> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getswan.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Swan vs. your CRM

> Why Swan keeps its own records, what it logs to your CRM, and what you can configure.

Swan and your CRM serve different purposes, and Swan is built to work with or without one connected.

* **Swan's database** ([companies and contacts](companies-and-contacts)) is the working set the agent researches, enriches, tags, and scores against your ICP. It's optimized for what the agent needs at runtime.
* **Your CRM** stays the system of record for your revenue team — deals, ownership, historical activity, reporting. Swan does not require a CRM connection to work; without one, it simply keeps everything in its own database and you lose the two-way sync described below.

A CRM integration (HubSpot today; Salesforce and others are covered in [integrations](../integrations/hubspot)) is entirely optional, and everything it does is configurable — you decide how much Swan writes back.

## What syncs to your CRM

**Outreach activity.** When a sequence contact is emailed, messaged on LinkedIn, sent a connection request, or replies, Swan logs that as a timeline activity on the matching CRM contact record — an email entry for email steps, a LinkedIn communication entry for LinkedIn steps (falling back to a note if that fails). This happens automatically whenever a CRM integration is connected; there's no separate toggle to turn off activity logging specifically.

**Contact creation.** Whether and when Swan creates a brand-new contact in your CRM is configurable, with three options:

* **Never** — Swan never creates contacts in your CRM; it only updates ones that already exist there.
* **On first outreach** *(default)* — a contact is created in your CRM the moment Swan sends them the first message or connection request.
* **When a sequence is approved** — the contact is created only once you approve their enrollment in a sequence, before the first message goes out.

If a contact already has a matching record in your CRM (by email or LinkedIn URL), Swan links to it instead of creating a new one, regardless of this setting.

Where: set this from your CRM's integration card at [agent.getswan.com/tools](https://agent.getswan.com/tools) → Configuration tab → Automatic Contact Creation.

**Company creation.** A separate setting controls whether Swan creates new company records in your CRM:

* **Only ICP-matched companies** *(default)* — a company is only created in your CRM once it's been classified as matching one of your ICP segments.
* **All companies** — every company Swan works with gets created in your CRM.
* **None** — Swan never creates new companies in your CRM, only updates existing ones.

**Notes.** Swan can attach a note to the CRM company record — for example, summarizing a website visit — or you can turn this off so Swan only touches structured fields, never free-text notes.

## Field mappings

Which CRM fields Swan reads and writes (e.g., which property holds a contact's email or LinkedIn URL) is configurable per integration, so Swan can work with custom CRM field naming rather than assuming a fixed schema.

## Inbound: using your CRM to filter and exclude

The relationship isn't only outbound. You can point a trigger at specific HubSpot lists in two directions:

* **As an exclusion set** — on website-visitor triggers, an "Excluded Lists" picker treats companies on those lists as off-limits, the same way an [excluded-companies entry](tags-lists-and-exclusions) would.
* **As a target/inclusion source** — on business-event and Bombora-intent triggers, a "HubSpot Lists" picker pulls the companies on those lists into the set the trigger monitors.

Both are configured on an individual trigger (`https://agent.getswan.com/triggers/{triggerId}`), so they scope to that trigger rather than your whole org — there's no org-wide HubSpot-list picker today.

## Common questions

**If I turn off contact creation, does Swan still log outreach activity?**
No — activity logging requires a matching CRM contact to attach it to. If Swan can't find or create one, there's nothing to log the activity against.

**Can I have Swan create companies but never contacts?**
Yes — company creation and contact creation are controlled by separate settings, so you can mix and match.

**Does Swan overwrite fields I've already filled in on a CRM record?**
Swan overwrites: for any field it writes, it replaces the existing CRM value. It only writes fields it actually has data for, so fields it doesn't touch are left alone — but there's no "fill blanks only" or "don't overwrite if already set" mode, and no setting to protect a specific field from being overwritten. (The "missing properties" configuration is a separate thing — it tracks Swan's own custom properties that aren't set up in your portal, not blank field values.)

**What happens if a contact already exists in HubSpot under a different email than the one Swan has?**
Swan matches by email or LinkedIn URL when looking for an existing CRM contact before creating a new one; if neither matches, it may create a second record.

**Is a CRM connection required to run outreach sequences?**
No — sequences run entirely on Swan's own contact records. A CRM connection only adds the logging and sync behavior described on this page.