructions and files together, and every chat you start inside it begins with them. Create one called something like "Business WhatsApp" and put your note in its instructions:

You help me answer the business WhatsApp for Wag & Wash, a dog grooming salon.
Hours: Tue-Sat 8.30am-5pm. Closed Sun and Mon.
Prices: full groom from £45 (small) to £75 (large). Puppy intro £20, 30 minutes, after second jabs.
Shop: shampoo £12, conditioner £10.
Bookings: only confirm a time I have told you is free. Otherwise say "let me check the diary".
Matting, skin problems or anything about a dog's health: leave for me.
Tone: friendly, short, first names, the dog's name where we know it.
Never: offer discounts, promise a collection time, or reply to complaints. Tell me instead.

Add a longer price list as a file in the Project if you have one. When a price changes, change it once in the Project, and every new session uses it.

Reminders and follow-ups that go out on time

Spaces can schedule a message for a set time, in your timezone, and Claude can set one up when you ask, as in the example. That covers the follow-ups a busy number tends to forget: the day-before reminder, the "your order is ready" message, or a check-in a week after a first visit.

Scheduled messages are sent through the same limits as everything else, so a long list of reminders goes out spaced apart rather than in one burst. Keep them for people who expect to hear from you, such as someone with a booking.

For follow-ups you send again and again, such as a check-in after a quote, Spaces workflows send set messages after a delay and stop as soon as the person replies. Follow-ups are listed for the Pro, Team and Agency plans on the pricing page.

Sharing the number with staff

• Agree who runs each Claude session, so two people do not answer the same chat. Spaces can tag chats and give each one an owner, which makes that easier to see.
• Ask Claude to leave anything a colleague is handling, such as "leave Lena's chat for Sam".
• When someone takes over a chat by hand on the phone, let Claude step back from it for the rest of the day.
• If something goes wrong, Spaces can pause all sending at once. Reading keeps working while you sort it out.

A ten-minute weekly check

1. Scroll through a few chats on your phone and read Claude's replies as a customer would.
2. Note anything it got wrong and add one clear line to the Project instructions.
3. Check prices, hours and holiday dates in the instructions are still right.
4. Look at which questions come up again and again. Those are good candidates for a routine's set reply.
5. Check nothing was left unanswered for more than a day.

Summing up

With Spaces, Claude can read your business WhatsApp, draft and send replies from your own number, and schedule reminders, all inside safe limits. Run it in a few short sessions a day from one Project, let a routine cover the evenings, and spend ten minutes a week keeping the instructions current.

How Spaces keeps your account safe

Whatever you ask, Spaces keeps your WhatsApp account inside safe limits: at least 10 seconds between messages, up to 200 a day, and 10 new conversations a day at most, with a gentler start for a newly connected account. If your AI tries to go faster, Spaces holds the message and says when it can try again.

New conversations warm up over the first weeks after you connect:

Replies to people who message you are not held back by the warm-up, so customers get answers from the first day.

These are Spaces' own limits. They lower the risk of a restriction, but they cannot remove it, because WhatsApp makes its own decisions about accounts. Read the note at the top of this page before you connect.

Pricing

Plans from $19 a month

How is this different from giving Claude access to WhatsApp?

The connection is the same. This guide is about running the number every day afterwards: when to sit down with Claude, how to keep your details in a Project, reminders, evenings and sharing the number with staff.

Does it work with the WhatsApp Business app?

You link the number to Spaces with a QR code, the same way you would link WhatsApp on a computer. WhatsApp's rules on automated and bulk messaging apply whichever app the number is in.

Will Claude answer customers at night?

No. Claude acts when you ask it in a chat and does not watch the number. A Spaces routine can send a set holding reply after hours, or you can use an always-on agent such as Claude Code on a computer that stays on.

Can Claude send appointment reminders?

Yes, when you ask. Spaces schedules the message for the time you choose and sends it within the usual limits, even if your Claude chat is closed by then.

Can two of us use Claude on the same number?

Yes, if Spaces is added to each person's Claude, or once for the organisation on a Team or Enterprise plan. Agree who answers when, so nobody replies twice.

Can I connect a second business number?

Yes. Each number is connected with its own QR code and counts as its own connected account. Tell Claude which number you mean in each session.

What if Claude sends something wrong?

Reply in the chat from your phone straight away to correct it, then add a line to the Project instructions so it does not happen again. If several things go wrong at once, pause all sending in Spaces first.

Do customers see that Claude wrote the reply?

They see a normal message from your number. It is good practice to be honest if someone asks, and some owners mention it in their WhatsApp profile.