GitHub - jdanielnd/crm-cli: Your contacts, in your terminal.

7 min read Original article ↗

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CI Go Report Card License: MIT

A local-first personal CRM that lives in your terminal. Manage contacts, organizations, interactions, deals, and tasks — all from the command line. Ships with a built-in MCP server so AI agents like Claude can read and update your CRM directly.

Single static binary. SQLite database. No cloud. No accounts. Your data stays on your machine.

Features

  • People & Organizations — contacts with full profiles, linked to companies
  • Interaction Log — track calls, emails, meetings, notes, and messages
  • Deals & Pipeline — sales opportunities with stages, values, and a pipeline view
  • Tasks — follow-ups with due dates, priorities, and completion tracking
  • Tags — labels on any entity for flexible organization
  • Relationships — person-to-person links (colleague, mentor, referred-by, …)
  • Full-Text Search — find anything across all entities instantly
  • Context Briefing — one command to get everything about a person before a meeting
  • AI-Ready — built-in MCP server for Claude and other AI agents
  • Multiple Output Formats — table, JSON, CSV, TSV — pipe into anything
  • Zero Dependencies — single binary, pure-Go SQLite, runs anywhere

Install

# Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install jdanielnd/tap/crm

# Go
go install github.com/jdanielnd/crm-cli/cmd/crm@latest

# Or download a binary from GitHub Releases
# https://github.com/jdanielnd/crm-cli/releases

Quick Start

# Add a company
crm org add "Acme Corp" --domain acme.com

# Add a contact and link them to the org
crm person add "Jane Smith" --email jane@example.com --org 1

# Log a call
crm log call 1 --subject "Intro call"

# Get a full briefing before your next meeting
crm context 1

# See your dashboard
crm status

Commands

People

crm person add "Jane Smith" --email jane@example.com --phone 555-1234 --org 1
crm person list                          # all contacts
crm person list --tag vip --limit 10     # filtered
crm person show 1                        # full details
crm person edit 1 --title "CTO" --company "Acme Corp"
crm person delete 1                      # soft-delete (recoverable)

Organizations

crm org add "Acme Corp" --domain acme.com --industry SaaS
crm org list
crm org show 1 --with-people             # show org + its members
crm org edit 1 --domain acme.io
crm org delete 1

Interactions

crm log call 1 --subject "Discussed roadmap" --content "Agreed on Q2 timeline"
crm log email 1 --subject "Follow-up" --direction outbound
crm log meeting 1 2 --subject "Product demo" --at "2026-03-05 14:00"
crm log note 1 --subject "Quick check-in" --content "Seemed interested"
crm log list --person 1 --limit 5        # recent interactions with person

Deals

crm deal add "Website Redesign" --value 15000 --person 1 --stage proposal
crm deal list --open                     # exclude won/lost
crm deal list --stage proposal
crm deal show 1
crm deal edit 1 --stage won --closed-at 2026-03-15
crm deal delete 1
crm deal pipeline                        # summary by stage

Tasks

crm task add "Follow up on proposal" --person 1 --due 2026-03-14 --priority high
crm task list                            # open tasks
crm task list --overdue                  # past due
crm task list --all                      # include completed
crm task show 1
crm task edit 1 --priority medium
crm task done 1                          # mark completed
crm task delete 1

Tags

crm tag apply person 1 "vip"
crm tag apply deal 1 "q2"
crm tag show person 1                    # tags on a person
crm tag remove person 1 "vip"
crm tag list                             # all tags
crm tag delete "old-tag"                 # remove tag entirely

Relationships

crm person relate 1 2 --type colleague --notes "Met at ReactConf"
crm person relationships 1               # list all relationships
crm person unrelate 1                    # remove by relationship ID

Relationship types: colleague, friend, manager, mentor, referred-by

Search

crm search "jane"                        # searches people, orgs, interactions, deals
crm search "roadmap" --type interaction  # filter by entity type

Context Briefing

crm context 1                            # full briefing by person ID
crm context "Jane Smith"                 # or by name

Returns person profile, organization, recent interactions, open deals, pending tasks, relationships, and tags — everything you need before a meeting.

