diff --git a/skills/cued/SKILL.md b/skills/cued/SKILL.md
index 0758d445..99c6bd37 100644
--- a/skills/cued/SKILL.md
+++ b/skills/cued/SKILL.md
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ Safety rules:
 
 ## Contact Management
 
-- **Find a person**: Search `contacts` by name (`LIKE '%name%' COLLATE NOCASE`), then check `contact_handles` for email/phone/handle matches.
+- **Find a person**: Start with `cued contacts search "name, company, handle, or remembered fact"`. It searches names, companies, handles, and current memories and returns canonical contact ids. Use SQL only when you need a precise join or ranking the command does not expose.
 - **Cross-platform view**: Join `conversation_participants` → `conversations` for a contact to see all their threads across platforms.
 - **Duplicate detection**: Match `contact_handles.normalized_value` across different `contact_id`s, or match `contacts.name` case-insensitively. Many contacts have phone numbers as names (e.g. `+1347...`) because they were discovered via iMessage before being linked.
 - **Merge duplicates**: `cued contacts merge <primary-id> <secondary-id> [--reason TEXT]` for one merge, or `cued contacts merge-batch merges.json --apply` for many exact-evidence merges with one rebuild. `merge-batch` dry-runs by default when `--apply` is omitted.
diff --git a/src/cli-contacts-memory.test.ts b/src/cli-contacts-memory.test.ts
index ace1d835..20868dfb 100644
--- a/src/cli-contacts-memory.test.ts
+++ b/src/cli-contacts-memory.test.ts
@@ -165,4 +165,84 @@ describe("contacts memory CLI", () => {
       ],
     });
   });
+
+  it("searches canonical contacts across names, companies, handles, and current memories", () => {
+    const home = createHome();
+    const db = new CuedDatabase(join(home, "local.db"));
+    let memoryId: string;
+    try {
+      const sqlite = (
+        db as unknown as {
+          sqlite: {
+            prepare: (sql: string) => {
+              run: (...params: unknown[]) => void;
+            };
+          };
+        }
+      ).sqlite;
+      sqlite.prepare("UPDATE contacts SET company = ? WHERE id = ?").run("Acme Labs", "contact-1");
+      sqlite
+        .prepare(
+          "INSERT INTO contact_handles (id, contact_id, type, value, normalized_value, platform, account_key, is_deterministic, created_at, updated_at) VALUES (?, ?, 'email', ?, ?, 'gmail', 'default', 1, 1, 1)",
+        )
+        .run("handle-1", "contact-1", "ava@example.com", "ava@example.com");
+      memoryId = db.addContactMemory({
+        contactId: "contact-1",
+        body: "Interested in applied robotics",
+      }).id;
+    } finally {
+      db.close();
+    }
+
+    for (const query of ["Ava Ch", "Acme", "ava@example", "applied robot"]) {
+      const results = JSON.parse(runCli(home, ["contacts", "search", query])) as Array<{
+        id: string;
+      }>;
+      expect(results.map((row) => row.id)).toContain("contact-1");
+    }
+
+    const writableDb = new CuedDatabase(join(home, "local.db"));
+    try {
+      writableDb.markContactMemoryStale(memoryId);
+    } finally {
+      writableDb.close();
+    }
+    expect(JSON.parse(runCli(home, ["contacts", "search", "robotics"]))).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it("applies the contact search migration on the first search after an upgrade", () => {
+    const home = createHome();
+    const db = new CuedDatabase(join(home, "local.db"));
+    try {
+      const sqlite = (
+        db as unknown as {
+          sqlite: {
+            exec: (sql: string) => void;
+          };
+        }
+      ).sqlite;
+      sqlite.exec(`
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contacts_inserted_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contacts_updated_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contacts_deleted_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contact_handles_inserted_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contact_handles_updated_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contact_handles_deleted_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contact_memories_inserted_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contact_memories_updated_contact_fts;
