EspoCRM REST API
63
AI ReadinessAI-Aware (B-)63/100
Agent-ready OpenAPI document · curated by JenticCRMContact Managementbasic, apiKey8 EndpointsREST
Know of an official OpenAPI document? Contribute it →
For Agents
Read and write any EspoCRM entity (contacts, accounts, leads, opportunities, custom objects) and manage their relationships through a single CRUD pattern.
Use for: I need to create a new Lead in EspoCRM with the prospect's email and phone, Find all open Opportunities owned by a specific sales rep, Update the stage of a deal after a meeting, Retrieve a Contact record by ID and read its email and phone fields
Not supported: Does not handle email sending, telephony, or marketing automation - use for CRUD on EspoCRM entities and their relationships only.
Jentic maintains this OpenAPI specification for EspoCRM REST API, keeping it validated and agent-ready across EspoCRM installations. EspoCRM is an open-source customer relationship management platform that runs on the customer's own server. Its REST API exposes a generic CRUD pattern keyed by entity type - Contact, Account, Lead, Opportunity, Case, and any custom entity defined in the instance - together with a relationship endpoint for linking and unlinking related records. Authentication is supported by HTTP basic credentials or an X-API-Key header.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the EspoCRM REST API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the EspoCRM REST API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fespocrm.com%2Fespocrm" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fespocrm.com%2Fespocrm" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with EspoCRM REST API.
List, create, read, update, and delete records for any EspoCRM entity type including custom entities
Link and unlink related records such as attaching a Contact to an Account or a Lead to a Campaign
Page through large entity collections using offset, limit, and where-clause filters
Retrieve related collections like all Opportunities under a given Account
Bulk create or update CRM records during data migrations from legacy systems
Authenticate using either basic auth or the X-API-Key header for service accounts
Use Cases
Patterns agents use EspoCRM REST API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Inbound lead capture from a website form into EspoCRM
Marketing pushes website form submissions into EspoCRM by POSTing each payload to /{entityType} with entityType set to 'Lead'. The created Lead carries the source, campaign, and contact fields, and a follow-up call to /{entityType}/{id}/{link} attaches the Lead to the originating Campaign. This avoids any custom webhook receiver inside the EspoCRM server.
POST a Lead to /Lead with the form fields (firstName, lastName, emailAddress, phoneNumber, source) and then POST to /Lead/{id}/campaigns to attach campaign id 'spring-promo'.
Bidirectional sync between EspoCRM and an order system
Operations teams keep an external order system aligned with EspoCRM by polling /Account and /Opportunity for changes and pushing back order status updates to a custom 'Order' entity. The generic {entityType} pattern means custom objects work the same way as built-in ones, so adding new sync targets does not require new code paths. Pagination on /{entityType} uses offset and limit query parameters.
Loop GET /Account with offset/limit until exhaustion, then for each Account update the matching record in the order system, and write back any new Order via POST /Order.
One-time data migration from a legacy CRM to EspoCRM
When a team is moving off a hosted CRM, they iterate the source export and call POST /Contact, POST /Account, and POST /Opportunity to recreate each record in EspoCRM. Relationships such as Contact-to-Account or Opportunity-to-Account are then established with POST /{entityType}/{id}/{link}. Because every entity uses the same CRUD pattern, the migration script is small and uniform.
For each row in the legacy export, POST /Contact, capture the returned id, then POST /Contact/{id}/accounts to attach the Account that was created earlier in the migration.
AI agent triaging CRM records by relationship
An AI agent reviewing the sales pipeline lists Opportunities, fetches each linked Account and Contact through the relationship endpoint, and summarises stalled deals back to the rep. Through Jentic, the agent searches for the EspoCRM operations by intent rather than reading the docs, and the API key remains in your Jentic One instance. The agent can be triggered on a schedule or on demand from a sales chat tool.
Search Jentic for 'list EspoCRM opportunities', execute GET /Opportunity, then for each result call GET /Opportunity/{id}/contacts and produce a summary of the deals with no contact in the last 30 days.
