Connect Asana

To connect Asana to CoIsland you need one thing: a personal access token from your own Asana account. No admin, no app to register, no OAuth. CoIsland calls Asana’s REST API straight from your Mac, keeps the token in your login Keychain, and only ever reads.

Create an Asana personal access token

1. Open Asana’s developer console: https://app.asana.com/0/my-apps.
2. Under Personal access tokens, create a new token.
3. Give it a description, such as CoIsland, and create it.
4. Copy the token now: Asana shows it only once.

The token acts as you, with your access. On Enterprise+ plans, super admins can turn personal access tokens off for the organization, revoke one, or make them expire after 30, 60 or 90 days; Asana then answers “Not Authorized”, and CoIsland says the token was refused.

Connect Asana in CoIsland

Open Settings › Connectors, click +, and choose Asana.

Field	What to enter
Connector name	What monitors call it: asana.
Personal access token	The token you created.

Test connector saves nothing. It calls GET /api/1.0/users/me and shows your name, email and workspaces. The token is only ever sent to https://app.asana.com, in the Authorization header.

Choose what to watch: the four Asana monitor kinds

The kinds about your tasks start with assignee:me. With one workspace, CoIsland uses it; with several, pick one (workspace:). Projects are picked by name and saved as IDs. Only incomplete tasks count.

Assigned to me

A task alerts when it is assigned to you. Narrow it with project:.

assignee:me

Due and overdue

Your tasks overdue or due within the window, from within:0d (today) to 14d. A task alerts again when its due date moves.

assignee:me within:0d

New tasks in a project

A task added to one project, by anyone.

project:1202178852626547

Comments on my tasks

Someone else comments on one of your tasks within since: (1h to 7d, 24h unless given). only:mentions keeps the comments that @-mention you. Asana has no API for its inbox: mentions on tasks that are not yours are not seen.

assignee:me only:mentions

What an Asana alert shows

The notch lists a task as Launch · Today 17:00 · To do: project, when it is due, and its section. A comment reads Draft the launch post · Mentioned you · Ana Silva. Clicking it opens the alert in CoIsland, where the task fills in live: its description, assignee, followers, subtasks and latest comments, the alerted one highlighted. Open in Asana goes to the task.

What an Asana monitor’s watch file looks like

-- name: Mentions of me
-- kind: asana.comments
-- connector: asana
-- every: 5m
-- alert: new-rows

assignee:me only:mentions

The kinds are asana.assigned, asana.due, asana.project and asana.comments.

Rate limits

Asana allows 150 requests a minute per token on free workspaces and 1,500 on paid ones. A check of your tasks costs two requests, one more per 100 tasks; a comments check adds one request per task changed within the window, up to 30. When Asana answers 429, checks back off on their own.

Troubleshooting Asana connector errors

• The token was refused. Asana answered 401 “Not Authorized”: the token was mistyped, deleted, expired, or turned off by your organization’s admins. Create a new one.
• You are in several Asana workspaces: pick one in the monitor. Add workspace: or pick it in the editor.
• Asana answers this only on a paid plan. Asana answered 402.
• This task no longer exists in Asana, or you can no longer see it.
• Rate limited; retry after 30 s. The next check tries again.

Common questions

Does CoIsland need an Asana admin?

No, unless your organization turned personal access tokens off.

Can CoIsland complete a task or reply?

No. It only reads.

Next: Getting started, or the Asana connector for everything it can watch.