Apple Contacts

Apple Contacts CLI (contactbook)

Use contactbook to manage Apple Contacts from the terminal. Supports searching, creating, updating, deleting contacts, managing groups, and phone number lookups.

Setup

• Build from source: git clone https://github.com/RyanLisse/Contactbook && cd Contactbook && swift build -c release
• Copy binary: cp .build/release/contactbook /opt/homebrew/bin/contactbook
• macOS-only; grant Contacts permission when prompted on first run.

Permissions

• On first run, macOS will prompt for Contacts access — click "Allow".
• Or manually enable in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Contacts.

List Contacts

• List all: contactbook contacts list
• With limit: contactbook contacts list --limit 10
• JSON output: contactbook contacts list --limit 10 --json

Search Contacts

• By name/email/phone/org: contactbook contacts search "John" --json

Get Contact by ID