Asana Integration

Asana integration is optional but highly useful for displaying your daily tasks in the morning briefing and prioritizing them by day of week.

If you don’t configure Asana, Morning Brain Starter will continue to work with Google Calendar and client bitácoras. The morning routine simply won’t include Asana tasks.

What Asana Integration Enables

With Asana configured, Morning Brain Starter can:

Display tasks assigned to you that are due today
Prioritize tasks by project based on day of week (configured in config/asana_order.yaml)
Filter tasks by workspace and inbox project
Show project names and task details in your morning briefing

Prerequisites

An Asana account (free or paid)
Access to the workspace(s) where your tasks are stored
Your tasks organized by projects in Asana

Step 1: Get Asana Personal Access Token

Navigate to Asana settings

Log in to Asana
Click your profile photo in the top-right corner
Select My Settings

Create Personal Access Token

Click on the Apps tab in the left sidebar
Scroll down to Personal Access Tokens
Click + Create new token
Enter a description: Morning Brain Starter
Click Create token

Copy the token

Copy the token immediately - you won’t be able to see it again!

The token will be displayed once. Copy it to a secure location temporarily.

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Add token to .env

Edit resources/secrets/.env and add your Asana access token:

# Opcional: Asana (dejar vacío si no usas Asana)
ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_personal_access_token_here

Get Workspace GID (optional)

If you have multiple workspaces, you may want to specify which one to use.Method 1: From Asana URLWhen you switch workspaces in Asana, the URL includes the workspace ID:

https://app.asana.com/0/1234567890/...
                        ^^^^^^^^^^
                        This is your workspace GID

Method 2: Via API

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  https://app.asana.com/api/1.0/workspaces

Copy the gid of the workspace you want to use.Add to .env:

ASANA_WORKSPACE_GID=1234567890

If not specified, Morning Brain Starter uses the first workspace in your account.

Get Inbox Project GID (optional)

To filter tasks from your “My Tasks” inbox:

Open My Tasks in Asana
The URL will be: https://app.asana.com/0/1234567890/...
The number after /0/ is your inbox project GID

Add to .env:

ASANA_INBOX_PROJECT_GID=1234567890

If not specified, Morning Brain Starter lists all tasks assigned to you in the workspace with a due date of today.

Set your display name (optional)

Add your name to personalize the morning briefing:

ASANA_USER_NAME=Your Name

This is used to display “Tasks for [Your Name]” in the output.

Step 3: Configure Task Prioritization

Morning Brain Starter can prioritize tasks based on project and day of week using config/asana_order.yaml.

Edit asana_order.yaml

Open config/asana_order.yaml and customize the project order for each day:

# Orden de tareas por día de la semana (solo nombres de proyecto, sin clientes).
# El morning muestra las tareas ordenadas por esta prioridad.
# Claves: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (inglés, como devuelve datetime).

Monday:
  - Tycho
  - Rocinante
  - Deep Work
  - Marketing
  - Management
  - Personal
Tuesday:
  - MCR
  - Acme
  - Marketing
  - Business Development
  - Management
  - Personal
Wednesday:
  - Mao-Kwikowski
  - Tycho
  - Deep Work
  - Marketing
  - Personal
Thursday:
  - SOPs
  - Management
  - Marketing
  - Personal
Friday:
  - Acme
  - Mao-Kwikowski
  - Management
  - Marketing
  - Personal
  - Wrap-up

Customize for your workflow

Structure:

Keys are days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Values are lists of Asana project names in priority order
Tasks from projects listed first will appear first in your morning briefing

Tips:

List client projects first (highest priority)
Follow with internal projects (Deep Work, Marketing, etc.)
End with administrative tasks (Management, Personal)
Adjust daily priorities based on your work rhythm

Project names in asana_order.yaml should match your Asana project names exactly. Morning Brain Starter matches tasks to priorities based on these names.

Environment Variables Reference

Required for Asana

ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN

string

Personal Access Token from Asana.Where to get it: Asana → My Settings → Apps → Personal Access TokensRequired: Yes (to enable Asana integration)Security: Keep this token secure. Never commit it to version control.

Optional Variables

ASANA_WORKSPACE_GID

string

The GID of the Asana workspace to use.Where to get it: Asana URL when viewing the workspace, or via API /workspaces endpointDefault: Uses the first workspace in your account if not specifiedExample: 1234567890

ASANA_INBOX_PROJECT_GID

string

The GID of your “My Tasks” inbox project.Where to get it: Asana URL when viewing “My Tasks” (the number after /0/)Default: Lists all tasks assigned to you with today’s due date across the workspaceExample: 1234567890

ASANA_USER_NAME

string

Your display name for the morning briefing.Where to get it: Asana → My ProfileUsage: Shows “Tasks for [Your Name]” in the outputExample: ASANA_USER_NAME=Alex Chen

ASANA_TEAM_GID

string

The GID of your team (only needed for scripts that create projects).Where to get it: Asana team URLUsage: Required if you use scripts/asana_seed_tasks.py to create projects in an organization workspace. You must be a full member of the team.Note: Not needed for normal morning routine operationExample: 1234567890

Configuration File: asana_order.yaml

Location: config/asana_order.yaml This file controls how tasks are prioritized in your morning briefing based on the day of the week.

