Asana’s API provides a means for software and scripts to read information from inside Asana, input information from outside Asana, and automatically react when things change. This can include:
- Consistently doing repetitive or tedious tasks.
- Chaining a process together by responding to changes.
- Creating reports on the state of tasks and projects.
- Staying in sync with other software such as Slack or Salesforce used in your organization.
- Pulling information from other locations like email or Evernote into Asana.
- Adding new features on top of Asana.
- Customizing Asana for your team’s processes and workflows.
The role of Asana's platform is to allow Asana to meet your team where you are and how you work. Asana is built to be flexible and powerful, to be intuitive enough for all teams to adopt and maintain clarity on who is doing what by when. Asana’s platform enables you to specialize this flexibility to maximize efficiency.
Here are some ideas for what you can build by leveraging the API:
Integrations and bots are great for making sure that repetitive tasks are handled efficiently. Running a script with Asana's API can quickly take care of work such as moving cards between board columns, setting assignees or due dates based on the state of the task, or asking that all custom fields are set before work can begin on a task. This can save time and reduce overhead when trying to keep your projects clear and correct.
Workflows with Asana often follow a model of "when this task changes, do something." An example is moving tasks between projects based on its subtasks: if one team completes a subtask, move the parent task to the next team's project. Integrations can be built to respond in near-real time to changes in Asana, which helps move work forward.
Fetching the state of the tasks in a project or for your teammates can unlock the ability to create simple (or complex) metrics around how you are progressing. For example, you may want to track:
- How many open tasks are there in the project?
- Who has the most tasks assigned?
- How often does the due date of each task get shifted back?
Our platform enables pulling data from Asana to make customized metrics to track your work.
Teams frequently use a multitude of software tools to accomplish work, from email to asset management to file storage. These specialized tools are often used with colleagues who don't track their work with Asana; and even if they do, keeping all of your tools in sync makes the transitions between tools straightforward to minimize "work about work."
Some of our integration partners, like Tray.io, Unito, and Zapier, offer syncing solutions out of the box with common workplace tools. You may also wish to build your own solution in cases where you need more flexibility, such as when connecting to customized or internally-built software.
Asana is built for teamwork and knowing who is doing what by when. Having an easy way to capture information in Asana makes it less likely that work will accidentally overlooked. For example, when communicating with people who work in other companies who aren't members of your Asana organization, an integration like we built for Gmail lets you create follow-up tasks with just a few clicks. Asana’s platform is a great way to pull information from many channels into Asana with minimum hassle.
Asana is built to be a tool that works well for all teams. We build features into our core product that aren't overly opinionated about how you get work done. At the same time, there is opportunity for teams to use Asana in a specialized way or with specific additional features. When there are features that you'd like Asana to have, our platform is a resource to make them happen. For example, one of the goals for the popular app Instagantt is to provide additional features to Asana.
Integrations or scripts work great to maintain a custom workflow, saving a team member from having to continually pay attention to the state of tasks in Asana.
Whether it's ensuring that custom fields are filled out, tasks are completed, tasks live in the correct board-view column, or automatically assigning tasks at certain stages in your process, integrations can react to changes in Asana to ensure that everyone is up to date. When processes mature around how you get work done, it's a great time to use Asana's platform to make sure everything stays consistent and clear.
Check out some examples of integrations we've built on Asana in examples.