I Built a WhatsApp Native Helpdesk for Odoo Community
Most customer support systems still assume that customers want to open tickets by email.
But in many markets, that is not how support actually happens.
In Pakistan, MENA, South Asia, Africa, and many WhatsApp-first regions, customers usually do not start with a support portal or email thread.
They send a WhatsApp message.
That message becomes the real support request.
The problem is that Odoo Community does not provide a complete WhatsApp-native helpdesk workflow out of the box.
So I built an open-source module:
WhatsApp Native Helpdesk for Odoo Community
GitHub repo:
https://github.com/gharisj3/odoo-whatsapp-native-helpdesk
The Problem
Many small and mid-sized businesses already use Odoo Community for CRM, sales, accounting, inventory, and operations.
But customer support often lives outside Odoo.
Support messages are scattered across:
- WhatsApp chats
- Agent phones
- Manual spreadsheets
- Email screenshots
- Internal notes
- Verbal follow-ups
This creates a few serious problems:
- No central ticket history
- No ownership
- No SLA visibility
- No escalation process
- No clean audit trail
- No connection between support and business records
For WhatsApp-first businesses, the support channel is already clear.
The missing piece is bringing that workflow into Odoo Community.
What I Built
I built a WhatsApp-native support desk module for Odoo Community.
The module allows businesses to receive WhatsApp customer messages, create or update support tickets in Odoo, assign tickets to agents, track status and SLA, and reply back to the customer through WhatsApp using n8n as the automation layer.
The core flow is simple:
Customer WhatsApp Message
↓
Meta WhatsApp Cloud API
↓
n8n Workflow
↓
Odoo Webhook
↓
Odoo Support Ticket
↓
Agent Reply from Odoo
↓
n8n Workflow
↓
WhatsApp Reply to Customer
The goal was not to build a chatbot.
The goal was to build real support ticketing around the communication channel customers already use.
Why n8n Is Used
I used n8n as the integration layer because it keeps the WhatsApp API handling separate from Odoo.
That means Odoo does not need to store Meta WhatsApp access tokens directly.
n8n handles:
- WhatsApp webhook receiving
- Payload normalization
- WhatsApp Cloud API calls
- Status update routing
- Future automation workflows
Odoo handles:
- Ticket creation
- Customer mapping
- Agent assignment
- Message history
- SLA tracking
- Status management
- Internal support workflow
This separation makes the system easier to extend later.
For example, the same pattern can be reused for:
- CRM enrichment
- Invoice follow-ups
- Order status updates
- POS support
- Vendor workflows
- AI-assisted reply suggestions
- Customer satisfaction surveys
Key Features
The current version includes:
- WhatsApp-to-ticket creation
- Existing ticket update when the same customer replies
- Partner auto-mapping by phone number or WhatsApp ID
- Agent reply from inside Odoo
- Outbound WhatsApp message flow through n8n
- Message deduplication using WhatsApp message ID
- Ticket stages
- Team assignment
- Priority tracking
- SLA tracking
- First response tracking
- Failed message handling
- Retry action for failed outbound messages
- Message status sync
- Dashboard views
- Docker-based local setup
- Importable n8n workflow examples
- Postman API collection
- Security groups and access rules
Ticket Lifecycle
A normal support flow looks like this:
- A customer sends a WhatsApp message.
- n8n receives the webhook from Meta WhatsApp Cloud API.
- n8n normalizes the payload.
- Odoo receives the payload through a secure webhook endpoint.
- Odoo checks whether the customer already exists.
- If the customer does not exist, Odoo creates a partner.
- Odoo checks whether there is an open ticket for that customer.
- If an open ticket exists, the message is added to the same ticket.
- If no open ticket exists, a new ticket is created.
- The support agent replies from Odoo.
- n8n sends the reply through WhatsApp Cloud API.
- Odoo stores the outbound message and delivery status.
This keeps the full conversation history inside Odoo.
Why This Matters
For businesses that rely on WhatsApp, this kind of workflow can reduce a lot of operational friction.
Instead of support being managed inside individual chat threads, it becomes structured.
Agents can see:
- Who owns the issue
- What the latest message was
- Whether the SLA is at risk
- Which stage the ticket is in
- Whether a reply failed
- Whether the issue was resolved
- Which customer record the issue belongs to
That is a big improvement over scattered WhatsApp conversations.
