GET/v1/contacts/lookupbeta

Find a contact by phone

Needs: Read your data (mcp:read)
Plan: Any plan with API access
Limits: 300 a minute per key
Undo: Nothing to undo: this only reads.

Looks a contact up by phone number instead of id. Use it when your own system only knows the number.

If part of the contact cannot be read right now, the answer still comes back with unavailable listing what is missing: profile_extras means starred, created_at, updated_at and web_visitor_id are null because they are unknown; conversations means the timeline is empty because it could not be read. Retry later for those parts.

Try it

Query (1)

phonerequiredstring

International format, e.g. `+15555550123`.

This only reads. It uses your real data and changes nothing.

curl -X GET 'https://mcp.wa-api.cloud/v1/contacts/lookup?phone=%2B15555550123' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

The code reads your key from $API_KEY.

Parameters

Parameters
Field	Type	What it is
phonerequired	string · query	International format, e.g. `+15555550123`.3–32 characters

Headers

Headers
Field	Type	What it is
Authorizationrequired	header	`Bearer $API_KEY` — your API key.
Api-Version	header	The API version to use, e.g. `2026-10-01`. Default: the version your key is pinned to.one of: `2026-10-01` · pattern `^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$`

Response `200`

The contact.

Response fields
Field	Type	What it is
idrequired	string
namerequired	string or null
phonerequired	string or null	As the platform shows it to this staff member: E.164 digits, or masked (e.g. "*******12345") when the workspace hides numbers from agents. Never unmasked here.
phone_maskedrequired	boolean
whatsapp_user_idrequired	string or null
dndrequired	boolean	Do-not-disturb: the contact receives no broadcasts/marketing.
starredrequired	boolean or null	null only when it could not be read this time (`unavailable` includes profile_extras).
created_atrequired	string or null
updated_atrequired	string or null
email	string or null
web_visitor_id	string or null
tags	array of object
idrequired	string
namerequired	string or null
groups	array of object
idrequired	string
namerequired	string or null
attributes	array of object	Every custom field value this staff member may see (manager-only fields are hidden from agents; deleted fields never appear), at most 100. Text values longer than 2000 characters are clipped.
keyrequired	string	The custom field key (as in `GET /v1/custom-fields`).
labelrequired	string or null	The field label shown in the panel.
typerequired	string or null	text, textarea, number, int, float, decimal, email, phone, url, select, radio, multiselect, checkbox, boolean, date or datetime.
valuerequired	any	The value as the panel shows it: text; checkbox/boolean "Yes"/"No"; date "YYYY-MM-DD"; datetime "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" (UTC); multiselect "a, b"; int/float numbers; decimal a string with 8 decimals.
displayrequired	string or null	value as text.
typed_valuerequired	string \| number \| boolean \| array of string or null	value typed by the field type: number/int/float/decimal → number; checkbox/boolean → true/false; date → "YYYY-MM-DD"; datetime → ISO-8601 UTC; multiselect → array of the chosen values; select/radio/text/… → string. null when empty or unreadable.
conversations	array of object	Newest first (at most 10), a timeline summary; read messages with the inbox tools.
idrequired	string
channel_idrequired	string or null
staterequired	string or null
assignedrequired	boolean
assigned_staff_idrequired	string or null
created_atrequired	string or null
last_activity_atrequired	string or null
last_activity_at	string or null	Latest conversation activity (from the conversation list).
unavailable	array of string	Present only when part of the contact could not be read this time (retry later for it): profile_extras = starred, createdAt, updatedAt and webVisitorId are null because they are unknown, not empty; conversations = the timeline (and lastActivityAt) is empty because it could not be read, not because there are none.

Errors

Errors are application/problem+json. Branch on code.

Status	Code	When
400	invalid_input	A field is missing or has the wrong format. `errors[]` points at each field. Too many other contacts' numbers contain this one to find it exactly (`reason: lookup_incomplete`): look the contact up by id instead.
401	unauthenticated	The Authorization header is missing, the key is unknown, expired or revoked.
403	entitlement_required	The workspace's plan does not include API access (`api_access`).
403	insufficient_scope	The key does not have the permission this operation needs.
404	not_found	No contact has this number.
429	rate_limited	The key or workspace went over its rate limit. Wait for `Retry-After` seconds.
503	upstream_unavailable	A service behind the API is briefly unavailable. Safe to retry with backoff.

Examples

Look up by phone

Response 200

{
  "id": "48213",
  "name": "Jane Doe",
  "phone": "+15555550123",
  "phone_masked": false,
  "email": "jane@example.com",
  "dnd": false,
  "starred": false,
  "tags": [
    {
      "id": "17",
      "name": "vip"
    }
  ],
  "groups": [
    {
      "id": "5",
      "name": "Newsletter"
    }
  ],
  "created_at": "2026-09-20T08:14:03Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-23T16:40:11Z",
  "whatsapp_user_id": null
}

Operation path

The same operation is also at POST /v1/ops/crm_get_contact, with every field in the JSON body.