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The useMultiFileAuthState function provides a file-based implementation of authentication state storage. It’s more efficient than single-file storage but recommended for development/bot use only.
While more efficient than single-file storage, this is not recommended for production applications. Consider implementing authentication state storage with a proper SQL or NoSQL database for production use.

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Function Signature

const useMultiFileAuthState = async (
  folder: string
): Promise<{ 
  state: AuthenticationState; 
  saveCreds: () => Promise<void> 
}>

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Parameters

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folder
string
required
Path to the folder where authentication state files will be stored. The folder will be created if it doesn’t exist.

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Returns

Returns a Promise that resolves to an object with:
​
state
AuthenticationState
required
The authentication state object containing credentials and keys
​
saveCreds
() => Promise<void>
required
Function to persist credentials to disk. Call this after credential updates to save changes.
await saveCreds() // Writes to creds.json

​
Usage Example

import { useMultiFileAuthState } from '@whiskeysockets/baileys'

const { state, saveCreds } = await useMultiFileAuthState('./auth_info')

// Use the state when creating a socket connection
const sock = makeWASocket({
  auth: state,
  // ... other options
})

// Listen for credential updates and save them
sock.ev.on('creds.update', saveCreds)

​
File Structure

The function creates the following file structure: 
auth_info/
├── creds.json                    # Main credentials
├── pre-key-1.json               # Individual pre-keys
├── pre-key-2.json
├── session-123456789.json        # Session data
├── app-state-sync-key-xyz.json  # App state keys
└── ...

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Key Features

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File Locking

The implementation uses per-file mutex locks to prevent race conditions when reading/writing files concurrently: 
const fileLocks = new Map<string, Mutex>()
const getFileLock = (path: string): Mutex => {
  let mutex = fileLocks.get(path)
  if (!mutex) {
    mutex = new Mutex()
    fileLocks.set(path, mutex)
  }
  return mutex
}

​
File Name Sanitization

Special characters in key IDs are sanitized for safe file system usage:
  • / → __
  • : → -

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Automatic Initialization

If creds.json doesn’t exist, new credentials are automatically initialized using initAuthCreds().

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Special Handling for App State Keys

App state sync keys are deserialized using protobuf: 
if (type === 'app-state-sync-key' && value) {
  value = proto.Message.AppStateSyncKeyData.fromObject(value)
}

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Error Handling

The function will throw an error if a non-directory file exists at the specified folder path.
if (folderInfo && !folderInfo.isDirectory()) {
  throw new Error(
    `found something that is not a directory at ${folder}, ` +
    `either delete it or specify a different location`
  )
}

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