A standalone Go terminal client for personal WeChat messages. Run wechat to open the TUI, or use individual CLI commands. It connects directly through the native protocol; no WeChat desktop app or bridge service is required. The original bot backend remains available with --backend ilink.

Actual TUI rendered with fictional conversations in offline mode.

Experimental: tablet login and message sync have been tested, with the other clients remaining signed in on the tested account. Desktop login may replace another desktop session. The phone profile has passed QR request/poll tests; full phone login remains untested and may replace your phone session.

Requires Go 1.25 or newer. GitHub Actions produces Linux, macOS, and Windows binaries for amd64 and arm64, with checksums.

go build -o bin/wechat .

Scan the terminal QR and approve on your phone.

./bin/wechat --profile tablet login ./bin/wechat --profile tablet

Choose --profile phone, --profile tablet, or --profile desktop. Each profile keeps separate credentials. The TUI remembers your selected profile and lets you change it with Ctrl+P. Existing tablet state in ~/.config/wechat-tablet is recognized. Global flags precede the command.

The terminal QR uses explicit black-on-white colors. Server PNG/JPEG QR images are scanned and rerendered as terminal blocks. login --qr login.png also saves an image; login --resume resumes an unexpired attempt. New-device phone/LAN verification challenges are detected but not implemented.

The conversation list stays visible and the message box stays focused. Messages have compact sender/time labels and indented wrapped lines. Pinned chats are marked PIN; unread counts and terminal notifications indicate incoming messages. Viewed conversations send read-state updates while visible, focused, and scrolled to the bottom.

Translations use WeChat's authenticated server API, with no separate translation account or API key. English is the default; use tui --language zh_CN to change it. Translations appear below the original and are cached privately. Deleted messages are marked and cannot be quoted or translated. Group names use contact and group-member data when available.

Images render as colored terminal blocks. Image and file downloads are supported; voice/video downloads and media uploads are not implemented. On a remote terminal, opening a URL may require your terminal's Ctrl+click support. Quoted replies are implemented but have not yet been tested with a live send.

Drafts stay with each chat and clear immediately when submitted. Failed sends can restore their draft; interrupted sends are never automatically retried because delivery may be uncertain.

./bin/wechat status ./bin/wechat read --follow ./bin/wechat history --limit 50 ./bin/wechat contacts ./bin/wechat send --to RECIPIENT_ID --text 'Hello!' ./bin/wechat send --to RECIPIENT_ID --text 'Reply' --reply-to MESSAGE_ID ./bin/wechat wait --timeout 60s --json ./bin/wechat wait --from RECIPIENT_ID --json ./bin/wechat attachment --id MESSAGE_ID --preview ./bin/wechat translate --text '你好，世界' --lang en ./bin/wechat translate --id MESSAGE_ID --lang en ./bin/wechat mark-read --to RECIPIENT_ID ./bin/wechat tui --offline

Use --help on a command for options. wait returns the next new incoming message and works alongside the TUI by observing its sync journal. With no reader running, it performs sync itself. A timeout exits unsuccessfully. read drains available sync pages; --follow continues polling. read --json and history emit one message per JSON line.

History scope: initial desktop and tablet sync returned existing messages, but this does not establish access to all conversations or all historical messages. history reads only this CLI's archive. Phone migration/backup and official desktop database import are not implemented.

State defaults to ~/.config/wechat-cli on Linux, respecting XDG_CONFIG_HOME. Native state lives in its native/ subdirectory, separately from existing iLink state. Credentials and approval grants are plaintext, private files (0600 in 0700 directories). Do not share the config directory or sync journals.

All sync commands, including unknown types, are archived under native/batches/ before the cursor is committed. history deduplicates messages by account and message ID. If output is interrupted after a cursor commit, inspect history to recover the archived messages. Files are written atomically and synced to disk.

Only one reader/login/logout process can run per config directory. Sending can run alongside a reader; account updates are serialized. Multiple processes do not provide additional desktop sessions.

Global flags must precede the command.

./bin/wechat --config-dir ~/.config/wechat-work login ./bin/wechat --config-dir ~/.config/wechat-work read --follow ./bin/wechat logout

logout deletes local credentials and cursor but retains the archive. It does not remotely revoke the device authorization; manage that on your phone. It also does not restore a desktop session displaced during login.

The Go implementation verifies MMTLS server signatures and encrypted records, then uses encrypted native protobuf calls for QR request/poll, phone-grant authentication, sync, and text sends. Profiles were investigated using the official Linux 4.1.13.26 client and Android 8.0.79 APK. There is no insecure signature-verification switch. Request notice checksums currently use zero; the tested server accepted QR, authentication, and sync requests, but compatibility with other accounts/builds is not established.

See native protocol findings for the inspected official binary, route IDs, protocol references, and live validation limits. See iLink usage for the original bot backend. This is an independent client, not an official Tencent product.

go test -race ./... go vet ./...

Tests cover authenticated transport records, encrypted business fixtures, phone approval/challenge handling, cursor merge/reset, send-receipt identity matching, unknown sync payload retention, private archive permissions, replay deduplication, and separation from bot credentials. Existing iLink HTTP and QR image/rendering tests remain in place. Live tests verified desktop and tablet QR login, account synchronization, and server acceptance of one user-authorized outgoing tablet text message.