dex-skill

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Manage your Dex personal CRM — search, create, and update contacts, log interaction notes, set follow-up reminders, organize contacts with tags and groups, and manage custom fields. Use this skill when the user wants to: (1) Find or look up a contact, (2) Add or edit contact details, (3) Log a meeting, call, or interaction note, (4) Set a reminder or follow-up task, (5) Organize contacts into groups or apply tags, (6) Track custom data with custom fields, (7) Merge duplicate contacts, (8) Review their relationship history or prepare for a meeting, (9) Authenticate with Dex via /dex-login, or any other personal CRM task involving their professional network.

10installs

Sourcegetdex/agent-skills

Added on2026-03-23

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add getdex/agent-skills dex-skill

SKILL.md Content

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Dex Personal CRM

Dex is a personal CRM that helps users maintain and nurture their professional relationships. It tracks contacts, interaction history, reminders, and organizational structures (groups, tags, custom fields).

Setup — Detect Access Method

Check which access method is available, in this order:

MCP tools available? If
```
dex_search_contacts
```
and other
```
dex_*
```
tools are in the tool list, use MCP tools directly. This is the preferred method — skip CLI setup entirely.
CLI installed? Check if
```
dex
```
command exists (run
```
which dex
```
or
```
dex auth status
```
). If authenticated, use CLI commands.
Neither? Guide the user through setup.

First-Time Setup

Path A — Platform supports MCP (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, etc.):

If the user already has the Dex MCP server configured, or their platform can add MCP servers:

bash

npx -y add-mcp https://mcp.getdex.com/mcp -y

This auto-detects installed AI clients and configures the Dex MCP server for all of them. User authenticates via browser on first MCP connection.

Path B — Install CLI:

bash

npm install -g @getdex/cli

Works with npm, pnpm, and yarn. No postinstall scripts — the binary is bundled in a platform-specific package.

Path C — No Node.js:

Direct the user to follow the setup guide at https://getdex.com/docs/ai/mcp-server — it has client-specific instructions for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, and other MCP-capable clients.

Authentication

Triggered by

/dex-login

or on first use when not authenticated. Ask the user which method they prefer:

Option 1 — API Key:

User generates a key at Dex Settings > Integrations (requires Professional plan)
For CLI:
```
dex auth --token dex_your_key_here
```
Key is saved to
```
~/.dex/api-key
```
(chmod 600)

Option 2 — Device Code Flow (works on remote/headless machines):

Drive this flow directly via HTTP — no browser needed on the machine:

Request a device code:

bash

curl -s -X POST https://mcp.getdex.com/device/code -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Response:

{ "device_code": "...", "user_code": "ABCD-EFGH", "verification_uri": "https://...", "expires_in": 600, "interval": 5 }

Show the user the
```
user_code
```
and
```
verification_uri
```
. They open the URL on any device with a browser, log in to Dex, and enter the code.

Poll for approval every 5 seconds:

bash

curl -s -X POST https://mcp.getdex.com/device/token \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"device_code": "<device_code>"}'

```
{"error": "authorization_pending"}
```
→ keep polling
```
{"api_key": "dex_..."}
```
→ done, save the key

Save the API key:

bash

mkdir -p ~/.dex && echo "<api_key>" > ~/.dex/api-key && chmod 600 ~/.dex/api-key

For CLI:

dex auth --token <api_key>

For CI/automation with no human present, use the API key method with

DEX_API_KEY

environment variable.

Data Model

Contact
├── Emails, Phone Numbers, Social Profiles
├── Company, Job Title, Birthday, Website
├── Description (rich text notes about the person)
├── Tags (flat labels: "Investor", "College Friend")
├── Groups (collections with emoji + description: "🏢 Acme Team")
├── Custom Fields (user-defined: input, dropdown, datepicker)
├── Notes/Timeline (interaction log: meetings, calls, coffees)
├── Reminders (follow-up tasks with optional recurrence)
└── Starred / Archived status

Using Tools

MCP Mode

Call

dex_*

tools directly. All tools accept and return JSON.

