# Hermit CRM > 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, and your own AI agent can reshape it to fit how you work. With a pipeline, a calendar, dashboards and enrichment from a company's website. Hermit CRM is a free, open-source CRM for founders, freelancers and anyone doing their own sales. It runs on your Mac or Linux computer and keeps every company, contact and conversation as a Markdown file in a git folder on your own disk. A local web app gives you a pipeline board, a calendar of next steps, message drafts and reports. AI tools such as Claude Code, Codex or Claude Desktop can read and update the pipeline through the files, a small CLI or the built-in MCP server. It is alpha software under the Apache License 2.0, with no warranty and no support. ## Docs What Hermit CRM does, feature by feature: the app's own Help pages for the released version. Read the AI agents page first if you will work in a data folder or over MCP. - [All docs in one file](https://hermitcrm.io/llms-full.txt): every topic below as Markdown, for version 1.0.0 - [Docs](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/): the same as one web page - [Pipeline](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#pipeline): The board at /pipeline: one column per open stage, cards you can move with a dropdown, closed companies in lists below. The stages are yours to name and order (Settings > Deal stages); this page describes the defaults. - [Calendar](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#calendar): /calendar: meetings this week, your tasks on their due date, and accounts going quiet. The list of all tasks, with filters, is on the Tasks page. - [Tasks](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#tasks): /tasks: every task for every company and its people in one table. - [Companies](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#companies): /companies lists every company; /companies/ is the account page with its fields, contacts, drafts, merge and timeline. - [Contacts](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#contacts): /contacts lists every person across companies; a contact page holds the fields, this person's interactions, notes and a button that opens Outreach for them. - [Interactions](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#interactions): An interaction is one touch with a person: an email, LinkedIn message, call, WhatsApp message or meeting, in or out, with the text kept verbatim. A note is an interaction too: a memo about the person, with no direction, that shows on their timeline but never counts as contact made (it does not move last touch, a prospect's stage, follow-ups, outcomes or reports). - [Messages](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#messages): /messages: every message you sent, newest first, with what came of it. - [Playbook](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#playbook): MESSAGING.md in your data folder: what you sell, to whom, and how you write, per approach. - [Outreach bot](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#outreach): Picks a batch of contacts, reads what their websites say, drafts a first message per person and checks it, answers replies that show interest and follows up on messages nobody answered; you review and approve each one. Nothing is sent that you did not approve, and until you turn on sending nothing is sent for you at all: you send and log it yourself. - [Sending](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#sending): Sends the email you approved from the Outreach page, now or spaced over the working day, from a mailbox of its own; LinkedIn is a paced session where you click Send yourself. You approve every message. - [Learning](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#learning): What your edits and the answers to your messages teach the outreach bot, as short lessons in MESSAGING.md that you accept one by one. - [Reports](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#reports): /reports: numbers for a period, each with the change against the previous period of the same length. - [Make it yours](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust): Describe a change to Hermit CRM and your own AI agent builds it in your data folder; this page is the rules that agent follows, and the first thing it reads. - [Settings](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#settings): /settings: who you are, mail and calendar capture, backup, appearance, fields of your own, AI (Enrich and Ask the Hermit), outcomes, the daily schedule, access from a phone or an AI client, Support Hermit, and About. - [Import and export](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#import): /import (and hermitcrm import FILE): companies or contacts from a spreadsheet, previewed before anything is written. Export, below, takes everything out again. - [Extension](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#extension): /extension: turn the page you are looking at into a company record, in one click, without typing the name twice. - [Enrich](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#enrich): Two ways to fill a company's or contact's empty fields: Fetch from URL reads a web page (no AI); Enrich asks an AI CLI you already have, on the medium model by default; the proposal page offers Retry with the strong model (Claude: Fable). - [Ask the Hermit](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#ask): The Ask the Hermit button, top right on every page, sends a question to the AI CLI configured under Settings (the same one Enrich uses). - [Merge](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#merge): Combine two companies, or two contacts of one company, into one record in a single commit. - [CLI](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#cli): hermitcrm [--data DIR] : the data folder is --data, then $HERMITCRM_DATA, then the current directory. - [Backups and undo](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#backups): A second copy of the folder's history, outside the folder, that can only grow; every few minutes, and any version can be put back. Claude Code is blocked from the git commands that destroy history. - [Data format](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#data-format): Every record is a Markdown file with YAML front matter in a fixed key order; the files are the only source of truth. - [AI agents](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#ai-agents): How an AI session (Claude Code, Codex or any agent) should read and write a Hermit CRM data folder; the same rules are in the folder's CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md. - [Disclaimer](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#disclaimer): Plain language, because this matters more than legal wording. The binding text is the Apache License 2.0, sections 7 and 8, in the LICENSE file that came with Hermit CRM. - [Make it yours: fields](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-fields): A recipe for your AI agent: add or change fields of your own, where they show, and your task types, outcomes and quiet threshold. - [Make it yours: the look](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-look): A recipe for your AI agent: change Hermit's colours, fonts and density with one theme.css in the data folder. - [Make it yours: messages](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-messages): A recipe for your AI agent: rewrite the outreach drafts in the user's own voice, add a language, and keep the playbook. - [Make it yours: bring data in](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-connect): A recipe for your AI agent: get companies, contacts, mail and meetings into Hermit from files and the tools the user already has. - [Make it yours: something Hermit can't do yet](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-feature): A recipe for your AI agent: when a wish needs new code, check first whether the files already cover it, then write a feature request or, for a developer, build it in their own copy. - [Make it yours: dashboards](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-dashboards): Pages of your own at /d/: lists, counts, bars, trends over time and report sections, written as dashboards/.toml by you or your AI agent, and pinned in the sidebar if you like. - [Make it yours: bulk changes](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-bulk): Recipe for an AI agent: change many records at once with hermitcrm set, always as a dry run first, then one commit that can be undone. - [Make it yours: page layout](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-layout): A recipe for your AI agent: put the sections of the company, contact and home pages in another order or hide them, hide fields, and choose the columns of the Companies and Contacts lists, all in one file, layout.toml. - [Make it yours: routines](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-routines): Small jobs in routines.toml that run every morning after the daily sync: a morning brief, or one AI draft per quiet thread. Drafts wait on Home; Hermit never sends anything. - [Make it yours: deal stages](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/#adjust-stages): Recipe for an AI agent: rename, add, reorder or remove the stages a deal goes through with hermitcrm stages, always as a dry run first. ## Make it yours, with your own AI Say what you want in one sentence. Your own AI agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Gemini CLI) builds it in your data folder, following recipes that come with Hermit, and you see it on the next page load. - A dashboard from one sentence: "Make a dashboard called Monday review with my open deals, what is due this week and the deals by stage with their value. Pin it to the sidebar." One new file, dashboards/monday-review.toml. The page is pinned in the sidebar, and every number opens the records behind it. - A new field: "Add a date field contract renewal to companies, shown on the company page and in the companies list." Seven lines in fields.toml. The field shows on every company page, and as a column you can sort and filter in the companies list. - A routine that drafts follow-ups: "Every morning, for people I messaged 7 days ago without a reply, draft a short follow-up. Never send anything." A routine in routines.toml. It starts paused, so you see first who it would pick. Once you turn it on, its drafts wait on Home for you to edit and send yourself. Safe to try. Every change is a git commit you can undo in one click. Routines only write drafts: they start paused, and Hermit never sends a message. ## Pages - [Home](https://hermitcrm.io/): what it is, how to install it, questions and answers - [Docs](https://hermitcrm.io/docs/): How every part of Hermit CRM works: pipeline, contacts, mail capture, reports, the CLI, the MCP server and how your AI agent can change it. - [Features](https://hermitcrm.io/features/): every page of the app, with screenshots - [Changelog](https://hermitcrm.io/changelog/): What is new in each Hermit CRM release, newest first, with how to upgrade and whether your data folder is migrated. - [Hermit CRM compared](https://hermitcrm.io/compare/): How Hermit CRM, a free local CRM for one person, compares with HubSpot, Attio, Pipedrive, folk, Twenty and Notion on price, data and AI access. - [About](https://hermitcrm.io/about/): The short story of why Gijs Bos built Hermit CRM, a free local CRM for one person, and how you can help as a beta tester. - [Stats](https://hermitcrm.io/stats/): the site's own numbers, updated daily: visitors, downloads, GitHub stars, AI