Channels

These tools wire an agent to WhatsApp through the runtime’s own channel adapter: Meta calls the runtime directly. For channels in front of agents on a Nexus hub, use Herald instead.

WhatsApp setup

Channels → WhatsApp Business walks through four steps.

1. Meta app. A link opens the Meta developer portal. Enter the app’s App ID and App Secret.

2. Tokens. A link opens the WhatsApp console. Choose the agent, and enter the Access Token and Phone Number ID. Cortex generates a Verify Token; you can regenerate it.

3. Webhook. Cortex shows the callback URL, <base>/v1/agents/<agent>/channels/whatsapp/webhook, and the verify token. Paste both into Meta’s WhatsApp configuration and subscribe to messages. <base> is the dev tunnel’s public URL when one is running (marked DEV TUNNEL), and the active runtime’s URL otherwise (marked PRODUCTION).

4. Test and deploy. Send Test Message runs the agent with a test query, so you can check it answers. Save & Deploy:

   • writes WHATSAPP_ACCESS_TOKEN, WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID, WHATSAPP_APP_SECRET and WHATSAPP_VERIFY_TOKEN into the active environment;
   • sets the agent’s spec.channels to one WhatsApp channel that reads those variables, replacing any channels it had;
   • saves and deploys the agent.

The card then shows the channel as active, with the agent, phone and webhook URL. Reconfigure starts over.

Restart the local runtime after Save & Deploy so it picks up the new variables.

Caution

The wizard keeps the tokens in workspace.json and in the environment, both in plain text. Keep that workspace out of public repositories.

Channel activity

Channel Activity follows the runtime’s channel events live (/v1/channels/events): each message in or out, and system events such as delivery receipts, with time, agent, channel, sender and text or media. Filter by agent or channel, and click a row to see its JSON. The last 200 events are kept, and the stream reconnects by itself.

The agent editor has the same stream filtered to that agent, behind the Channel Messages button.

Dev tunnel

Meta can only deliver to a public HTTPS URL. Settings → Dev Tunnel exposes the local runtime with a tunnel:

Setting	Notes
Provider	cloudflared (default) or ngrok
ngrok token	Optional; applied with ngrok config add-authtoken
Start / Stop	Downloads the binary on first use, then runs cloudflared tunnel --url … or ngrok http … against the local runtime’s port
Tunnel URL	The public URL, with a copy button

While a tunnel is running, the WhatsApp wizard uses its URL for the webhook.

Telegram is listed as coming soon.