Howto - WhatsApp Zabbix notifications with Mudslide

[inqwaynej]

First post from a long time Zabbix user.

I've been looking for a while for a way to send Zabbix notifications from WhatsApp. I struggled to find a simple solution that still worked on Debian 11. I eventually stumbled on a project called Mudslide. I was initially put off by the need for docker/NPM, which I'm not familiar with, but I found pre-compiled binaries which I was able to use. I thought I'd share some notes for anyone who may be interested. Below are my notes using Mudslide with Zabbix 6.4 on Debian 11.

1. Download the pre-compiled binary for mudslide
From https://github.com/robvanderleek/mud...tform-binaries

wget https://github.com/robvanderleek/mudslide/releases/download/0.25.1/mudslide-linuxstatic-x64

2. Make executable and move to /usr/local/bin

chmod +x mudslide-linuxstatic-x64
mv mudslide-linuxstatic-x64 /usr/local/bin/mudslide

3. Create alert script.
Our alert script is more complex in order to filter out some notifications. The script hasn't been tested, but it should work.

vi /usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/whatsapp

#!/bin/bash
mudslide -c /tmp/mudslide-cache send $1 "$2"

chmod +x /usr/lib/zabbix/alertscripts/whatsapp

4. Login to WhatsApp
Command below displays a QR code to login as a linked device.

sudo -u zabbix mudslide -c /tmp/mudslide-cache login

5. Add media type to Zabbix
Add media type to Zabbix from the WebUI. Alerts > Media types. I cloned the SMS media type and changed the following:

Name:         WhatsApp
Type:         Script
Script name:  whatsapp

6. Adding media to users
Use the full number with country code for "Send to" when adding media for a user. No preceding 0's or "+". e.g. 442079460000 (UK), 12065550100 (US)
Messages can also be sent to groups. Use the group ID in "Send to". Group IDs can be found from CLI with:

sudo -u zabbix mudslide -c /tmp/mudslide-cache groups

This will fetch the groups the account is currently a member of.

Note on the cache folder:
The Zabbix user on our system does not have a home folder, so we use /tmp/mudslide-cache for the cache folder. The cache contains login information. /tmp is cleared on reboot so you'll need to login on each reboot or change the cache folder. The cache folder does need to be writeable by the Zabbix user. I work around this I sync the folder to another location with cron:

vi /usr/local/bin/mudslide-cache-sync.sh

#!/bin/bash
# This script syncs the mudslide cache from /tmp to /var/cache. This is to work around the cache being cleared every time the server is rebooted.
# First rsync files from the backup to the cache. "-u" prevents overwriting newer files. This will also recreate the folder if it has been removed.
rsync -quazvh --copy-as=zabbix:zabbix /var/cache/mudslide/* /tmp/mudslide-cache/
# Then sync any updated files from the cache to the back-up.
rsync -qazvh /tmp/mudslide-cache/* /var/cache/mudslide/
​

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mudslide-cache-sync.sh
cd /etc/cron.hourly
ln -s /usr/local/bin/mudslide-cache-sync.sh mudslide-cache-sync

Hope this has been useful.

[vpalmar]

Good day,

Please add to point 5, "Add media type to Zabbix":

Script parameters: {ALERT.SENDTO}
Script parameters: {ALERT.MESSAGE}

Thank you very much for the information.

Greetings

Victor Palmar

[mandud]

Hi inqwaynej

Actually at this time, I also looking for best way to send alert from Zabbix into whatsapp
some youtobe videos seems good, but need to fulfill the requirement, like use their whatsapp API / webhook

This video share how to send zabbix chart to whatsapp group

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH67ePM1NJA

I'm still stuck how to replicate it using another whatsapp API gateway, the one I've tried using WAHA

https://waha.devlike.pro

Another Whatsapp API Gateway using this one

https://github.com/aldinokemal/go-whatsapp-web-multidevice

Script in zabbix alertscripts

cat alert_zabbix.sh
URL="http://whatsapp-api:3000/send/message"
PHONE="phone number"
TITLE="$2"
MESSAGE="$TITLE$3"

curl --location --request POST "$URL" \
     --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     --data-raw "{
        \"phone\": \"${PHONE}\",
        \"message\": \"${MESSAGE}\"
     }"

Glad If somebody have better way to sending zabbix alert into whatsapp

Thanks

[inqwaynej]

Good day,

Please add to point 5, "Add media type to Zabbix":

Script parameters: {ALERT.SENDTO}
Script parameters: {ALERT.MESSAGE}

Thank you very much for the information.

