Manage contacts, companies, deals, and pipeline with crm.cli — a headless CLI-first CRM backed by SQLite with a virtual filesystem interface
A headless, CLI-first CRM. Contacts, deals, and pipeline in a single SQLite file — queryable from your terminal, composable with Unix tools, and mountable as a virtual filesystem.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dzhng/crm.cli/main/install.sh | sh
This downloads the precompiled binary to ~/.local/bin and installs mount dependencies (FUSE on Linux, Rust toolchain on macOS for NFS).
After install, make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH:
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
Verify:
crm --version
Optional. Create crm.toml in your project root or ~/.crm/config.toml:
[database]
path = "~/.crm/crm.db"
[pipeline]
stages = ["lead", "qualified", "proposal", "negotiation", "closed-won", "closed-lost"]
won_stage = "closed-won"
lost_stage = "closed-lost"
[defaults]
format = "table"
[phone]
default_country = "US"
display = "international"
[mount]
default_path = "~/crm"
Config is auto-discovered by walking up from the current directory. Override with --config <path> or CRM_CONFIG env var.
Every command accepts:
--db <path> — SQLite database path (default: ~/.crm/crm.db, env: CRM_DB)--format <fmt> — Output format: table, json, csv, tsv, ids--config <path> — TOML config file path--no-color — Disable colored outputcrm contact add --name "Jane Doe" \
--email [email protected] \
--phone "+1-212-555-1234" \
--linkedin linkedin.com/in/janedoe \
--company "Acme Corp" \
--tag hot-lead \
--set title=CTO
All flags are optional except --name. Phones are normalized to E.164, LinkedIn URLs are extracted to handles, companies are auto-created if they don't exist. --email, --phone, --company, --tag, and --set are all repeatable.
Social handle flags: --linkedin, --x, --bluesky, --telegram. All accept raw handles or full URLs.
crm contact list
crm contact list --tag hot-lead --company "Acme Corp"
crm contact list --filter "title~=CTO AND company=Acme" --sort name --limit 20
crm contact list --format json | jq '.[].name'
Filter operators: =, !=, ~= (contains), >, <. Combine with AND / OR.
Look up by ID, email, phone, or social handle:
crm contact show ct_01J8ZVXB3K...
crm contact show [email protected]
crm contact show "+12125551234"
crm contact show janedoe # LinkedIn handle
crm contact edit [email protected] --name "Jane Smith"
crm contact edit "+12125551234" --add-email [email protected] --rm-tag old-tag
crm contact edit janedoe --add-company "New Corp" --set title=CEO --unset source
Add/remove flags: --add-email, --rm-email, --add-phone, --rm-phone, --add-company, --rm-company, --add-tag, --rm-tag. Social handles set directly: --linkedin, --x, --bluesky, --telegram.
crm contact rm [email protected]
crm contact rm "+12125551234" --force # skip confirmation
crm contact rm janedoe # by social handle
Merge two contacts into one. First contact survives, second is absorbed and deleted. Accepts any reference type:
crm contact merge ct_01A... ct_01B...
crm contact merge [email protected] [email protected]
crm contact merge "+12125551234" "+14155559876"
crm contact merge janedoe jane-doe-linkedin
Combines emails, phones, companies, tags, custom fields, and relinks all deals and activity.
crm company add --name "Acme Corp" \
--website acme.com \
--phone "+1-800-555-0000" \
--tag enterprise \
--set industry=SaaS
--website, --phone, --tag, --set are repeatable.
crm company list --tag enterprise
crm company show acme.com # by website
crm company show "+18005550000" # by phone
crm company edit acme.com --name "Acme Inc" --add-website acme.io
crm company rm acme.com --force
crm company merge co_01A... co_01B...
crm company merge acme.com acme.io
crm company merge "+18005550000" "+18005550001"
Relinks all contacts and deals from second to first.
crm deal add --title "Acme Enterprise" \
--value 50000 \
--stage qualified \
--contact [email protected] \
--company acme.com \
--expected-close 2026-06-15 \
--probability 60 \
--tag enterprise
Contacts and companies are auto-created if they don't exist. --contact and --tag are repeatable.
crm deal list --stage qualified --min-value 10000
crm deal list --contact [email protected] --sort value --reverse
crm deal list --format ids | wc -l # count deals
crm deal move dl_01... --stage proposal --note "Sent pricing deck"
crm deal move dl_01... --stage closed-won --note "Signed 2-year contract"
Stage transitions are recorded as activity with timestamps. Use deal move, not deal edit --stage.
crm deal edit dl_01... --value 75000 --add-contact [email protected] --probability 80
crm deal rm dl_01... --force
crm pipeline
Shows count, total value, and weighted value per stage.
crm log note "Had coffee with Jane, discussed Q3 expansion" --contact [email protected]
crm log call "Demoed product, she wants a proposal" --contact [email protected] --deal dl_01...
crm log meeting "Quarterly review" --company acme.com --at 2026-04-01
crm log email "Sent follow-up pricing" --contact [email protected] --set channel=outbound
Types: note, call, meeting, email. Contacts and companies are auto-created. --contact is repeatable. --at overrides the timestamp.
crm activity list --contact [email protected] --since 2026-01-01
crm activity list --type call --limit 10
crm activity list --deal dl_01... --format json
crm tag [email protected] hot-lead enterprise # add tags
crm untag [email protected] old-tag # remove tags
crm tag list # all tags with counts
crm tag list --type contact # contact tags only
Tags work on contacts, companies, and deals.
