Import / Export

Bonds supports vCard-based import/export and Monica 4.x JSON import, making it easy to migrate data from other applications or create backups.

Monica 4.x Import

If you're migrating from Monica CRM (version 4.x), Bonds can import your complete data including contacts, notes, calls, tasks, relationships, photos, and more.

How to Import

1. In Monica, go to Settings, Export and download your JSON export file.
2. In Bonds, navigate to Vault Settings, Monica Import tab.
3. Upload the JSON file. All your data will be imported automatically.

What Gets Imported

Monica Entity	Bonds Mapping
Contacts	Contact (name, gender, nickname, job, company, starred, is_dead)
Tags	Labels
Birthdate / Deceased date	Important Dates
Notes	Notes
Calls	Calls
Tasks	Tasks
Reminders	Reminders
Addresses	Addresses
Contact fields (email, phone, etc.)	Contact Information
Pets	Pets
Gifts	Gifts
Debts	Loans
Relationships	Relationships (matched by type name)
Life events (legacy Monica field)	Activities
Photos & Documents	Files (base64 decoded and stored)
Activities (legacy Monica field)	Notes (degraded with type prefix)
Conversations	Notes (formatted chat log)

Specialized Monica Import Handling

Bonds implements robust fallback strategies to handle differences between the Monica data structure and Bonds:

• Gender Fallback: Monica exports genders as simple text fields (e.g., custom or non-English names like "female", "male", "other", or entirely custom labels). If an imported gender does not match the standard options in the Bonds database, the importer gracefully maps it to a custom option, falls back to default gender records, or creates a matching custom entry, ensuring the import finishes successfully.
• Pet Categories: Monica's pet records are mapped to Bonds pet objects. The importer handles categories by mapping them to appropriate default pet categories (like dog, cat, bird, etc.) and falls back to a default type if the exact category cannot be resolved.

Duplicate Detection

Re-importing the same file is safe. Contacts are matched by their original Monica UUID and skipped if already imported.

Permissions

Only Vault Managers can perform imports.

Monica v5 Users

Monica v5 removed JSON export. Only VCard is available. If you're on v5:

• Use VCard import for contact basics (name, phone, email, address).
• For full migration: export JSON from 4.x before upgrading to v5.

vCard Export

Single Contact

Export any contact as a vCard 4.0 file:

GET /api/vaults/:vault_id/contacts/:contact_id/vcard

Returns a .vcf file with the contact's name, phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses.

Bulk Export

Export all contacts in a vault at once:

GET /api/vaults/:vault_id/contacts/export

Returns a single .vcf file containing all contacts in the vault.

vCard Import

Import contacts from a .vcf file (supports both single and multi-contact files):

POST /api/vaults/:vault_id/contacts/import

Upload a .vcf file as multipart form data. Bonds parses the vCard and creates contacts with the following field mapping:

vCard Property	Bonds Field
FN	First name + Last name
N	Structured name (family, given, etc.)
TEL	Phone contact information
EMAIL	Email contact information
ADR	Address

Tips

• Migrating from other apps: Most contact management apps (Google Contacts, Apple Contacts, Outlook, Monica) can export contacts as .vcf files. Export from there, then import into Bonds.
• Large imports: Bonds handles multi-contact .vcf files, so you can import hundreds of contacts at once.
• What's not imported: Fields that don't have a direct mapping (like social media profiles in vCard X- extensions) are skipped. You can add those manually after import.

Backup & Restore

For full data backups (not just contacts), use the built-in backup system available in the admin panel. See Admin & Settings for details.