CLI Mode

Use the

dex

command. CLIHub generates subcommands from MCP tool names (replacing

with

bash

dex dex-search-contacts --query "John"
dex dex-list-contacts --limit 100
dex dex-create-contact --first-name "Jane" --last-name "Doe"
dex dex-list-tags
dex dex-create-reminder --text "Follow up" --due-at-date "2026-03-15"

Use

--output json

for machine-readable output,

--output text

(default) for human-readable.

Run

dex --help

for all commands, or

dex <command> --help

for command-specific help.

See CLI Command Reference for the full mapping table of all 38 tools to CLI commands.

Core Workflows

1. Find a Contact

search → get details (with notes if needed)

Search by name, email, company, or any keyword
Use empty query to browse recent contacts (sorted by last interaction)
Use
```
dex_list_contacts
```
for bulk iteration (up to 500 per page, cursor-paginated)
Include
```
include_notes: true
```
when user needs interaction history

2. Add a New Contact

create contact → (optionally) add to groups → apply tags → set reminder

Create with whatever info is available (no fields are strictly required)
Immediately organize: add relevant tags and groups
Set a follow-up reminder if the user just met this person

3. Log an Interaction

(optional) list note types → create note on contact timeline

Discover note types first with
```
dex_list_note_types
```
to pick the right one (Meeting, Call, Coffee, Note, etc.)
Set
```
event_time
```
to when the interaction happened, not when logging it
Keep notes concise but capture key details, action items, and personal context

4. Set a Reminder

create reminder → (link to contact if applicable)

Always require
```
due_at_date
```
(ISO format: "2026-03-15")
Use
```
text
```
for the reminder description — there is no separate title field

Recurrence options:

weekly

biweekly

monthly

quarterly

biannually

yearly

5. Organize Contacts

Tags — flat labels for cross-cutting categories:

create tag → add to contacts (bulk)

Groups — named collections with emoji and description:

create group → add contacts (bulk)

Best practice: Use tags for attributes ("Investor", "Engineer", "Met at Conference X") and groups for relationship clusters ("Startup Advisors", "Book Club", "Acme Corp Team").

6. Manage Custom Fields

list fields → create field definition → batch set values on contacts

Three field types:
```
input
```
(free text),
```
autocomplete
```
(dropdown with options),
```
datepicker
```
Use
```
dex_set_custom_field_values
```
to set values on multiple contacts at once
For autocomplete fields, provide
```
categories
```
array with the allowed options

7. Meeting Prep

When a user says "I have a meeting with X":

Search for the contact
Get full details with
```
include_notes: true
```
Check recent reminders for pending items
Summarize: last interaction, key notes, pending follow-ups, shared context
See CRM Workflows for detailed meeting prep guidance

8. Merge Duplicates

search for potential duplicates → confirm with user → merge

First ID in each group becomes the primary — all other data merges into it
Always confirm with the user before merging (destructive operation)
Can merge multiple groups in a single call

Important Patterns

Pagination

List operations use cursor-based pagination:

```
dex_list_contacts
```
: default 100 per page, max 500
```
dex_search_contacts
```
: default 50 per page, max 200
Other list tools: default 10 per page
Check
```
has_more
```
in response
Pass
```
next_cursor
```
from previous response to get next page
Iterate until
```
has_more: false
```
to get all results

Destructive Operations

Always confirm with the user before:

Deleting contacts (
```
dex_delete_contacts
```
)
Merging contacts (
```
dex_merge_contacts
```
)
Deleting tags, groups, notes, reminders, or custom fields

Response Truncation

Responses are capped at 25,000 characters. If truncated, the response preserves pagination metadata (

next_cursor

has_more

) so you can fetch the next page. Use smaller

limit

values if responses are being truncated.

Date Formats

All dates: ISO 8601 strings (e.g.,
```
"2026-03-15"
```
,
```
"2026-03-15T14:30:00Z"
```
)
Birthdays:
```
YYYY-MM-DD
```
Reminder due dates:
```
YYYY-MM-DD
```

Detailed References

Tool Reference — Complete parameter documentation for every tool, with examples
CLI Command Reference — Full MCP tool → CLI command mapping table (only needed for CLI mode)
CRM Workflows — Relationship management best practices, follow-up cadences, and strategies for being an effective CRM assistant