CRM · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Lightfield?

KINDA· weekend project

For one founder, a CRM is accounts, contacts, deals, notes and tasks in SQLite with a kanban board and a CSV import, and an agent writes that in one sitting. What Lightfield sells is the self-filling: reading mail and meetings, matching people to records and proposing field changes. That is reachable in a weekend with IMAP, an ICS feed and a model call that lands in a review inbox. The hard parts are quality and breadth: getting the right person and deal without junk, and the Slack sync, call recording, enrichment and sequences, which stay out of a weekend build.

$89/moprice per seat

$1,068you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyAdvanced · Real infrastructure or OAuth work.

TimeA weekend; matching mail to the right records takes the longest

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
An IMAP app passwordGmail, iCloud and Fastmail all offer one; it avoids Google's OAuth review.
An ICS calendar linkGoogle Calendar and iCloud can publish a private feed URL.
A language modelAn OpenAI-compatible API key, or Ollama if client emails must stay on your machine.

Before you buildThere is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. If you only need contacts and deals without the self-filling, a self-hosted Twenty or Atomic CRM already covers it.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a personal CRM that fills itself in from my email and calendar, to replace Lightfield. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify server with server-rendered pages (Eta) and htmx. `npm start` serves
http://127.0.0.1:4870 with accounts, contacts, deals (a drag-and-drop kanban), tasks and a Suggestions inbox.
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/crm.db: accounts, contacts (several emails each), deals (stage, value, close date,
next step), notes, tasks, interactions (email or meeting, message id, time, text) and custom fields as JSON.
An FTS5 index covers notes and interactions.
- Email: `imapflow` reads INBOX and Sent every 10 minutes over IMAP with an app password (IMAP_HOST, IMAP_USER,
IMAP_PASSWORD in .env), the last 90 days on first run. Match addresses to contacts; unknown people go to a "New
people" queue; skip bulk mail (List-Unsubscribe) and my own domain.
- Calendar: read an ICS feed (CALENDAR_ICS_URL) and log meetings with an outside attendee against that contact.
Meeting notes come from .md or .txt transcripts dropped in ./inbox/ and matched by date and attendee.
- Suggestions: for each new thread or transcript send its text and the matched records to an OpenAI-compatible endpoint
(LLM_BASE_URL, LLM_MODEL, LLM_API_KEY; Ollama works) and ask for JSON checked with zod: field changes, deal stage,
next step, tasks and a two-line note. Each shows its source quote with Accept and Reject; nothing applies until
accepted, except fields I mark auto-apply in settings.
- Chat: a box that answers "which deals have been quiet for 14 days" through a fixed set of read-only functions
(list_deals, search_interactions, get_contact), never raw SQL written by the model.
- CSV import and export for every table, and a nightly JSON backup in ./backups/.
- Single user, one password in .env. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first. Outbound calls: IMAP, the ICS URL and the endpoint.
- Out of scope: sending email or sequences, Slack and LinkedIn sync, enrichment, call recording, several users.
- README: creating an IMAP app password, and that email text goes to the model endpoint unless it is a local Ollama.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Lightfield.

Extend the CRM in this folder. Requirements:

- Every Monday at 08:00 email me deals with no interaction for 14 days or more, ordered by value, with the last message subject and date.
- Use nodemailer with SMTP_* from .env, and add a snooze link per deal that hides it for 7 days.
- Compute the list in SQL; do not use the model for it.
- Update the README.

Add reply drafts to the CRM in this folder. Requirements:

- On a contact page, a Draft follow-up button sends the last five interactions and the deal's next step to the configured endpoint and shows a plain-text draft in a box.
- The app never sends mail itself: provide a mailto: link and a copy button.
- Log that a draft was made on the contact, without storing the draft body.
- Update the README.

Add duplicate handling to the CRM in this folder. Requirements:

- Flag contacts that share an email domain and a similar name (Jaro-Winkler above 0.9) and list them on a Duplicates page.
- A merge keeps both sets of emails, notes, interactions and tasks, and records what was merged in an audit table.
- Merges can be undone for 7 days.
- Update the README.

