Build on Chatwoot with APIs, webhooks, and self-hosting
Chatwoot works as conversation infrastructure. Integrate via REST APIs and real-time webhooks, deploy on your own servers, and remove Chatwoot branding on a paid self-hosted plan.
- Full REST API for conversations, contacts, and messages
- Real-time webhooks for event-driven workflows
- Self-host on your infra with Docker or Helm
Key outcomes
Ship integrations faster
Well-documented REST APIs and webhooks let your team build custom workflows in days, not months.
Full data ownership
Self-host on your own servers. Your database, your backups, your compliance story.
Event-driven workflows
React to conversation, message, and contact events in real time with webhooks.
White-label ready
Custom domain, branding, and email templates on a paid self-hosted plan, so you can ship a help desk under your own brand.
Powered by core features
The building blocks that make Chatwoot a developer-first platform.
conversation_created
Fires when a new conversation starts
Your webhook endpoint
https://api.yourapp.com/webhooks
CRM synced · Ticket created
Real-time data flow to your systems
Programmatic control over every conversation
Create conversations, send messages, manage contacts, and react to events in real time. Build custom integrations without waiting on vendor roadmaps.
- REST endpoints for conversations, contacts, messages, and labels
- Webhooks fire on conversation, message, and contact events
- Token-based auth using per-user API access tokens
- JSON webhook payloads deliver events as they happen
Deploy on your infrastructure, brand it as yours
Run Chatwoot on your own servers with Docker or Kubernetes. Customize the domain and email templates, and remove Chatwoot branding on a paid self-hosted plan.
- Deploy with Docker Compose or Helm charts
- Full data sovereignty, your database, your rules
- Custom domain, logos, and email templates on a paid self-hosted plan
Plays to launch
Concrete workflows your engineering team can ship this sprint.
Build a custom inbox
Embed Chatwoot conversations inside your own product UI.
- Use the API to fetch and display conversations
- Send messages through the message endpoint
- Sync status updates via webhooks
Sync CRM in real time
Keep your CRM and Chatwoot contacts in lockstep.
- Listen for contact_created and contact_updated webhooks
- Map custom attributes to CRM fields
- Push conversation summaries back to CRM records
Launch a white-label help desk
Ship a branded support experience for your customers.
- Self-host Chatwoot with Docker or Helm
- Set custom domain, logo, and email templates
- Use the API to provision inboxes per client
Toolkit
Features, integrations, and controls that make this use case stick.
REST API
Full CRUD for conversations, contacts, messages, labels, teams, and more with token-based auth.
Webhooks
Subscribe to conversation, message, and contact events and route the payloads to any endpoint.
Self-hosting and Dashboard Apps
Deploy with Docker or Helm, and extend the agent dashboard with your own web app using Dashboard Apps.
Common questions
Practical answers builders ask before integrating.
What are the Chatwoot API rate limits?
Chatwoot Cloud throttles API requests per IP address. Check the developer documentation for the current limits before you design a high-volume integration. On a self-hosted deployment you control the configuration, so you can tune the throttling yourself.
How reliable are webhooks?
Chatwoot posts a JSON payload to your endpoint for conversation, message, and contact events. There is no delivery-status dashboard and no replay of missed events, so your endpoint should acknowledge quickly, and you should reconcile against the REST API after any downtime.
What do I need to self-host Chatwoot?
A Linux server with Docker or Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Redis, and an S3-compatible object store. The official Docker Compose and Helm charts handle orchestration.
Can I white-label the entire product?
Yes, on a paid self-hosted plan, which lets you remove Chatwoot branding and customize the domain, logo, widget, and email templates. The free Community Edition keeps Chatwoot branding.
Are there official SDKs?
Chatwoot provides a JavaScript SDK for the website widget, and Dashboard Apps for embedding your own web app in the agent dashboard. Everything else runs through the documented REST API, which you can call from any language.
Related resources
Build on Chatwoot
Explore our APIs, spin up a self-hosted instance, and ship your first integration today.