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I started using Org-Mode 10 years ago to implement a GTD like system, which introduced me to Emacs. Being so gratified and continually finding new usages, I now use Org-Mode for almost everything.

This time I'd like to use Emacs/Org-Mode as a light CRM, which would consist of:

  • Being able to manage contacts
  • Being able for each contact to take substantial notes using Org-Mode functionalities (headlines, markups, links, etc.)
  • Being able to create tasks in org-agenda that would refer to/be linked with the contacts

Searching for such a solution I found some contact management tools such as EBDB, org-contacts, or Hyrolo, but reading their documentation didn't help me know if they were suited for my use case.

Would you have any idea of how to implement such a light CRM (my emacs-elisp knowledge is close to zero)?

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    How many contacts would you like to manage? Because if they are only a few hundreds then I would suggest you start using org-contacts immediately, as it is a no-brainer and you can easily switch at anytime. You can make the birthdays show up in the agenda (I'm sure because it works here). As the contacts are just org-headings, I assume you can easily link to them and I expect that you can add custom text under the headline (or use a :NOTES: property). EBDB and BBDB are powertools, that would probably fulfill all your needs too, but they take much longer to configure. Hyrolo I don't know.
    – dalanicolai
    Commented Nov 22, 2021 at 16:47
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    The following link could be helpful reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/8toivy/…
    – dalanicolai
    Commented Nov 22, 2021 at 16:50
  • Thanks for you help. My main concern with org-contacts is it that seems that it's no longer maintained (I'd be afraid to invest time in a tool that'd be decommissioned). As for the number of contacts it would be tens at first, but the goal would be to have 1 or 2 thousands (I'd also like to manage my google contacts with it). Do you know if org-contacts has the ability to import/export other formats (google-contacts, vcards, csv, etc.)? Can I use org features (headlines, markups, links, etc.) within :NOTES fields ? If yes these fields would contain lots of texts (like minutes from calls).
    – crocefisso
    Commented Nov 22, 2021 at 17:07
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    You might find Bernt Hansen's writeup of how he uses Org mode to handle phone calls interesting. The whole document is worth reading (but take it in small chunks or you'll get indigestion). He uses BBDB by the way.
    – NickD
    Commented Nov 22, 2021 at 20:27
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    @crocefisso With org-contacts it is easy to import and export using org-vcard. I don't know about the notes fields, but it is easy to check because you can setup org-contacts in seconds. However, if you plan to manage huge amounts (say > 1000) of contacts, then I would say it is probably worth it to invest time to learn/configure BBDB/EBDB...
    – dalanicolai
    Commented Nov 23, 2021 at 11:15

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I use org-contacts with integration into org-roam. By this you can place the contacts.org file into your org-roam folder. If you also place your tasks file under org-roam, you can link to your contacts (each contact must be handled as an own roam entry with its own org id). Then you can go to your contact and use org-roam-buffer-toggle to see all backlinks, which directly lead to the tasks, where this name is linked to. Regarding the numbers of contacts, I can't say anything, but with a few hundreds contacts it works without any problems.

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