nylas contacts sync for Developers — Quick Reference

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

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.

Examples

Sync contacts:

nylas contacts sync

Sync and verify count:

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

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.

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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