crawlers; the same as JSON at https://hermitcrm.io/stats/stats.json ## Features One page for each link in the app's left navigation. - [Home](https://hermitcrm.io/features/home/): What is due this week, the replies you owe and last month's numbers, on one page. - [Pipeline](https://hermitcrm.io/features/pipeline/): A board from prospect to won, plus a follow-up radar for unanswered threads. - [Calendar](https://hermitcrm.io/features/calendar/): Overdue and due-today next steps, a month view, and a brief before each meeting. - [Tasks](https://hermitcrm.io/features/tasks/): Every task for every company in one list, with date buttons, filters and your own task types. - [Companies](https://hermitcrm.io/features/companies/): Sortable tables of companies, and one timeline per company of every email, call and meeting. - [Contacts](https://hermitcrm.io/features/contacts/): Every person across your companies, with a page of their own: roles, history and tasks. - [Messages](https://hermitcrm.io/features/messages/): Every message you sent, with what came of it, so you can see which wording gets answers. - [Outreach](https://hermitcrm.io/features/outreach/): Researches a company's website, drafts a first message or a follow-up in your wording, and waits for your approval. - [Learning](https://hermitcrm.io/features/learning/): What the outreach bot learns from your edits and from the replies, as lessons you accept one by one. - [Extension](https://hermitcrm.io/features/extension/): Turn the page you are looking at into a company or a contact, from one bookmark. - [Reports](https://hermitcrm.io/features/reports/): Weekly activity, funnel and conversion, time in stage, and which messages get answers. - [Make it yours](https://hermitcrm.io/features/make-it-yours/): Pages of your own with lists, counts and bar charts. Describe one in a sentence, your AI builds it, and you pin it to the sidebar. - [Settings](https://hermitcrm.io/features/settings/): Your name, mail and calendar capture, backups, fields, deal stages and outcomes, set in the browser. ## Comparisons - [Hermit CRM vs HubSpot](https://hermitcrm.io/compare/hubspot/): Choose HubSpot if a team shares the CRM, or if you want marketing, sales and service in one hosted platform. Choose Hermit CRM if you sell on your own, want your pipeline as plain files on your own computer, and want AI tools such as Claude Code to work on it directly. Hermit CRM is free; HubSpot is free for up to 2 users, and its paid plans are priced per seat. - [Hermit CRM vs Attio](https://hermitcrm.io/compare/attio/): Choose Attio if a small team shares the CRM, or you want your own objects and records built automatically from your mailbox and calendar. Choose Hermit CRM if you work alone and want your pipeline as plain files on your own computer, readable by any AI tool without an API key. Hermit CRM is free; Attio is free for up to 3 seats, and paid plans start at €31 a seat a month. - [Hermit CRM vs Pipedrive](https://hermitcrm.io/compare/pipedrive/): Choose Pipedrive if you run a sales team, want automations and email sequences, or need a mobile app. Choose Hermit CRM if you sell on your own, want a pipeline board without a subscription, and want the data as plain files on your own computer that AI tools can read. Hermit CRM is free; Pipedrive has a 14-day trial and starts at €14 a seat a month billed yearly. - [Hermit CRM vs folk](https://hermitcrm.io/compare/folk/): Choose folk if you work with a small team, manage many relationships and want contacts enriched and captured from LinkedIn and your mailbox for you. Choose Hermit CRM if you work alone and want your companies, contacts and conversations as plain files on your own computer, with AI tools reading them directly. Hermit CRM is free; folk has a 14-day trial and starts at €22 a member a month billed yearly. - [Hermit CRM vs Twenty](https://hermitcrm.io/compare/twenty/): Both are open source. Choose Twenty if a team shares the CRM and you can run a server with Docker, or want its hosted cloud. Choose Hermit CRM if you work alone and want the CRM on your own laptop, with no server and no database: every record is a Markdown file in git that you and your AI tools can read. - [Hermit CRM vs Notion](https://hermitcrm.io/compare/notion/): Choose Notion if you already work in Notion, share it with others, and a database with a board view is all the CRM you need. Choose Hermit CRM if you want a CRM that does CRM work for you: mail logged on the right contact by BCC, a follow-up radar for unanswered threads, meeting briefs and reports, with the data as plain files on your own computer. Both are free for one person. ## Facts - Price for one person: Free and open source. There is no paid plan. - Where your data lives: In a folder on your own computer. - Data format: Markdown files with YAML front matter: one per company, contact and conversation. Readable without the app. - Works offline: Yes. It runs on your computer. Mail import, enrichment and Ask Hermit need the internet. - Team use: No. It is built for one person. - AI tools: Your AI tool reads the files, runs the CLI or connects to the local MCP server. No API key, no OAuth. Ask Hermit uses the AI command line tool you already have. - Email and calendar: BCC or forward mail to a Gmail address you choose, and it is logged on the right contact. Past meetings come from your calendar's ICS link. No inbox sync. - History and undo: Every change is a git commit, so every earlier version is kept and can be restored. - Source code: Open source, Apache License 2.0. - Runs on: macOS and Linux, in your browser. No Windows and no mobile app. - Setup: Download it and let your AI coding tool install it. It needs Python 3.11 and git and installs them when they are missing. - Maturity and support: Alpha software. No warranty and no support.