Key Endpoints
8 endpoints — jentic maintains this openapi specification for espocrm rest api, keeping it validated and agent-ready across espocrm installations.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/{entityType}
List records of an entity type with filters and paging
POST
/{entityType}
Create a new record of an entity type
GET
/{entityType}/{id}
Read a single record by ID
PUT
/{entityType}/{id}
Update a record by ID
DELETE
/{entityType}/{id}
Delete a record by ID
GET
/{entityType}/{id}/{link}
List related records via a relationship link
POST
/{entityType}/{id}/{link}
Attach a related record
DELETE
/{entityType}/{id}/{link}
Detach a related record
GET
/{entityType}
List records of an entity type with filters and paging
POST
/{entityType}
Create a new record of an entity type
GET
/{entityType}/{id}
Read a single record by ID
PUT
/{entityType}/{id}
Update a record by ID
DELETE
/{entityType}/{id}
Delete a record by ID
GET
/{entityType}/{id}/{link}
List related records via a relationship link
POST
/{entityType}/{id}/{link}
Attach a related record
DELETE
/{entityType}/{id}/{link}
Detach a related record
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
E
EspoCRM REST API
- AI-Aware (B-)63/100
100
Foundational Compliance63
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility56
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability30
Security100
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.0
Show dimension breakdown
100
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: A+Signals: 4
98%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
100%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
100%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
63
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: B-Signals: 4
0%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
50%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
56
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: CSignals: 4
50%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
100%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
73%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
30
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: FSignals: 1
30%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
100
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
100%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring EspoCRM by hand means choosing between HTTP basic auth and the API-key request header, filling in your own host in the /api/v1 base URL, and mapping generic entity CRUD yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the EspoCRM REST API from the API Directory, store the API key once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
EspoCRM puts the entity type and record id in the URL path (/{entityType}/{id}), so a rule can pin your agent to reading or updating one entity type and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so a destructive one like DELETE /{entityType}/{id} is not included unless you add it.
Credential isolation
Your EspoCRM API key or basic auth credentials are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'create a CRM contact' or 'update a record', and Jentic returns the matching {entityType} CRUD operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using EspoCRM REST API through Jentic.
Does EspoCRM provide an official OpenAPI specification?
Yes, but per installation rather than at one public address. From EspoCRM v9.3 onward each instance generates its own OpenAPI document and serves it from the /api/v1/OpenApi endpoint of that instance, reachable by admin users and by API users whose role enables the OpenAPI scope, or from Administration > API Users > OpenAPI spec. That document describes the entity types and custom fields configured in that one instance, so there is no single vendor-hosted spec to point an agent at. Jentic maintains this instance-independent specification of the generic entity CRUD and relationship pattern instead, and validates it. EspoCRM documents the endpoint at https://docs.espocrm.com/development/api/#openapi-specification. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the EspoCRM REST API use?
EspoCRM accepts either HTTP basic auth (username and password of an EspoCRM user) or an X-API-Key header for an API user. Through Jentic, the credential is held encrypted in the vault and injected at execution time, so the agent never sees the raw key.
Can I create custom objects through the EspoCRM REST API?
The API works with any entity type already defined in the EspoCRM instance - including custom entities you have configured in the admin panel - using the same /{entityType} CRUD pattern. Defining a brand-new entity type, however, must be done through the EspoCRM administration UI, not via this REST API.
What are the rate limits for the EspoCRM REST API?
Because EspoCRM is self-hosted, there are no vendor-imposed rate limits - capacity is bounded only by the server you run it on. For large bulk jobs, throttle client-side and use the offset/limit parameters on /{entityType} rather than fetching everything in one request.
How do I create a Lead in EspoCRM through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'create a CRM lead in EspoCRM'. Jentic returns POST /{entityType} with entityType set to 'Lead' and the Lead schema. Load the operation, execute it with firstName, lastName, emailAddress, and phoneNumber, and the new Lead's id is returned in the response.
How do I link a Contact to an Account in EspoCRM?
POST to /Contact/{id}/accounts with the target accountId in the body. The same /{entityType}/{id}/{link} pattern is used to attach any related entity, and a DELETE on the same path detaches it.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the EspoCRM REST API?
Yes. Because Jentic One is self-hosted, your own rules decide which EspoCRM operations and credentials the agent may use. Since EspoCRM puts the entity type and record id in the URL path, such as /{entityType}/{id}, you can pin the agent to reading or updating a single entity type like Contact or Lead and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so a destructive one like DELETE /{entityType}/{id} is left out unless you add it, and the stored API key or basic auth credentials are injected at execution time rather than shown to the agent.
GET STARTED