n8n

The Zavu community node brings the whole messaging API into n8n: send on SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Email, Instagram, Messenger and Voice, run broadcasts, manage contacts and templates, and start workflows from inbound messages.

The package ships two nodes:

• Zavu sends messages and manages every resource in the API.
• Zavu Trigger starts a workflow when something happens: a message arrives, a delivery status changes, a conversation opens, a call ends.

Install

1. Open community nodes

   In your self-hosted n8n, go to Settings → Community Nodes → Install.

2. Install the package

   Enter n8n-nodes-zavu, accept the risks prompt, and confirm.

3. Restart if needed

   n8n loads the nodes immediately. If they do not appear in the node panel, restart the instance.

Prefer the command line? From your n8n user folder (~/.n8n):

terminalCopy
npm install n8n-nodes-zavu

n8n Cloud

n8n Cloud installs community nodes straight from the Nodes panel, but only those n8n has verified. This package is not verified yet, so today it needs self-hosted n8n. Until then, n8n Cloud can reach the same API through the HTTP Request node, which every operation here is a wrapper around: see the API reference.

Credentials

Create a Zavu API credential and paste a project API key from Dashboard → Settings → API Keys.

Click Test to confirm the key resolves to a project. A zv_test_ key simulates sends against the WhatsApp sandbox instead of reaching the recipient, and cannot place voice calls. Use a live key for anything that must be delivered.

What the Zavu node does

Senders, templates, agents and phone numbers load as dropdowns, so you pick a name instead of pasting an ID. The sender dropdown also shows the channels each sender can actually send on, so a sender that is not ready yet is visible before you build the workflow around it.

Every list operation walks the API cursor, so Return All really does return all of them rather than stopping at the first page.

Sending

Channel defaults to Auto, which routes on the sender's capabilities and the recipient. Any non-text message type is delivered over WhatsApp regardless.

To takes a phone number in E.164, an email address, a numeric chat ID for Telegram, Instagram or Messenger, or a WhatsApp business-scoped user ID.

The node builds every message type for you: text, image, video, audio, document, sticker, location, contact card, buttons, list, CTA URL, location request, contact info request, and template.

Broadcasts from a spreadsheet

Broadcast → Add Contacts can read one recipient per incoming item, which is the shape a Google Sheets or Postgres node already produces. Recipients are sent in batches of 1000, so a 5000 row sheet goes through in a single node.

Sending a broadcast needs no account verification. What it passes through is content review. WhatsApp is the exception, because Meta's approval of the template is the review; what is enforced there is that the template is approved. Every other channel waits for the review, and a broadcast it refuses lands on rejected. Creating and editing drafts requires nothing. See Broadcasts and Sending limits.

Zavu Trigger

Pick a sender and the events to react to. On activation the node points that sender's webhook at n8n, and on deactivation it restores whatever was configured before.

Three things about Zavu webhooks shape how this node behaves.

Deliveries only go to HTTPS. A local n8n hands out http://localhost:5678/…, which Zavu refuses. Expose n8n over HTTPS (a tunnel, or WEBHOOK_URL set to your public address) before activating the workflow.

A sender has exactly one webhook URL. If it already points at your own backend, activation stops and tells you which URL is configured rather than silently taking it over. Turn on Replace Existing Webhook to repoint it; the previous URL is restored when you deactivate the trigger.

The webhook secret is revealed once. Zavu generates and returns a secret when it configures a webhook on a sender that had none. For a sender that already had one, the existing secret is kept and never shown again, so paste it into Webhook Secret to let the node verify signatures. When the node has no secret it says so on the first delivery instead of quietly accepting unsigned traffic.

Signature verification accepts both schemes Zavu emits and prefers the stronger one when a delivery carries both. See Webhook security.

If you would rather configure the webhook yourself in the dashboard, turn off Register Webhook Automatically and the node only listens.

Payload

The trigger emits the webhook payload as sent:

JSONCopy
{
  "id": "evt_1736850000000_abc123",
  "type": "message.inbound",
  "timestamp": 1736850000000,
  "senderId": "jx7abc123def456",
  "projectId": "jx7xyz789ghi012",
  "data": {
    "messageId": "jd7x2k3m4n5p6q7r8s9t0",
    "from": "+56912345678",
    "to": "+13125551212",
    "channel": "whatsapp",
    "text": "Is my order shipped?"
  }
}

Every event type is listed in Webhook events.

Example: auto-reply to inbound WhatsApp

1. Add the trigger

   Zavu Trigger, your sender, event Message: Inbound.

2. Show that you are working on it

   Zavu → Message → Show Typing Indicator, Message ID {{ $json.data.messageId }}. Skip this if the reply is instant.

3. Reply

   Zavu → Message → Send, To {{ $json.data.from }}, Channel WhatsApp. Under Options, set Sender to {{ $json.senderId }} so the answer leaves from the number the contact already knows.

Troubleshooting

Next steps