+        DROP TRIGGER trg_contact_memories_deleted_contact_fts;
+        DROP VIEW contact_fts_source;
+        DROP TABLE contacts_fts;
+        DROP INDEX idx_contact_handles_contact_id;
+        DELETE FROM schema_migrations WHERE id = '0022_contact_fts';
+      `);
+    } finally {
+      db.close();
+    }
+
+    const results = JSON.parse(runCli(home, ["contacts", "search", "Ava"])) as Array<{
+      id: string;
+    }>;
+    expect(results.map((row) => row.id)).toEqual(["contact-1"]);
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/cli.ts b/src/cli.ts
index d59d59ea..02556ef0 100644
--- a/src/cli.ts
+++ b/src/cli.ts
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ Usage:
   cued integrations disable <platform> [account]
   cued contacts merge <primary-contact-id> <secondary-contact-id> [--reason TEXT]
   cued contacts merge-batch <merges.json> [--apply]
+  cued contacts search <query> [--limit N] [--include-archived]
   cued contacts memory add <contact-id> <memory> [--source SOURCE] [--confidence 0-100] [--evidence JSON] [--supersedes MEMORY_ID]
   cued contacts memory list <contact-id> [--limit N] [--include-stale]
   cued contacts memory stale <memory-id>
@@ -1166,6 +1167,27 @@ async function main(): Promise<void> {
       }
       throw new Error("Usage: cued sync run [source] | cued sync resume");
     case "contacts":
+      if (subcommand === "search") {
+        const query = parseFreeTextArgument(rest, 0);
+        if (!query) {
+          throw new Error("Usage: cued contacts search <query> [--limit N] [--include-archived]");
+        }
+        // Contact search owns a schema migration, so its first invocation after an
+        // upgrade must open the canonical writable database before reading it.
+        const db = openCuedDatabase();
+        try {
+          printJson(
+            db.searchContacts({
+              query,
+              limit: parseIntegerFlag(rest, "--limit"),
+              includeArchived: rest.includes("--include-archived"),
+            }),
+          );
+        } finally {
+          db.close();
+        }
+        return;
+      }
       if (subcommand === "memory" || subcommand === "memories") {
         const memoryCommand = rest[0];
         const args = rest.slice(1);
diff --git a/src/db/database.ts b/src/db/database.ts
index c4cc5c95..4f649c45 100644
--- a/src/db/database.ts
+++ b/src/db/database.ts
@@ -165,6 +165,16 @@ export interface ContactMemoryRow {
   updated_at: number;
 }
 
+export interface ContactSearchRow {
+  id: string;
+  name: string | null;
+  company: string | null;
+  archived: number;
+  handles: string | null;
+  rank: number;
+  snippet: string;
+}
+
 export interface ContactMergeBatchInput {
   primaryContactId: string;
   secondaryContactId: string;
@@ -2325,6 +2335,50 @@ export class CuedDatabase {
       .all(...params) as ContactMemoryRow[];
   }
 
+  searchContacts(input: {
+    query: string;
+    limit?: number;
+    includeArchived?: boolean;
+  }): ContactSearchRow[] {
+    const terms = input.query
+      .trim()
+      .split(/\s+/)
+      .filter(Boolean)
+      .map((term) => `"${term.replaceAll('"', '""')}"*`);
+    if (terms.length === 0) {
+      throw new Error("Contact search query is required.");
+    }
+    const limit =
+      typeof input.limit === "number" && Number.isFinite(input.limit)
+        ? Math.max(1, Math.min(100, Math.trunc(input.limit)))
+        : 20;
+
+    return this.sqlite
+      .prepare(
+        `
+        SELECT
+          c.id,
+          c.name,
+          c.company,
+          c.archived,
+          (
+            SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(ch.type || ':' || ch.value, ' | ')
+            FROM contact_handles ch
+            WHERE ch.contact_id = c.id
+          ) AS handles,
+          bm25(contacts_fts, 0.0, 8.0, 4.0, 2.0, 1.0) AS rank,
+          snippet(contacts_fts, -1, '[', ']', '…', 16) AS snippet
+        FROM contacts_fts
+        JOIN contacts c ON c.id = contacts_fts.contact_id
+        WHERE contacts_fts MATCH ?
+          AND (? = 1 OR c.archived = 0)
+        ORDER BY rank ASC, c.name COLLATE NOCASE ASC
+        LIMIT ?
