3CX Directory & Contacts

Overview

3CX exposes read-only lookups across three sources: the PBX's own phonebooks (company and personal entries), the PBX's user/extension list, and — where the PBX has a CRM connector configured — contacts synced in from that CRM. All of it is read-only; nothing in this skill creates or edits a contact or extension.

Anti-triggers

• The CRM record itself — this skill only reads what 3CX has synced in or is querying live from a connected CRM. To create or edit the actual CRM contact, use hubspot-contacts or salesbuildr-companies-contacts.
• The client's documentation record — extension lists and phone trees that belong in runbooks live in hudu-companies, not here.

Capabilities

Exact tool names are not published by 3CX — see the api-patterns skill for why, and call tools/list for the authoritative names on a connected PBX. The read-only capabilities this skill covers:

• Find a contact by email
• Find a contact by exact extension
• Search CRM-integrated contacts
• Search 3CX phonebooks
• List PBX users/extensions

Common Workflows

Resolve a caller

1. If you have an email address or an exact extension number, use the matching exact-match lookup first — it's the most reliable signal.
2. If that comes back empty, fall back to a phonebook search or a CRM-integrated contact search for a partial or fuzzy match.
3. If you only have a name, search the phonebook and the CRM-integrated contacts in parallel — one may have an entry the other doesn't.

Cross-reference with the PSA or CRM

A miss on CRM-integrated contact search means "not synced to this PBX," not "doesn't exist in the CRM." The sync is whatever CRM connector is configured on that specific PBX — confirm the connector is active before concluding a contact genuinely doesn't exist anywhere.

Gotchas

• Extension lookup is exact-match, not fuzzy. A partial or slightly-wrong extension number won't resolve — fall back to the user list or a phonebook search instead of retrying the same lookup.
• CRM-integrated results reflect the PBX's own sync, not a live CRM query. Staleness depends entirely on how that PBX's CRM connector is configured — this skill has no visibility into that connector's refresh interval.

Related Skills

• API Patterns — connection setup and tool discovery
• Calls, Queues & Profiles — what a resolved contact is doing right now (on a call, in a queue)