How do I set up a WhatsApp AI receptionist in Cosend with Claude's help?

What you need

• A Cosend account, with your WhatsApp number connected. Claude can give you a link to connect it.
• To be an owner or an admin of the workspace. Only they can set up the receptionist.
• Claude. Anthropic says Free users can add one custom connector.

Step 1: connect Cosend to Claude

These steps follow Anthropic’s help page on custom connectors, read on 30 October 2026. You can also use the Add to Claude button on Cosend’s MCP page.

1. In Claude, go to Customize > Connectors.
2. Click + Add, then Add custom connector.
3. Enter the name “Cosend” and the address https://mcp.cosend.app/mcp. Click Continue.
4. Check the settings Claude detected and click Continue.
5. Under Authentication, choose Sign in now, then click Add.
6. In a chat, click the + button, select Connectors, and turn Cosend on.

Step 2: sign in and choose permissions

Claude opens Cosend’s sign-in. Sign in, and pick your workspace if you have more than one. Cosend then shows the AI app’s name, marked Not verified, and every permission an AI app can have, ticked:

• Read your WhatsApp chats and messages
• Reply in a chat that already exists, one message at a time, after you confirm each one
• See your contacts
• Add and update contacts, and record a customer’s opt-in or opt-out
• See your message templates and whether WhatsApp approved them
• Send message templates to WhatsApp for review, after you confirm each one
• See your automations
• Write, check, deploy, switch on and switch off automations; saving, deploying and switching on ask you first
• See what your automations did
• Start and stop automation runs
• See which other apps are connected to Cosend
• Connect and change other apps
• See how much of your plan you have used

Untick anything you do not want Claude to do, then press the button that starts with Allow. Two of them only an owner or an admin can give. Paying for a plan and connecting a number are not on the list, because an AI app can never do them.

Step 3: get your templates in early

Meta reviews every template, and a decision can take up to 24 hours, so start early. Ask Claude to check a template against Meta’s rules, then to submit it. Claude shows you the exact template, and it goes to Meta only after you confirm. The limit is ten a day per workspace.

Step 4: set up the receptionist in Cosend

This part is in Cosend, not in Claude.

1. In Cosend, open AI & automations, then AI receptionist.
2. On the first step, What it knows, choose Add your website or Google Maps page, pick Your website, and add your address. It reads the pages of your site, and reads them again every week.
3. Go through the steps: name, what you do, checking its answers, how it talks, prices, when you are closed, and when it passes a chat to you.
4. On Try it, write a message like a customer would and read the answer. Each Try it chat counts as one AI conversation.
5. On the last step, switch it on.

Step 5: test it with Claude

1. From your own phone, send a WhatsApp message to your business number.
2. Ask Claude: “Read my newest conversation and tell me what the receptionist answered.”
3. If something looks wrong, ask Claude: “List the receptionist’s runs and show me the last one step by step.”

Switching it on and off from Claude

Ask Claude to switch the receptionist off, and it stops at once, with no confirmation. To switch it back on, ask Claude. It shows you which automation will start, and nothing happens until you confirm.

Common questions

Sources

Spotted something out of date? Email hello@cosend.app.