DenchClaw Documents: Rich Notes for Every Record

How DenchClaw's documents system gives every CRM record its own rich markdown page — notes, meeting summaries, proposals, and more.

Mark Rachapoom

March 26, 2026·7 min read

DenchClaw Documents: Rich Notes for Every Record

Every CRM entry in DenchClaw can have its own document — a full-page, rich markdown file that serves as that record's dedicated knowledge base. Not a notes field limited to a text box, but an unlimited, structured page where you can write meeting summaries, store proposals, draft outreach, log call notes, paste reference material, and build a complete history of your relationship.

This is DenchClaw's documents system: rich, local, AI-accessible, version-controllable notes for every contact, company, deal, and whatever else you track.

What Is an Entry Document?#

An entry document is a markdown file linked to a specific CRM entry via the documents table in DuckDB. Each entry can have one document — its own private page within your workspace.

Entry documents live on your filesystem at:

~/.openclaw-dench/workspace/crm/OBJECT_NAME/documents/ENTRY_ID.md

They're plain markdown files. You can open them with VS Code, edit them with any text editor, version control them with git, and search them with grep. The CRM frontend renders them beautifully, but the source is always readable, editable text.

What to Put in Entry Documents#

Entry documents are deliberately open-ended. Common uses:

For contacts:

Meeting notes from every conversation
Personal context (interests, family, conversation starters)
Relationship history and how you met
Drafts of emails you sent
Profile research and background
Action items and commitments

For companies:

Company background and competitive positioning
Key stakeholder map
Meeting history
Competitive notes
Integration and technical context
Partnership potential

For deals:

Discovery notes and pain points
Proposal drafts and revision history
Objection handling notes
Champion mapping
Decision criteria
Competitive comparison

For projects:

Project brief and scope
Client feedback log
Change request history
Milestone notes
Retro notes after completion

Creating and Accessing Documents#

Via the UI: Every entry detail view has a "Document" tab. Click it to open the entry's document in the rich editor. If no document exists, a blank one is created.

Via the AI: Ask DenchClaw to write to an entry's document:

"Add meeting notes to Sarah Chen's record: met for coffee March 20, she's interested in our enterprise plan, key concern is data privacy. Follow up with our security whitepaper. Meeting in 2 weeks."

DenchClaw finds Sarah's entry, opens her document, and appends the structured meeting notes. You can ask this from Telegram, WhatsApp, or the web chat — it works from any channel.

"Summarize the last 3 months of notes from John Davis's record."

DenchClaw reads the document, summarizes the key themes, and presents them. This is how you walk into a meeting prepared — ask for the summary 5 minutes before the call.

Via the filesystem: Open any .md file in ~/.openclaw-dench/workspace/crm/*/documents/ with your preferred editor. Changes are reflected immediately in the DenchClaw frontend.

Document Formatting#

Entry documents support full markdown:

# Meeting Notes — March 20, 2026
 
Spoke with Sarah Chen (VP Product at Stripe). 30-minute call.
 
## Key Points
- Evaluating 3 CRM options, including DenchClaw
- Primary concern: **data privacy** — they have strict policy about customer data in cloud vendors
- Timeline: decision by April 15
- Budget: $2-5K/month for the team
 
## Action Items
- [ ] Send security whitepaper by March 22
- [ ] Schedule demo with their IT security team
- [ ] Follow up March 27 if no response
 
## Context
Sarah was referred by Marcus Lee (existing customer). She has final decision authority on tooling.

Supported markdown features:

Headers (H1-H6)
Bold, italic, strikethrough
Lists (ordered and unordered)
Checkboxes (task lists)
Code blocks with syntax highlighting
Tables
Block quotes
Links (including links to other entries: [Company Name](/crm/companies/ENTRY_ID))
Images (via local file path or URL)

Document-to-Document Linking#

Entry documents can link to other entry documents:

[See related deal with Stripe](/crm/deals/abc-123)
[Company background](/crm/companies/xyz-456)

This creates a web of linked notes — the contact document links to their company, the company links to active deals, deals link to contacts. Your CRM becomes a knowledge graph.

The AI understands these links and can traverse them: "Give me a summary of our entire relationship with Stripe, including all contacts, deals, and notes."

Documents in the Knowledge Tree#

DenchClaw also maintains a workspace-level documents directory (workspace/docs/) for general documentation — strategy notes, company profile, project plans, reference material. This is separate from entry documents but searchable alongside them.

Ask DenchClaw: "Create a document in docs/ called 'Enterprise Sales Playbook' and start it with our ideal customer profile and qualification criteria."

The AI creates the document, writes the initial content, and it appears in your file tree alongside your CRM data.

Version History#

Because entry documents are plain files on your filesystem, you can version them with git:

cd ~/.openclaw-dench/workspace
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial workspace snapshot"

From that point, every change to any document (entry documents included) is trackable. git log --follow crm/people/documents/abc-123.md shows the full change history for one contact's notes.

This is a capability no SaaS CRM can offer: complete, git-native version history for every relationship record.

Searching Document Content#

All entry documents are indexed by DenchClaw's search system. Search for "discussed enterprise pricing" and find every contact where you wrote about enterprise pricing discussions — across hundreds of contacts and years of notes.

See DenchClaw Search for more on how the search index works with document content.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How is an entry document different from a richtext field?#

A richtext field is a column in your table — it appears in the entry row alongside other field values and is limited to a single field width. An entry document is a full, separate page with unlimited length and structure. Use richtext fields for short structured notes; use entry documents for long-form content, meeting history, and detailed context.

Can multiple people collaborate on an entry document?#

Entry documents are plain files on your filesystem. With a shared workspace (mounted network drive or git-synced directory), multiple people can contribute. For real-time collaboration, put the workspace directory on a shared drive. Concurrent edit conflicts are managed by the filesystem — git provides proper conflict resolution if using version control.