crm search "acme CTO"
crm search "jane" --type contact
crm find "fintech startup London"
crm find "that CTO I met at the conference" --limit 5 --threshold 0.3
crm index rebuild
crm index status
Index updates automatically on writes. Manual rebuild only needed after corruption.
crm dupes
crm dupes --type contact --threshold 0.5
crm dupes --type company --limit 20
Uses combined Levenshtein + Dice coefficient similarity. Detects: similar names, shared emails, shared phones, shared websites, shared social handles. Review then merge:
crm dupes --type contact
# → Jane Doe ↔ J. Doe: similar name, shared email
crm contact merge ct_01A... ct_01B...
crm report pipeline # stage counts & values
crm report activity --period 30d --by type # activity volume
crm report stale --days 14 --type contact # no recent activity
crm report conversion --since 2026-01-01 # stage-to-stage rates
crm report velocity --won-only # time per stage
crm report forecast --period 2026-Q2 # weighted forecast
crm report won --period 90d # closed-won summary
crm report lost --period 90d # closed-lost summary
crm import contacts leads.csv
crm import contacts leads.json --update # update existing by email match
crm import companies companies.csv --dry-run
crm import deals deals.csv --skip-errors
cat data.json | crm import contacts - # import from stdin
CSV headers: name, email/emails, phone/phones, company/companies, tags, linkedin, x, bluesky, telegram. Unrecognized columns become custom fields.
crm export contacts --format csv > contacts.csv
crm export companies --format json > companies.json
crm export deals --format tsv
crm export all --format json > full-backup.json
Mount the CRM as a live read/write filesystem. Any tool that reads files gets full CRM access — AI agents, grep, jq, vim, scripts.
crm mount ~/crm
crm mount ~/crm --readonly
On Linux this uses FUSE. On macOS this uses an NFS v3 server (no kernel extensions needed).
~/crm/
├── llm.txt # Instructions for AI agents
├── contacts/
│ ├── ct_01...jane-doe.json # Contact JSON files
│ ├── _by-email/ # Lookup by email
│ ├── _by-phone/ # Lookup by E.164 phone
│ ├── _by-linkedin/ # Lookup by LinkedIn handle
│ ├── _by-x/ # Lookup by X handle
│ ├── _by-company/ # Grouped by company
│ └── _by-tag/ # Grouped by tag
├── companies/
│ ├── co_01...acme-corp.json
│ ├── _by-website/
│ ├── _by-phone/
│ └── _by-tag/
├── deals/
│ ├── dl_01...acme-enterprise.json
│ ├── _by-stage/
│ ├── _by-company/
│ └── _by-tag/
├── activities/
│ ├── _by-contact/
│ ├── _by-company/
│ ├── _by-deal/
│ └── _by-type/
├── reports/ # Pre-computed analytics
│ ├── pipeline.json
│ ├── forecast.json
│ ├── stale.json
│ ├── conversion.json
│ ├── velocity.json
│ ├── won.json
│ └── lost.json
├── pipeline.json # Quick pipeline overview
├── tags.json # All tags with counts
└── search/ # Search by reading files
└── <query>.json # cat search/"acme CTO".json
ls ~/crm/contacts/
cat ~/crm/contacts/ct_01...jane-doe.json | jq .
cat ~/crm/contacts/_by-email/[email protected]
cat ~/crm/deals/_by-stage/qualified/
cat ~/crm/reports/forecast.json
cat ~/crm/search/"enterprise deals".json
# Create a contact
echo '{"name":"Bob Smith","emails":["[email protected]"]}' > ~/crm/contacts/new.json
# Update (read → modify → write back)
cat ~/crm/contacts/ct_01...jane-doe.json | jq '.tags += ["vip"]' > ~/crm/contacts/ct_01...jane-doe.json
# Delete
rm ~/crm/contacts/ct_01...jane-doe.json
crm unmount ~/crm
crm export-fs ./crm-snapshot
Exports the same directory structure as a static copy — useful in containers or sandboxes where FUSE isn't available.
Use --format ids to pipe into other commands:
# Tag all contacts from Acme as enterprise
crm contact list --company "Acme Corp" --format ids | xargs -I{} crm tag {} enterprise
# Move all qualified deals over $50k to proposal
crm deal list --stage qualified --min-value 50000 --format ids | \
xargs -I{} crm deal move {} --stage proposal
# Delete all stale contacts
crm report stale --days 90 --type contact --format ids | xargs -I{} crm contact rm {} --force
All entities support arbitrary key-value fields:
crm contact add --name "Jane" --set title=CTO --set source=conference
crm contact edit [email protected] --set "json:score=85" --set "json:verified=true"
crm contact edit [email protected] --unset source
crm contact list --filter "title~=CTO"
Prefix with json: for typed values (numbers, booleans, arrays).
Configure shell hooks in crm.toml that fire on mutations:
[hooks]
post-contact-add = "~/.crm/hooks/notify-slack.sh"
post-deal-stage-change = "~/.crm/hooks/deal-moved.sh"
pre-contact-rm = "~/.crm/hooks/confirm-delete.sh"
Entity data is passed as JSON on stdin. Pre-hooks abort on non-zero exit.
Available hooks: {pre,post}-{contact,company,deal}-{add,edit,rm}, {pre,post}-deal-stage-change, {pre,post}-activity-add.
crm mount ~/crm gives you filesystem access — read JSON files directly instead of running CLI commandsllm.txt: The mount point contains llm.txt with structure docs and tips_by-* directories for fast lookups: _by-email, _by-phone, _by-linkedin, _by-tag, _by-stage--format json for all CLI output when processing programmatically--format ids + xargs for bulk operationsreports/ for pre-computed analytics — don't recompute from raw datacat ~/crm/search/"your query".json