Repository Structure
The repository is organized as a real Odoo addon project:
odoo-whatsapp-native-helpdesk/
├── addons/
│ └── whatsapp_helpdesk/
├── n8n/
│ └── workflows/
├── docs/
├── postman/
├── scripts/
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Dockerfile
├── .env.example
└── README.md
The Odoo source code is not committed into the repository.
The project includes bootstrap scripts and Docker setup so Odoo Community can be cloned and run locally during development.
Tech Stack
The project uses:
- Odoo Community
- Python
- PostgreSQL
- Docker
- n8n
- Meta WhatsApp Cloud API
- REST webhooks
- XML views and security rules
- Postman for API testing
Local Setup
Clone the repo:
git clone https://github.com/gharisj3/odoo-whatsapp-native-helpdesk.git
cd odoo-whatsapp-native-helpdesk
Copy the environment file:
cp .env.example .env
Make scripts executable:
chmod +x scripts/*.sh
Bootstrap Odoo:
./scripts/bootstrap_odoo.sh
Start the services:
docker compose up -d
Then open:
Odoo: http://localhost:8069
n8n: http://localhost:5678
Odoo Installation Flow
After Odoo is running:
- Create a new database.
- Activate developer mode.
- Update the Apps List.
- Search for
WhatsApp Helpdesk. - Install the module.
- Configure the WhatsApp Helpdesk channel.
- Import the n8n workflows.
- Test inbound and outbound flows.
n8n Workflow Layer
The project includes example n8n workflows for:
- Inbound WhatsApp message to Odoo ticket
- Odoo agent reply to WhatsApp
- WhatsApp status update sync
The workflows are designed as starting points.
You still need to configure your own:
- Meta WhatsApp Cloud API credentials
- WhatsApp phone number ID
- Odoo base URL
- Shared secret
- Production webhook URLs
Security Design
A few security choices were intentional:
- Meta access tokens are not stored in Odoo.
- WhatsApp API calls are handled by n8n.
- Webhook endpoints validate a shared secret.
- Real credentials are excluded from the repository.
-
.env.exampleuses placeholder values only. - Failed outbound messages are logged without exposing credentials.
- Internal notes are not sent to customers.
For production, the setup should run behind HTTPS with proper reverse proxy configuration, strong passwords, and protected Odoo/n8n access.
Legal and Compliance Notes
This is an independent open-source project.
It is not an official Odoo, Meta, WhatsApp, or n8n product.
It is not certified, endorsed, or sponsored by those companies.
The names Odoo, WhatsApp, Meta, and n8n are used only to describe integration compatibility and the technologies involved.
Production usage requires a valid Meta WhatsApp Cloud API setup and compliance with applicable WhatsApp Business Platform rules, messaging policies, customer consent requirements, and local laws.
This project does not bypass WhatsApp Business Platform rules.
Businesses are responsible for using approved templates where required and for following customer messaging policies.
Current Limitations
The current release focuses on the core support workflow.
Some items are planned for future versions:
- Media attachment handling
- WhatsApp template message support
- Multi-number routing
- Customer satisfaction survey
- AI-assisted reply suggestions
- Auto-priority classification
- Working-hours SLA calendar
- CRM and sales order linking
- Shopify or WooCommerce lookup through n8n
Why I Built This
I work around ERP, Odoo, backend systems, and automation workflows.
I kept seeing the same gap:
Businesses were running operations in Odoo, but support conversations were happening somewhere else.
For WhatsApp-first markets, that gap matters.
This project is my attempt to make that support flow more structured, traceable, and automation-ready while still keeping it open-source friendly.
GitHub Repository
You can check the project here:
https://github.com/gharisj3/odoo-whatsapp-native-helpdesk
More From Me
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/muhammad-gharis-javed-318266202/
Fiverr:
https://www.fiverr.com/muhammadghar709
Digital products and templates:
https://omniacademy.gumroad.com/
Final Thought
WhatsApp is not just a chat app for many businesses.
It is where support starts.
The next step is making those conversations structured enough to manage, assign, track, and improve.
That is what this project is built for.
