WhatsApp Templates

WhatsApp requires pre-approved templates to start a conversation outside the 24-hour window (see Capabilities). Templates are WhatsApp-only and require a Pro license. This page is about managing them; to send an approved template see Sending → Template messages.

Lifecycle

Create → PENDING (Meta review, ~24h) → APPROVED (sendable)
                                      → REJECTED (fix & resubmit)

Templates belong to the channel's WhatsApp Business Account (WABA). Manage them through these endpoints — full request/response schemas are in the API Reference:

Task	Endpoint
List (filter by status; syncs from Meta by default)	`GET /api/v1/channels/{id}/templates`
Get one (components + variable definitions)	`GET /api/v1/channels/{id}/templates/{template_id}`
Create (→ submitted to Meta, starts `PENDING`)	`POST /api/v1/channels/{id}/templates`
Update components	`PUT /api/v1/channels/{id}/templates/{template_id}`
Delete	`DELETE /api/v1/channels/{id}/templates/{template_id}`

Creating a template

A template is a name + category (MARKETING, UTILITY, or AUTHENTICATION) + language + components. BODY is required; HEADER (text only), FOOTER and BUTTONS are optional. Variables are {{1}}, {{2}} (positional) or {{name}} (named) — Meta requires example values for review.

curl -X POST https://fiwano.com/api/v1/channels/a1b2c3d4e5f67890/templates \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "order_confirmation",
    "category": "UTILITY",
    "language": "en_US",
    "components": [
      {"type": "BODY", "text": "Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} is confirmed.",
       "example": {"body_text": [["Pablo", "ORD-123"]]}}
    ],
    "parameter_format": "positional"
  }'

Rules to know

Editing an approved template re-submits it for review (back to PENDING) and is rate-limited by Meta: max 10 edits per 30 days, 1 per 24 hours. You can't change the category of an approved template.
Deleting an approved template locks its name for 30 days — you can't recreate a template with the same name until then (Meta restriction).
Creating is capped at ~100 templates per WABA per hour.

Once a template is APPROVED, send it with POST /api/v1/messages/send-template.