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Overview

Before deploying the WhatsApp RAG Bot, ensure your environment meets the following requirements. This project is built with PHP and requires several dependencies and extensions.

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Server Requirements

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PHP Version

PHP 7.4 or higher is required. The application is compatible with PHP 8.0+.
From composer.json: 
"require": {
    "php": "^7.4 || ^8.0"
}

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PHP Extensions

The following PHP extensions are required:
1

Core Extensions

  • curl - For API calls to WhatsApp and OpenAI
  • json - For JSON encoding/decoding
  • pdo_mysql - For MySQL database connections
  • mbstring - For multi-byte string handling
  • openssl - For encryption and secure connections
2

File Processing Extensions

  • zip - For handling ZIP archives
  • xml - For processing DOCX files
  • gd or imagick - For image processing (optional)
3

Additional Extensions

  • fileinfo - For file type detection
  • iconv - For character encoding conversion

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Web Server

  • Apache 2.4 or higher
  • mod_rewrite enabled
  • .htaccess support enabled
  • mod_headers recommended (for security headers)

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Database Requirements

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MySQL

MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.2+ is required with InnoDB storage engine.
Required MySQL features:
  • InnoDB storage engine
  • UTF-8 (utf8mb4) character set support
  • BLOB field support for vector embeddings
  • JSON field support (for flow_nodes, calendar_settings)
  • Foreign key constraints
  • Triggers support

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Database Configuration

Recommended MySQL settings: 
max_allowed_packet = 64M
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 256M
character_set_server = utf8mb4
collation_server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci

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Composer Dependencies

The following PHP packages are required (installed via Composer):

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HTTP Client

"guzzlehttp/guzzle": "^7.0"
Used for making HTTP requests to WhatsApp Business API and OpenAI API.

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Document Processing

"phpoffice/phpword": "^0.18"
For reading and extracting text from Microsoft Word documents (.docx).
"smalot/pdfparser": "^0.18"
For reading and extracting text from PDF documents for RAG processing.

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External API Requirements

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WhatsApp Business API

1

Meta Developer Account

  • Active Meta Developer account
  • WhatsApp Business App created
  • Phone number registered for WhatsApp Business
2

Required Credentials

  • Phone Number ID
  • Access Token
  • Verify Token (custom string you define)
  • App Secret (for webhook signature verification)
3

Webhook Configuration

  • Public HTTPS URL for webhook endpoint
  • SSL certificate (required by Meta)

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OpenAI API

An active OpenAI API key with sufficient credits is required.
Required API access:
  • GPT models (e.g., gpt-3.5-turbo, gpt-4)
  • Embeddings models (e.g., text-embedding-ada-002)
  • Whisper API (for audio transcription)

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Google Calendar (Optional)

If using calendar scheduling features:
  • Google Cloud Project
  • Calendar API enabled
  • OAuth 2.0 credentials configured

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File System Requirements

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Directory Permissions

# Required writable directories
chmod 755 logs/
chmod 755 uploads/
chmod 755 uploads/audios/

# Protected files
chmod 600 .env
chmod 644 .htaccess

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Disk Space

  • Minimum: 100 MB for application files
  • Recommended: 1 GB+ for logs, uploaded documents, and audio files
  • Vector embeddings stored as BLOBs in MySQL (ensure adequate database storage)

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PHP Configuration

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Required php.ini Settings

; File uploads
upload_max_filesize = 10M
post_max_size = 10M
file_uploads = On

; Execution limits
max_execution_time = 60
max_input_time = 60
memory_limit = 512M

; Error handling
error_reporting = E_ALL
display_errors = Off
log_errors = On

; Timezone
date.timezone = America/Bogota
In production, always set display_errors = Off and log_errors = On for security.

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Network Requirements

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Outbound Connections

The server must be able to make HTTPS requests to:
  • graph.facebook.com (WhatsApp API)
  • api.openai.com (OpenAI API)
  • www.googleapis.com (Google Calendar API, if enabled)

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Inbound Connections

  • Port 443 (HTTPS) must be open for webhook callbacks
  • Valid SSL/TLS certificate required (Meta requirement)

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Development vs Production

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Minimal Requirements

  • PHP 7.4+ with built-in server
  • MySQL 5.7+ (or SQLite for testing)
  • ngrok or similar for webhook testing
  • Composer installed

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Not Required

  • SSL certificate (can use ngrok HTTPS)
  • Apache/Nginx (built-in server works)
  • Production-level performance

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Quick Requirements Check

Verify your server meets requirements: 
# Check PHP version
php -v

# Check PHP extensions
php -m | grep -E "curl|json|pdo_mysql|mbstring|openssl|zip|xml"

# Check Composer
composer --version

# Check MySQL version
mysql --version

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Next Steps

Ready to install?

Proceed to Local Development setup guide

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