A CRM for one.
A free, open-source CRM for founders, freelancers and anyone doing their own sales. It keeps your companies, contacts and conversations as plain text files on your laptop, made to work with your AI tools. With a pipeline, a calendar, dashboards and enrichment from a company's website.
Install with your AI
- Unpack and open the folder in your AI coding tool: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Grok Build or another.
- Send it this message:
The idea
One company, one file.
The file behind the Northwind Robotics card:
~/crm/companies/northwind-robotics/company.md
---
name: Northwind Robotics
website: northwind-robotics.com
country: DE
source: referral
stage: offer
stage_changed: 2026-09-15
value_eur_month: 4000
next_step: Follow up on the proposal
next_step_due: 2026-09-24
...
What you get
- Pipeline
- A board from prospect to won, plus a follow-up radar for unanswered threads.
- Calendar
- Overdue and due-today next steps, a month view, and a brief before each meeting.
- Companies and contacts
- Sortable tables of companies and people, and one timeline per company of every email, call and meeting.
- Messages
- Outreach drafts in English, German, Dutch or French, in your wording, and the outcome of every message.
- Dashboards
- Weekly activity, funnel and conversion, time in stage, and which messages get answers.
Local. It runs on your computer. Your data is a folder of Markdown files in git, on your own disk.
AI-native. Plain files, a small CLI and an MCP server, so Claude Code, Codex or Claude Desktop can read your pipeline and log a call. Ask Hermit answers questions on every page.
Configurable. Change the look, add fields and features, or ask your AI tool to change anything else. It is all open source.
Questions
Where does my data live?
In a folder on your Mac, ~/crm unless you choose another. Every company, contact and conversation is a Markdown file, and every change is a git commit, so any mistake is one git revert away.
Does anything leave my Mac?
Only what you send. A private git backup, if you add one. The AI tool you ask, when you use Ask Hermit or enrichment. A once-a-day version check with no identifiers, which you can turn off.
Do I need to be a developer?
No. Your AI tool runs the commands and tells you in plain words what it is doing. On a fresh Mac you click Install once in an Apple dialog.
Does it run on Linux?
Yes, but it is less tested than on a Mac. The install is the same: your AI tool checks for git and Python and installs what is missing, which on Linux may ask for your password. There is no keychain on Linux, so the mail password is kept in a file only your user account can read.
Which AI tools work?
For the install, any AI coding tool that can read a file and run commands: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Grok Build and others. Afterwards, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor or any other MCP client can read your pipeline and log interactions.
Does it work with my email and calendar?
Yes, without OAuth. BCC or forward mail to an address such as you+crm@gmail.com and it is logged on the right contact. Past meetings come in from your calendar's secret ICS link (Google, Outlook or iCloud). You type the app password and the link into the Settings page yourself, so they never pass through an AI chat.
Can my team use it?
No. Hermit CRM is built for one person. If you need a team CRM, use one of the others.
Does it run on Windows?
Not yet. Hermit CRM runs on macOS and Linux.
What does it cost?
Nothing. It is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0. It is alpha software with no warranty and no support; see DISCLAIMER.md in the download.