+      `,
+      )
+      .all(terms.join(" AND "), input.includeArchived ? 1 : 0, limit) as ContactSearchRow[];
+  }
+
   markContactMemoryStale(id: string, staleAt: number | null = null): ContactMemoryRow | null {
     const timestamp = staleAt ?? now();
     this.db
diff --git a/src/db/migrations.ts b/src/db/migrations.ts
index 388965c0..ea94ba90 100644
--- a/src/db/migrations.ts
+++ b/src/db/migrations.ts
@@ -2245,4 +2245,124 @@ export const MIGRATIONS: Migration[] = [
       `);
     },
   },
+  {
+    id: "0022_contact_fts",
+    apply: (db) => {
+      if (
+        !tableExists(db, "contacts") ||
+        !tableExists(db, "contact_handles") ||
+        !tableExists(db, "contact_memories")
+      ) {
+        return;
+      }
+      db.exec(`
+        CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_contact_handles_contact_id
+        ON contact_handles(contact_id);
+
+        CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS contacts_fts USING fts5(
+          contact_id UNINDEXED,
+          name,
+          company,
+          handles,
+          memories
+        );
+
+        CREATE VIEW IF NOT EXISTS contact_fts_source AS
+        SELECT
+          c.rowid AS contact_rowid,
+          c.id AS contact_id,
+          COALESCE(c.name, '') AS name,
+          COALESCE(c.company, '') AS company,
+          COALESCE((
+            SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(TRIM(ch.type || ' ' || ch.value), ' ')
+            FROM contact_handles ch
+            WHERE ch.contact_id = c.id
+          ), '') AS handles,
+          COALESCE((
+            SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(cm.body, ' ')
+            FROM contact_memories cm
+            WHERE cm.contact_id = c.id AND cm.stale_at IS NULL
+          ), '') AS memories
+        FROM contacts c;
+
+        INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+        SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+        FROM contact_fts_source;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contacts_inserted_contact_fts
+        AFTER INSERT ON contacts BEGIN
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id = NEW.id;
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contacts_updated_contact_fts
+        AFTER UPDATE OF name, company ON contacts BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts WHERE rowid = OLD.rowid;
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id = NEW.id;
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contacts_deleted_contact_fts
+        AFTER DELETE ON contacts BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts WHERE rowid = OLD.rowid;
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contact_handles_inserted_contact_fts
+        AFTER INSERT ON contact_handles BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts
+          WHERE rowid = (SELECT rowid FROM contacts WHERE id = NEW.contact_id);
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id = NEW.contact_id;
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contact_handles_updated_contact_fts
+        AFTER UPDATE OF contact_id, type, value ON contact_handles BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts
+          WHERE rowid IN (SELECT rowid FROM contacts WHERE id IN (OLD.contact_id, NEW.contact_id));
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id IN (OLD.contact_id, NEW.contact_id);
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contact_handles_deleted_contact_fts
+        AFTER DELETE ON contact_handles BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts
+          WHERE rowid = (SELECT rowid FROM contacts WHERE id = OLD.contact_id);
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id = OLD.contact_id;
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contact_memories_inserted_contact_fts
+        AFTER INSERT ON contact_memories BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts
+          WHERE rowid = (SELECT rowid FROM contacts WHERE id = NEW.contact_id);
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id = NEW.contact_id;
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contact_memories_updated_contact_fts
+        AFTER UPDATE OF contact_id, body, stale_at ON contact_memories BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts
+          WHERE rowid IN (SELECT rowid FROM contacts WHERE id IN (OLD.contact_id, NEW.contact_id));
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id IN (OLD.contact_id, NEW.contact_id);
+        END;
+
+        CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS trg_contact_memories_deleted_contact_fts
+        AFTER DELETE ON contact_memories BEGIN
+          DELETE FROM contacts_fts
+          WHERE rowid = (SELECT rowid FROM contacts WHERE id = OLD.contact_id);
+          INSERT INTO contacts_fts (rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories)
+          SELECT contact_rowid, contact_id, name, company, handles, memories
+          FROM contact_fts_source WHERE contact_id = OLD.contact_id;
+        END;
+      `);
+    },
+  },
 ];