Contacts
Contacts
Contacts is the workspace's book of the people and companies you deal with: their names in any script, how to reach them, which company each person is with and how you know them (module contacts). Each contact is kept once for the whole workspace. Agents read this book to turn a name you say into the right person.
In the sidebar under Work → Contacts. Needs nothing else switched on.
A contact is shared with everyone who can open Contacts, unless you mark it Private; then only you see it. Workspace members are not contacts and are never copied in.
What you see
The screen has four tabs: List, Duplicates, Imports and Left the workspace.
List
Every contact you can see, with Name, Kind, Company, Email, Tags and Changed. Switch between People and companies, People and Companies, filter by tag, and tick Show archived to include archived contacts. Private and archived contacts are marked. From here you can add a contact and export the whole list as a spreadsheet (CSV) or a vCard file.
A contact
Click a contact to open its page:
- How to reach them: emails, phones, Telegram handles and addresses, each with a label. Add detail adds one, and Prefer makes one the preferred of its kind.
- Also written: other spellings of the name, in any script.
- Companies: which company a person is with, current or past, with a role. A company's page lists its People.
- Tags, such as client or landlord.
- How you know them and Notes.
- Linked to: records in other modules this contact is linked to, such as a supplier, billing party, payee, project, task, reminder or shop customer. Only the link is kept; the record itself is never copied. Removing a link does not touch the record.
- History: every change, with where each value came from.
Buttons on the page let you Rename, archive (Bring back undoes it), export this contact as a vCard, and delete it permanently.
Duplicates
Possible duplicates lists pairs that may be one person, with How likely and Why (a shared email, phone or Telegram handle is probable; a similar name at one company is possible). Review and merge… opens a dialog where you choose which contact stays and which values to keep. You can also close a pair; it is offered again only if the two come to match for a new reason. Recent merges lists merges, and each can be undone for 30 days.
Imports
Import contacts brings in A CSV file, A vCard file (.vcf) or My Google contacts. You see a preview first: Which column is what, Contacts that are already here and Skipped rows. You can tick Mark everything private. An import never overwrites a value you changed by hand. Recent imports shows each run and its progress; a run can be cancelled.
Left the workspace
Private contacts whose owner has left. An administrator can take one over (it becomes theirs, still private) or remove it and everything under it for good.
What you can do
Add a contact
- On List, press the add button.
- Choose the Kind (person or company), fill in Name, and optionally Email, Phone, Company, Role and Tags.
- Tick Private if only you should see it, and save.
Only the person who made a contact can change whether it is private.
Merge two contacts
Open Duplicates, press Review and merge… on a pair, pick Keep as the main contact, and confirm. To undo within 30 days, use Recent merges.
Import or export
Use Imports to bring contacts in, and the export buttons on List or on a contact to take them out. Import, export and permanent delete are for people only, never agents.
Who can do what
| Permission | Label | Lets you |
|---|---|---|
contacts:read | View contacts, find a person or company by name and see where they are linked | Open Contacts and see every shared contact and your own private ones |
contacts:write | Add, change, archive, tag, link and merge contacts, and undo what an agent added | Everything on a contact short of deleting it for good |
contacts:import | Import contacts from a file or from Google | Use the Imports tab |
contacts:export | Export contacts as a file | Download CSV or vCard files |
contacts:delete | Permanently delete a contact and everything held under it | Delete for good, including on Left the workspace |
See People, roles and permissions.
What runs on its own
| Job | When | What it does |
|---|---|---|
import | Every 5 minutes (*/5 * * * *) | Picks up an import that was waiting or whose worker stopped (for example during a restart) and carries on from where it left off, so nothing is applied twice. |
sweep | Every day at 03:17 UTC (17 3 * * *) | Once a merge's 30-day undo window is over, empties the copy kept for undo. Old references to the merged contact still lead to the one that stayed. Also forgets an import's skipped rows 30 days after it ended. |
For agents
When a name fits more than one contact, an agent asks which one, naming what tells them apart, instead of guessing. An agent can add a contact or a detail from something you told it, with an Undo. It asks you before it changes or removes anything, and before it adds something it only read in a mail or a web page. It can never merge, import, export or delete for good. See Agents and approvals.
Find (read-only): contacts.lookup (turn a name into the right contact; call first), contacts.search, contacts.open, contacts.byReference (which contacts these emails, phones or handles are), contacts.duplicates.
Add: contacts.create, contacts.addDetail, contacts.addAlias, contacts.addAffiliation, contacts.tag, contacts.unarchive, contacts.link, contacts.proposeMerge (suggests a pair for a person to review; never merges), contacts.undo.
Change or remove (always ask a person first): contacts.update, contacts.untag, contacts.replaceValue, contacts.removeValue, contacts.archive, contacts.setPreferred.
Over MCP the same tools are named contacts__lookup, contacts__create and so on. See API keys and MCP access.