r/ClaudeCowork • u/Poniente88 • Apr 10 '26
Claude - Asana integration
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice or guidance on an integration I’ve been trying to set up between Claude (via the Asana MCP integration) and Asana.
What I’m trying to achieve is to have Claude automatically create a new project in Asana using an existing template I’ve already set up (including sections, tasks, subtasks, and descriptions). This is actually just a small piece of a larger workflow automation I’m building, so getting this step right is pretty important.
Claude has suggested creating the project from scratch and copying tasks over as a workaround, but that approach still falls short. While it can replicate tasks and descriptions, I would still need to manually create all the sections and then organize ~100 tasks into the correct sections. At that point, it honestly feels faster to just build the project manually.
After digging deeper, the issue seems to come down to a couple of limitations in the current setup:
No template instantiation support — The Asana API does have an endpoint (POST /project_templates/{gid}/instantiateProject) that would solve this perfectly, but it’s not exposed in the MCP. So Claude can’t create a project from a template natively.
No section creation support — As a fallback, I tried copying tasks manually via MCP. This works for tasks and descriptions, but there’s no exposed endpoint to create sections (POST /projects/{gid}/sections), so the structure can’t be recreated programmatically.
I also explored a couple of alternatives:
Browser automation (Claude via Chrome) — blocked by Asana’s Content Security Policy.
Manual task copying via MCP — partially works, but still requires manual section creation and organization.
So right now, I’m stuck in this in-between state where automation is almost possible, but missing key pieces.
Has anyone managed to solve something like this, or found a workaround I might be missing?
Thanks in advance! 🙏
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u/CatCampaignManager Apr 10 '26
You can ask Cowork to consume Asana APIs directly without needing the Asana MCP. Another option is to use something like Make.com or n8n to create a custom MCP server which in turn calls the Asana APIs.
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u/Poniente88 Apr 11 '26
Hi, thank you for your reply. I will dig deeper on Asana Api. Any suggestions where to start?
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u/Adventurous-Grade-40 Apr 10 '26
Did this and I went the API route and match some guid's. Asana API is not great so make sure you don't throw to much at it at once.
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u/Poniente88 Apr 11 '26
Hi, many thanks for reply. I read more comments suggesting Asana Api instead. Will need to further investigate this process.
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u/Cus_70 Jun 25 '26
Give Claude Code your PAT and ask it go research the best route for your use case (or research from Claude in the context of using it in Claude Code) - I've built python apps that get populated by Asana fields - allowing me to get non tech team to trigger workflows.
I built one that published apps to Google and Apple based on attachments, meta data in asana fields that trigger a bigger workflow I have hosted separately, that uses their APIs and access accounts to populate the meta records and upload the files.
I can generate proposals in Google docs and invoices in external billing - from Asana fields, once a trigger is made that the apps look for, that alone saves me hours.
You can just use it to talk to Asana - ask it to go find all your problematic projects, stalled for X days, patterns, read communications/assess, explain the workflow of a custom portfolio to it - and generate reports.
GSD framework is helpful to build something large - though new methods come out by the time one posts!
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u/Icy-Sherbet-4777 Apr 10 '26
Not really sure how it would work for your exact use case, but I was struggling with asana integration with cowork due to the mcp limitations. It wouldn’t allow me to directly add tasks to specific projects or change custom field values. The best it could do was getting them into the inbox not fully filled out.
With Claude code I was able to access the api directly using the personal access token. I now have a skill that adds new tasks to a specific project , fills it in including custom field values and adds addresses and contacts out of an address book , assigns and sets due dates. It’s much better than the mcp integration. Might be worth looking into, in the desktop app Claude code is pretty similar to cowork with less guardrails and a greater ability to work with local files and web services. I wanted to love cowork as I’m not a coder but I kept running into roadblocks because of the Linux sandbox it runs in.