Handling Events

The socket is an event emitter (sock.ev). This is the complete event map of the package — every event name below exists in the BaileysEventMap type, with the payload it actually carries.

Connection & credentials

Messages

Chats, contacts, presence

Groups & newsletters

Reading an incoming message properly

sock.ev.on('messages.upsert', async ({ messages, type }) => {
  if (type !== 'notify') return // skip history catch-up
  for (const m of messages) {
    if (!m.message) continue          // key-only updates happen
    if (m.key.fromMe) continue        // don't loop on yourself
    const jid = m.key.remoteJid
    const isGroup = jid.endsWith('@g.us')
    const sender = isGroup ? m.key.participant : jid
    const text =
      m.message.conversation ||
      m.message.extendedTextMessage?.text ||
      m.message.imageMessage?.caption ||
      m.message.videoMessage?.caption || ''
    console.log(sender, ': ', text)
  }
})

Buffered processing (don't lose events)

The event emitter buffers events while your async handler is busy, if you use its processing helper — this exists so bursts (like the initial history sync) don't interleave half-written store updates:

const off = sock.ev.process(async (events) => {
  if (events['connection.update']) { /* ... */ }
  if (events['messages.upsert']) { /* ... */ }
})
// call off() to stop processing

And when you tear a socket down completely, call sock.ev.destroy() (a real destroy since v1.0.4) so no listeners leak into your next reconnect attempt.