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Qasim Muhammad
Qasim Muhammad

Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at cli.nylas.com

nylas contacts sync for Developers — Quick Reference

#cli #contacts #crm #devtools

Sync contacts. Works with Google Contacts, Outlook People, and Exchange.

The nylas contacts sync command synchronizes your contacts from the connected email provider to the local CLI cache. This ensures contact search and autocomplete use the latest data from Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, or your IMAP server.

Syntax 

nylas contacts sync
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How It Works

Contact data spans multiple providers and formats. Google Contacts uses its own People API, Outlook uses Microsoft Graph, and Exchange uses EWS. The CLI gives you a single interface across all of them.

When to use this command

Contact management from the terminal. List, create, and sync contacts across providers. Useful for CRM sync scripts and agent address-book lookups.

Examples

Sync contacts:

nylas contacts sync
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Sync and verify count:

nylas contacts sync && nylas contacts list --json | jq length
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Common Issues

Sync takes a long time
Large contact lists (10K+) take longer on first sync. Subsequent syncs are incremental and faster.

Contacts not updating after sync
Some providers cache contact data. Wait a few minutes and try again, or check provider-side sync settings.

Related posts

Full docs: nylas contacts sync reference — all flags, advanced examples, and troubleshooting.

All commands: Nylas CLI Command Reference

Get started: brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas — other install methods

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