Entities

CiviCRM organizes data into entities. Each entity type has its own fields and relationships.

Common Entities

CiviCRM includes dozens of entities. Here are the most common:

Entity	Description
Contact	People and organizations in your database
Activity	Interactions, meetings, calls, emails
Contribution	Donations and financial transactions
Membership	Membership records
Event	Events you organize
Participant	Event registrations
Email	Email addresses for contacts
Phone	Phone numbers for contacts
Address	Mailing addresses for contacts
Group	Contact groups (smart and static)
Tag	Tags for categorizing records
Note	Notes attached to records

Contact Types

Contacts come in three types:

• Individual: A person

• Organization: A company, nonprofit, government agency

• Household: A group of people at the same address

Filter by contact type:

# Get all organizations
response = await client.get(
    "Contact",
    where=[["contact_type", "=", "Organization"]],
)

Field Discovery

Use get_fields to discover available fields for any entity:

fields = await client.get_fields("Contact")
for field in fields.values:
    print(f"{field['name']}: {field['data_type']}")

Related Fields

Access related entity fields with dot notation:

# Get contact with primary email
response = await client.get(
    "Contact",
    select=["id", "display_name", "email_primary.email"],
)

Common relationship patterns:

• email_primary.email: Primary email address

• phone_primary.phone: Primary phone number

• address_primary.city: Primary address city

Custom Fields

Access custom fields using their API name:

response = await client.get(
    "Contact",
    select=["id", "display_name", "custom_field_1"],
)

Find custom field names in CiviCRM under Administer > Customize Data and Screens > Custom Fields.