Asana (PAT) skill

This skill provides a dependency-free Node.js CLI that lets the agent use the Asana REST API with a Personal Access Token (PAT).

It is designed to support both:

•Personal task management (quick capture, triage, “my tasks”, lightweight planning), and
•Project management workflows (project briefs, status updates, timelines, dependencies/blockers, custom fields, stakeholder communication).

Setup

1) Create a PAT

Create an Asana personal access token and store it securely. PATs are long-lived and act as the user who created them.

•Asana PAT docs: https://developers.asana.com/docs/personal-access-token
•Asana auth overview: https://developers.asana.com/docs/authentication

2) Configure the skill env var

This skill requires:

•ASANA_PAT (required): Asana PAT (Bearer token)

In ThinkFleet, configure skill env vars via skills config (do not rely on host env vars when sandboxed).

•Skills config docs: https://docs.thinkfleet.dev/tools/skills-config

Example config snippet (conceptual):

jsonc

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "asana-pat": {
        "enabled": true,
        "apiKey": "ASANA_PAT",
        "env": {
          "ASANA_PAT": "YOUR_TOKEN"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

How to call

All commands are executed via the CLI script:

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/asana.mjs <command> [args] [--flags]

Run:

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/asana.mjs help

for the full command list.

Key capabilities

Core: tasks + projects

•List tasks assigned to a user (tasks-assigned)
•List tasks in a project (tasks-in-project)
•Create/update/complete tasks (create-task, update-task, complete-task)
•Search tasks with filters (search-tasks)
•Read/update project metadata (project, update-project)
•Sections, project memberships, followers (common PM operations)

Project manager conveniences

•Project brief: read + “upsert” (create or update) (project-brief, upsert-project-brief)
•Status updates: list, create, delete (status-updates, create-status-update, delete-status-update)
•Dependencies / blockers: query + modify (dependencies, dependents, add-dependencies, remove-dependencies, project-blockers)
•Timeline shifting: move dates by N days (shift-task-dates, shift-project-tasks)
•Project dashboard: computed summary snapshot (project-dashboard)

Custom fields

Custom fields are first-class in PM usage. This skill supports:

•Listing a project’s custom fields (project-custom-fields)
•Reading a custom field definition (custom-field)
•Setting task custom fields when creating/updating tasks (--custom_fields <json>)

Activity / updates (feed-like)

Asana does not provide a simple “Inbox API” for notifications, but you can approximate “recent changes” via:

•events (incremental changes for a resource; maintains a local sync token)
•search-tasks with modified_at.after, created_at.after, etc.

Rich text formatting and @-mentions

Asana supports “rich text” fields using XML-valid HTML fragments wrapped in a <body> tag. The rich text version of a field is the same name prefixed by html_ (e.g., notes -> html_notes).

Supported objects include tasks (html_notes), stories/comments (html_text), project briefs (html_text), and status updates (html_text).

•Rich text guide: https://developers.asana.com/docs/rich-text

Creating a mention

To link/mention Asana objects (users, tasks, projects, etc.) in rich text, you can send a minimal link tag such as:

html

<body>FYI <a data-asana-gid="USER_GID"/></body>

Asana will expand it into a full link when you have access.

Ensuring mention notifications

When adding a comment (story), @-mentions only reliably generate notifications if the mentioned user is already a follower (or assignee) of the task. The recommended pattern is: add follower first, wait briefly, then create the story.

This skill’s comment command supports that pattern via:

•--ensure_followers <csv> (user gids/emails/me)
•--wait_ms 2000 (optional)
•--no_wait true (optional)

Attachments and images

Uploading files (including images)

You can upload files (including images) as Asana attachments using:

•upload-attachment --parent <task|project|project_brief_gid> --file <path>

Asana’s attachments endpoint supports uploading a file (multipart/form-data) or creating an external URL attachment. Files are subject to size limits (commonly 100MB).

•Attachments reference: https://developers.asana.com/reference/createattachmentforobject

Listing and inspecting attachments

•attachments <parent_gid>
•attachment <attachment_gid>

Note: attachment download_url values are short-lived (minutes). Prefer permanent_url for a stable Asana link.

Inline images in task notes / project briefs

Asana rich text can include inline images via <img> tags. Inline images are stored as attachments; to embed them you must first upload/attach the image to the same target object, then reference the attachment GID in rich text.

This skill includes:

•append-inline-image --attachment <attachment_gid> --task <task_gid>
•append-inline-image --attachment <attachment_gid> --project_brief <project_brief_gid>

It verifies by default that the attachment is attached to the target object.

Notes and non-goals

•Portfolio operations are intentionally omitted (premium feature; out of scope).
•This skill uses PAT auth only (not OAuth).
•Keep opt_fields tight for performance: request only what you need.