Getting started

Jun 28, 2026 Feedback on this page

You’ve ordered a managed Twenty CRM at server.camp — congratulations! Twenty is a modern, open-source customer relationship management tool: you manage companies and contacts centrally, track sales opportunities on a Kanban board and structure your data flexibly — with no vendor lock-in. This guide walks you through the most important first steps.

English interface

Twenty’s interface is primarily English, so we use the original UI terms. You can switch the interface to another language under Settings → Experience → Language (see Profile & personal settings).

Signing in: your account and workspace already exist

As soon as your Twenty instance is set up, we automatically create your account and your workspace. We use the email address you provided when ordering as the login, together with the initial password. There’s no onboarding wizard — you land directly in your ready-to-use workspace.

Change your password right away

Change your password after the first login under Settings → Profile. Best store your credentials in a password manager such as Vaultwarden.

Overview of the interface

Left sidebar — the central navigation: quick access to People and Companies, the Search (also via the / key), Favorites (pinned views), Workflows (automations) and Settings. You can reorder entries via drag-and-drop.
Main area — where your records and views live.
Command Menu — open the central command menu with Ctrl + K (Mac: Cmd + K): create records, import/export CSV, create views, show keyboard shortcuts and more.

Core concepts: objects, fields and records

Twenty organises data on three levels:

Objects — the data categories (e.g. Companies).
Fields — the properties of an object (e.g. name, industry, phone).
Records — the individual entries (e.g. “Acme Ltd” as a Company record).

Five objects are set up by default:

Companies — company data such as industry, size, location.
People — individual contacts with contact details and history.
Opportunities — deals with a stage, deal size and expected close date, shown as a Kanban board by default.
Notes — free-form notes that can be attached to records.
Tasks — to-dos with a due date, assignee and status.

How does it fit together? People and companies are connected through a built-in relationship: many People belong to one Company. Notes and Tasks can be attached to People, Companies and Opportunities, so the full history for a contact comes together in one place.

Creating, editing and linking records

Create: via the Command Menu (Ctrl/Cmd + K) or directly in the relevant object view.
Edit: in the Table view you can change values directly in the cells (inline editing); in detail on a record’s detail page.
Link a person to a company: open a person and select the matching company in the Company field (or create it on the spot). The link appears automatically on both sides — on the company page you’ll then see all associated people.

Views

Each object supports several view types:

Table — tabular, with inline editing and customisable columns.
Kanban — drag-and-drop cards grouped by a select field (e.g. an opportunity’s stage). Ideal for the sales pipeline.
Calendar — display based on a date field.

This is how you tailor a view:

Filter: the Filter button → choose a field and operator → enter a value → Apply. Multiple filters are combined with AND.
Sort: the Sort button → field + ascending/descending. Clicking a column header also sorts.
Group: Options → Group → choose a select field.
Columns: show/hide via Options → Fields and reorder by dragging.

Once you’ve set up a view, save it via Save (update the current view) or Save as new view (a new variant).

Custom fields and objects (flexible data model)

Twenty’s big strength is its customisable data model, found under Settings → Data Model.

Create a custom field:

Settings → Data Model → select an object
+ Add Field
Choose a field type (Text, Number, Date, Select/Multi-Select, Relation, Currency, Phone, etc.)
Set a name and any type-specific options → Save

New fields are hidden at first — show them in the view via Options → Fields.

Create a custom object:

Settings → Data Model → + New object
Set a singular and plural name, an icon and a description → Save

The new object appears in the sidebar immediately. Use Relation fields to link objects to one another (One-to-Many, Many-to-One, Many-to-Many).

Keep core processes on the standard objects

Email and calendar sync only works with People, Companies and Opportunities. So model your central sales processes on these objects where possible.

Importing and exporting data (CSV)

Import and export run via the Command Menu (or the ⋮ menu at the top right) in the relevant object view.

Import:

Navigate to the object (e.g. People) → ⋮ → Import records
Upload the file (CSV, XLSX or XLS)
Map the columns to Twenty’s fields (Twenty suggests a mapping you can adjust)
Fix any error rows → Confirm

Mind the import order

If you want to link people directly to companies, import the companies first — the company must exist before you can reference it. Exactly one object type is imported per file (max. 10,000 records).

Export: set up a view with the desired columns → ⋮ → Export view → save as CSV. Only the visible columns are exported.

Inviting team members

You invite further users under Settings → Members — via + Invite (email invitation with a role selection) or via the Invite Link you copy from the Members page and share.

Email sending isn't active at first

By default, your instance sends no emails — so invitations won’t arrive by mail initially. You have two options: share the Invite Link directly with your colleagues, or set up email sending yourself in the admin panel (see Admin panel and email sending).

Admin panel and email sending (SMTP)

As an administrator, you can override many settings in your instance directly in the UI — with no server restart and no access to environment variables. You’ll find them under Settings → Admin Panel → Configuration Variables. Each variable is listed there with a description; changes take effect immediately.

Admin panel access

The admin panel is only available to users with administrator rights — as the pre-created account, you have them.

Enabling email sending

For Twenty to send email (e.g. invitations and password resets), set the following variables in the admin panel:

Variable	Value
`EMAIL_DRIVER`	`smtp` (default is `logger` — only logs mail, doesn’t send it)
`EMAIL_SMTP_HOST`	your SMTP server’s hostname
`EMAIL_SMTP_PORT`	usually `587` (STARTTLS) or `465` (SSL)
`EMAIL_SMTP_USER`	SMTP username
`EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD`	SMTP password (an “app password” for Gmail/Microsoft with 2FA)
`EMAIL_FROM_ADDRESS`	sender address
`EMAIL_FROM_NAME`	sender name

Other settings

In the same area you can configure Captcha, various limits (e.g. rate and invitation limits) and the OAuth connections to Google/Microsoft for email and calendar sync, among others. Some particularly security-critical values (such as encryption keys and the database connection) are deliberately not changeable via the UI.

Email and calendar sync

Twenty can connect your mailbox and calendar to keep contact history up to date automatically. Set this up per user under Settings → Accounts → Add account:

Google (Gmail & Calendar) and Microsoft (Outlook & Calendar) via OAuth, or IMAP/SMTP and CalDAV for other providers.
After setup, Twenty syncs emails and events regularly and links them to the matching contacts and companies.
You can configure visibility (metadata only up to full content) and automatic contact creation.

Composing emails

Twenty shows email history but isn’t an email client: to reply, it hands you off to your connected mailbox (e.g. Gmail/Outlook). Automated emails are possible via the Send Email action in workflows.

API & integrations

Under Settings → API & Webhooks you create API keys (via + Create key — copy the key right away, it’s shown only once) and set up webhooks. Twenty offers a REST and a GraphQL API for both records and the data model. This lets you connect Twenty to other tools — for example via Node-RED.

Profile and personal settings

Profile: under Settings → Profile you change your display name, profile picture, email address and password (optionally with two-factor authentication).
Language, theme & formats: under Settings → Experience you set the language, appearance (light/dark), time zone and date/number formats. Changes are saved automatically.

Questions?

If you need help setting things up, reach us any time at support@server.camp or via server.camp/support. You’ll also find a detailed guide in the official Twenty documentation. We answer frequently asked questions on our Twenty CRM product page.

Twenty evolves quickly

Twenty is developed very actively. Individual labels or menu items may differ slightly between versions — the version installed in your instance is what counts.