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django-meta-whatsapp provides a Django management command for syncing WhatsApp templates from Meta. This is useful for scheduled cron jobs, CI/CD pipelines, and initial setup without touching the dashboard UI.

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wa_sync_templates

python manage.py wa_sync_templates [--account-id N]
The command performs the following steps for each active WhatsAppAccount:
  1. Fetches all templates from Meta’s Graph API (GET /{waba_id}/message_templates?limit=100)
  2. Iterates through every template returned
  3. Extracts the BODY component text from the template’s components list
  4. Creates a new WhatsAppTemplate record or updates the existing one, matched by (account, name, language) using update_or_create
  5. Saves: meta_template_id, category, status, and body_text

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Options

OptionDescription
--account-id NSync only for the WhatsAppAccount with primary key N. If omitted, all active accounts are synced.

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Example Output

Syncing templates for account: My Business ...
  ✓ Synced 12 templates
If an error occurs for a particular account (e.g. invalid token, missing WABA ID), the command prints the error and continues to the next account.

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Requirements

  • waba_id must be set on the WhatsAppAccount record, or WHATSAPP["WABA_ID"] must be set in Django settings
  • The access_token must have the whatsapp_business_management permission to read message_templates for the WABA

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Usage Examples

# Sync all active accounts
python manage.py wa_sync_templates

# Sync only the account with pk=2
python manage.py wa_sync_templates --account-id 2

# Run as a cron job (daily at 2 AM)
0 2 * * * /path/to/venv/bin/python /path/to/manage.py wa_sync_templates

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Scheduling with Celery Beat

If your project uses Celery, you can schedule template syncs as a periodic task instead of using cron:
settings.py
from celery.schedules import crontab

CELERY_BEAT_SCHEDULE = {
    "sync-whatsapp-templates": {
        "task": "myapp.tasks.sync_templates_task",
        "schedule": crontab(hour=2, minute=0),  # 2 AM daily
    },
}
myapp/tasks.py
from celery import shared_task
from django_meta_whatsapp.models import WhatsAppAccount, WhatsAppTemplate
from django_meta_whatsapp.utils import sync_templates_from_meta

@shared_task
def sync_templates_task():
    for account in WhatsAppAccount.objects.filter(is_active=True):
        templates = sync_templates_from_meta(account=account)
        for t in templates:
            body_c = next((c for c in t.get("components", []) if c["type"] == "BODY"), {})
            WhatsAppTemplate.objects.update_or_create(
                account=account,
                name=t["name"],
                language=t.get("language", "en"),
                defaults={
                    "meta_template_id": t.get("id", ""),
                    "category": t.get("category", "MARKETING"),
                    "status": t.get("status", "PENDING"),
                    "body_text": body_c.get("text", ""),
                },
            )
This Celery task replicates the exact logic used by both the management command and the dashboard’s Sync from Meta button, so you can use whichever mechanism fits your infrastructure.
The wa_sync_templates command is idempotent — safe to run multiple times. It uses update_or_create matched on (account, name, language), so re-running it updates existing template records rather than creating duplicates.

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