Structure

# Day names must be: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
# (English, as returned by Python's datetime.strftime('%A'))

Monday:
  - Project Name 1  # Highest priority on Mondays
  - Project Name 2
  - Project Name 3  # Lower priority

Tuesday:
  - Different Project
  - Another Project
  
# ... etc for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

How Prioritization Works

Morning Brain Starter fetches all tasks assigned to you with today’s due date
For each task, it identifies the Asana project the task belongs to
It looks up the current day of week (e.g., “Tuesday”) in asana_order.yaml
Tasks are sorted based on the project order defined for that day
Tasks from projects not listed in the config appear last

Example Workflow

Scenario: You work on client projects early in the week and internal projects later.

Monday:
  - Client Alpha      # Monday: Focus on Client Alpha
  - Client Beta
  - Internal Tools
  - Admin

Friday:
  - Admin             # Friday: Wrap up admin tasks
  - Internal Tools
  - Client Alpha
  - Client Beta

On Monday, tasks from “Client Alpha” appear first. On Friday, “Admin” tasks are prioritized.

Testing Your Configuration

After configuring Asana:

Test API connection

Verify your token works by running:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  https://app.asana.com/api/1.0/users/me

You should see your user information returned.

Run the morning routine

.venv/bin/python run_morning.py

Look for an “Asana Tasks” section in the output. If configured correctly, you’ll see:

Your tasks due today
Tasks grouped by project
Projects ordered according to asana_order.yaml for the current day

Troubleshooting

No Asana tasks appear in morning routine

Possible causes:

No tasks assigned to you with today’s due date
ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN not set or invalid
Workspace or inbox project GID is incorrect

Solution:

Verify tasks exist in Asana with today’s due date
Check that ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN is set in .env
Test the API connection (see Testing section above)

Error: 'Invalid token' or 'Not Authorized'

Your access token may be invalid or revoked.Solution:

Go to Asana → My Settings → Apps → Personal Access Tokens
Revoke the old token
Create a new token
Update ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN in .env

Tasks not appearing in expected order

The prioritization in asana_order.yaml isn’t working as expected.Solution:

Verify project names in asana_order.yaml match exactly (case-sensitive) with Asana project names
Check that you’re looking at the correct day’s configuration
Ensure the YAML syntax is correct (proper indentation, dashes before project names)

Script tries to use wrong workspace

Multiple workspaces exist in your account.Solution:

Get your workspace GID (see Step 2 above)
Set ASANA_WORKSPACE_GID in .env
Restart the morning routine

Disabling Asana Integration

To disable Asana integration:

Remove or comment out ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN in .env:
```
# ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN=
```
Morning Brain Starter will skip Asana and continue with Calendar and bitácoras

Next Steps

Client Configuration

Map calendar events to clients

Gmail Integration

Optional: Add email context

Usage Guide

Learn how to run morning routine

Configuration Overview

Back to configuration overview

Get Started

Configuration

What Asana Integration Enables

Prerequisites

Step 1: Get Asana Personal Access Token

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Step 3: Configure Task Prioritization

Environment Variables Reference

Required for Asana

Optional Variables

Configuration File: asana_order.yaml

Structure

How Prioritization Works

Example Workflow

Testing Your Configuration

Troubleshooting

Disabling Asana Integration

Next Steps

Client Configuration

Gmail Integration

Usage Guide

Configuration Overview

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Configuration

​What Asana Integration Enables

​Prerequisites

​Step 1: Get Asana Personal Access Token

​Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

​Step 3: Configure Task Prioritization

​Environment Variables Reference

​Required for Asana

​Optional Variables

​Configuration File: asana_order.yaml

​Structure

​How Prioritization Works

​Example Workflow

​Testing Your Configuration

​Troubleshooting

​Disabling Asana Integration

​Next Steps

Client Configuration

Gmail Integration

Usage Guide

Configuration Overview

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

What Asana Integration Enables

Prerequisites

Step 1: Get Asana Personal Access Token

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Step 3: Configure Task Prioritization

Environment Variables Reference

Required for Asana

Optional Variables

Configuration File: asana_order.yaml

Structure

How Prioritization Works

Example Workflow

Testing Your Configuration

Troubleshooting

Disabling Asana Integration

Next Steps