Dashboard

Shows contact/org counts, open deals with total value, task counts, overdue items, pipeline breakdown, and recent activity.

Output Formats

Every command supports --format / -f:

crm person list                          # table (default in TTY)
crm person list -f json                  # JSON (default when piped)
crm person list -f csv                   # CSV
crm person list -f tsv                   # TSV

Use -q / --quiet for minimal output (just IDs), useful for scripting:

crm person list --tag vip -q | xargs -I{} crm tag apply person {} "priority"

Piping & Composition

crm follows Unix conventions — data to stdout, messages to stderr, structured exit codes — so it plays well with other tools:

# Bulk tag everyone at an org
crm person list -f json | jq '.[] | select(.org_id == 1) | .id' | xargs -I{} crm tag apply person {} "acme-team"

# Interactive selection with fzf
crm person list -f tsv | fzf | cut -f1 | xargs crm person show

# Export contacts to CSV
crm person list -f csv > contacts.csv

# Overdue task notifications
crm task list --overdue -f json | jq -r '.[] | "OVERDUE: \(.title)"'

Exit codes: 0 success, 1 error, 2 usage, 3 not found, 4 conflict, 10 database error.

AI Integration (MCP Server)

crm includes a built-in MCP server so AI agents can query and update your CRM over a structured protocol.

Claude Code

claude mcp add crm -- crm mcp serve

Then copy AGENT.md into your project as CLAUDE.md so Claude knows how to use the CRM effectively.

Claude Desktop (macOS)

  1. Open the config file at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

  2. Add the CRM server (if the file already has other servers, add the "crm" entry inside the existing mcpServers object):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crm": {
      "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/crm",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

Note: Use the full path to the binary. Homebrew on Apple Silicon installs to /opt/homebrew/bin/crm, on Intel Macs to /usr/local/bin/crm. Run which crm to find yours.

  1. Restart Claude Desktop

  2. Create a new Project, click the project settings, and paste the contents of AGENT.md into the project instructions. This teaches Claude when to log interactions, how to maintain contact summaries, tagging conventions, and more.

Available Tools

Tool Description
crm_person_search Search people by name, email, tag, org
crm_person_get Get full details for a person
crm_person_create Create a new person
crm_person_update Update person fields
crm_person_delete Delete (archive) a person
crm_person_relate Create relationship between people
crm_org_search Search organizations
crm_org_get Get org details with members
crm_interaction_log Log a call, email, meeting, or note
crm_interaction_list List interactions for a person
crm_search Cross-entity full-text search
crm_context Full person briefing
crm_deal_create Create a deal
crm_deal_update Update deal stage/fields
crm_task_create Create a task
crm_task_list List open tasks
crm_tag_apply Apply a tag
crm_stats CRM summary stats

Example AI Workflow

After a meeting, tell Claude:

"Just had a great meeting with Jane. We agreed on the timeline, she'll sign next week."

Claude can:

  1. Log the interaction with crm_interaction_log
  2. Update the deal stage with crm_deal_update
  3. Create a follow-up task with crm_task_create
  4. Update Jane's summary with crm_person_update

The summary field on contacts acts as a living dossier that AI agents maintain — reading it before meetings for context, updating it after interactions with new facts and preferences.

Configuration

The database lives at ~/.crm/crm.db by default. Override with:

# Flag (highest priority)
crm --db /path/to/crm.db person list

# Environment variable
export CRM_DB=/path/to/crm.db

The database and directory are auto-created on first use.

iCloud Sync (macOS)

Point your database to iCloud Drive for automatic backup across machines:

export CRM_DB="$HOME/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/crm/crm.db"

SQLite WAL mode handles concurrent reads well, but avoid writing from two machines simultaneously.

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/jdanielnd/crm-cli.git
cd crm-cli
go build -o crm ./cmd/crm
go test ./...

Requires Go 1.23+. No CGO — builds anywhere Go runs.

Tech Stack

Component Choice
Language Go
Database SQLite via modernc.org/sqlite (pure Go, no CGO)
CLI Cobra
MCP mcp-go
Search SQLite FTS5

License

MIT