What you lose

Recording and transcription of every meeting on your calendar
Slack sync and LinkedIn sync
Email sequences, workflows and automations on the higher plans
Advanced enrichment of contacts and companies
Viewer seats, permissions and the shared chat over all records for a team

Why people still pay

Founders tend to skip CRM data entry, and the product's promise is that records stay current without anyone touching a field. The same subscription records your calls and later adds sequences and enrichment as the team grows.

Moatintegrations execution polish switching costs

Do the math

Lightfield or your own copy?

Seats

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Lightfield, 1 yr$1,068

Your own copy, 1 yr$56running + build session

You keep$1,013pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · Model calls are the running cost: cents per busy thread through an API, nothing with Ollama. A small VPS is optional. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Lightfield

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Lightfield

1Ask the in-app agent, for example "Export all my accounts to a CSV" or "Export the full meeting history for the past 6 months".
2Lists can be exported to CSV as well: accounts, contacts, opportunities, meetings, tasks and notes.
3For a full workspace export, email support@lightfield.app and request one; it comes as a set of CSV files.
4Custom field definitions and the AI prompts attached to fields are not mentioned as part of the CSVs: note them down from Settings, Data model.

2 · Cancel Lightfield

1Open Settings, then Billing, to see your plan, seat count and next billing date.
2Use Change plan to leave the paid plan. We found no dedicated cancel article, so confirm with support@lightfield.app that the subscription is cancelled and not just changed.
3Pro and above are annual contracts: ask support about the end date before you commit to leaving.
4The pricing page doesn't spell out whether the 14-day trial needs a card or renews on its own, so check before you start it.

Deleting the workspace is permanent: email support with the workspace name, and data is removed from Lightfield's systems within 120 days.
Ask whether recordings and transcripts are in the workspace export; the help page only mentions CSV files.
The pricing page and the help center's billing article give different Pro prices; ask which one your contract uses.
Keep the old tool's email sync running until the replacement shows the same threads.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Lightfield's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

TwentyOpen sourceSelf-hostable CRM with a customizable data model; AGPL-3.0 core, with some enterprise files under a commercial licence.★ 59k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗Atomic CRMOpen sourceMIT CRM on React, shadcn/ui and Supabase with contacts, tasks, notes and a deals kanban; CC an address to save emails as notes.★ 1.4k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗EspoCRMOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 PHP CRM with accounts, contacts, opportunities, a calendar and email import; records are filled by hand or workflows.★ 3.5k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗

All 4 free alternatives to Lightfield ›

The numbers

Lightfield pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Starter	$89	—	Up to 3 seats per workspace, 50,000 records, automatic record updates, meeting recording and transcription, email, calendar and Slack sync, custom objects, custom pipelines, email support.
Pro	—	$999/workspace	5 capture seats, unlimited viewer seats, 250,000 records, workflows and automations, email sequences, dashboards, 450,000 workspace credits a year, dedicated CSM.
Growth	—	$1,999/workspace	10 capture seats, 750,000 records, multi-channel sequences, LinkedIn sync (beta), advanced enrichment, inbox warming, 900,000 workspace credits.
Enterprise	custom	—	Role-based access control, SSO, calculated and conditional fields, sandbox environments, bi-directional CRM sync, custom integrations.

Billing: Starter is billed monthly per user. Pro, Growth and Enterprise are billed annually per workspace. Workspace credits are annual and do not roll over; usage past the allowance is billed at a pre-agreed overage rate unless you set a hard cap.
Hidden costs: Starter includes no workspace credits, so workflows, sequences and advanced enrichment mean Pro or Growth. An extra capture seat or inbox is $200 a month billed annually. The help center's billing article lists other prices than the pricing page; the pricing page is used here.
Source: lightfield.app

Also on the list

Twenty$12/mo · CRMKINDA

Attio$44/mo · CRMKINDA

Folk$30/mo · CRMKINDA

Questions

Lightfield, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

No free plan. Starter has a 14-day free trial.

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Recording and transcription of every meeting on your calendar, Slack sync and LinkedIn sync.

About $89 a month on the Starter plan per seat, $1,068 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

Recording and transcription of every meeting on your calendar; Slack sync and LinkedIn sync; Email sequences, workflows and automations on the higher plans; Advanced enrichment of contacts and companies; Viewer seats, permissions and the shared chat over all records for a team. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.