Sharing my calendar (maintained on iCloud) with my wife using family sharing, but apparently no similar way to share contacts.
I did find a reference to using a third Apple ID, but that qualifies as a kludge.
Suggestions?
Excellent! Worked well for my new contact "Ima Test". I maintain the "master" contact list on my iMac. When my wife first got her iDevices we used my Apple ID for convenience, so the contacts are already populated. So only small updates will be needed.
Thank you.
In iOS, you can only have one Apple ID signed in to iCloud at a time and therefore only access to one set of Contacts.
In macOS, you can add other Apple IDs in Internet Accounts, enable Contacts, and access those Contacts via the macOS Contacts app.
In the macOS Contacts app, you will then see each Apple ID listed separately. You can then copy individual contacts between "accounts" and they will sync via iCloud to the main Apple ID for that macOS account.
Without a Mac, you must share contacts individually.
Glad it worked for you.
How to share contacts in family sharing without another ID