Greetings

Victor Palmar

Thanks for pointing that out Victor, can't figure out how to edit the original post though.

[inqwaynej]

Hi inqwaynej

Actually at this time, I also looking for best way to send alert from Zabbix into whatsapp
some youtobe videos seems good, but need to fulfill the requirement, like use their whatsapp API / webhook

This video share how to send zabbix chart to whatsapp group

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH67ePM1NJA

I'm still stuck how to replicate it using another whatsapp API gateway, the one I've tried using WAHA

https://waha.devlike.pro

Another Whatsapp API Gateway using this one

https://github.com/aldinokemal/go-whatsapp-web-multidevice

Script in zabbix alertscripts

cat alert_zabbix.sh
URL="http://whatsapp-api:3000/send/message"
PHONE="phone number"
TITLE="$2"
MESSAGE="$TITLE$3"

curl --location --request POST "$URL" \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw "{
\"phone\": \"${PHONE}\",
\"message\": \"${MESSAGE}\"
}"

Glad If somebody have better way to sending zabbix alert into whatsapp

Thanks

I expect the API is more stable, but you'd need to pay for that. Mudslide does logout from time to time and needs to be re-linked to the account.

Mudslide can send messages to groups. You just need to find the group id. You can see which groups (with the group id) the account is a member of with "mudslide groups"

For charts, Mudslide can send images and attachments. There are example on the Github readme https://github.com/robvanderleek/mud...-an-image-file

[[email protected]]

Team,

Thanks for the above post.

But recently I am facing a problem to send Zabbix WhatsApp alert to WhatsApp group using group id. It says "No session". Seems to be its blocked by WhatsApp.

Any other solution will be helpful.

/snapshot/dist-ncc/index.js:139006
throw new errors.SessionError("No sessions");
^
SessionError: No sessions
at Object.200712462020669.53 [as awaitable] (/snapshot/dist-ncc/index.js:139006:23)
at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
at async _asyncQueueExecutor (/snapshot/dist-ncc/index.js:138707:29)

[markfree]

Check out this media type for Go WhatsApp gateway.

[ahmedk]

Je peux pas scanner le QR code généré dans Zabbix, il me renvoie toujours une erreur.

[markfree]

What do you mean @ahmek?

[ahmedk]

markfree i generate the QR code in zabbix server , but when i try to connect the QR code with my device via whatsapp always i have an error message (could not connect)

[almuqeetsystems]

Nice find, Mudslide is actually a clever workaround for WhatsApp notifications from Zabbix, especially on Debian, where options are limited.

Just to add some perspective for anyone exploring this:

• Zabbix doesn’t natively support WhatsApp, so most solutions rely on unofficial bridges like Mudslide or WhatsApp Web automation
• These can work well, but they may have stability and session issues (QR re-auth, disconnects, etc.)
• Running via Docker/NPM is usually recommended for easier dependency management, but binaries are a good lightweight alternative as you mentioned

If you’re planning to use this in production, a couple of things to consider:

• Add a fallback channel (like SMS or email) in case WhatsApp fails
• Monitor the Mudslide service itself (process checks in Zabbix)
• Be aware of WhatsApp rate limits and possible blocking

In many enterprise environments, teams often complement or replace WhatsApp with more reliable A2P channels (like SMS or APIs) for critical alerts. For example, platforms like https://almuqeet.net/products/sms-platform are designed for high delivery and uptime, which is important for monitoring systems like Zabbix.

That said, your approach is practical and useful for many setups. Thanks for sharing the steps