asana_create_task

Create a new task in an Asana project with details like name, description, due date, assignee, and custom fields to organize work and track progress.

Instructions

Create a new task in a project

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`project_id`	Yes	The project to create the task in
`name`	Yes	Name of the task
`notes`	No	Description of the task
`html_notes`	No	HTML-like formatted description of the task. Does not support ALL HTML tags. Only a subset. The only allowed TAG in the HTML are: <body> <h1> <h2> <ol> <ul> <li> <strong> <em> <u> <s> <code> <pre> <blockquote> <a data-asana-type="" data-asana-gid=""> <hr> <img> <table> <tr> <td>. No other tags are allowed. Use the \n to create a newline. Do not use \n after <body>. Example: <body><h1>Motivation</h1> A customer called in to complain <h1>Goal</h1> Fix the problem</body>
`due_on`	No	Due date in YYYY-MM-DD format
`assignee`	No	Assignee (can be 'me' or a user ID)
`followers`	No	Array of user IDs to add as followers
`parent`	No	The parent task ID to set this task under
`projects`	No	Array of project IDs to add this task to
`resource_subtype`	No	The type of the task. Can be one of 'default_task' or 'milestone'
`custom_fields`	No	Object mapping custom field GID strings to their values. For enum fields use the enum option GID as the value.

Implementation Reference

src/tool-handler.ts:140-178 (handler)

Main execution handler for the 'asana_create_task' tool. Destructures input args into project_id and taskData, calls AsanaClientWrapper.createTask, and provides specialized error handling for HTML notes validation using validateAsanaXml.

case "asana_create_task": {
  const { project_id, ...taskData } = args;
  try {
    const response = await asanaClient.createTask(project_id, taskData);
    return {
      content: [{ type: "text", text: JSON.stringify(response) }],
    };
  } catch (error) {
    // When error occurs and html_notes was provided, validate it
    if (taskData.html_notes && error instanceof Error && [400, 500].includes(error.status)) {
      const xmlValidationErrors = validateAsanaXml(taskData.html_notes);
      if (xmlValidationErrors.length > 0) {
        // Provide detailed validation errors to help the user
        return {
          content: [{
            type: "text",
            text: JSON.stringify({
              error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),
              validation_errors: xmlValidationErrors,
              message: "The HTML notes contain invalid XML formatting. Please check the validation errors above."
            })
          }],
        };
      } else {
        // HTML is valid, something else caused the error
        return {
          content: [{
            type: "text",
            text: JSON.stringify({
              error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),
              html_notes_validation: "The HTML notes format is valid. The error must be related to something else."
            })
          }],
        };
      }
    }
    throw error; // re-throw to be caught by the outer try/catch
  }
}

src/tools/task-tools.ts:263-322 (schema)

Defines the Tool metadata including name, description, and comprehensive inputSchema with properties like project_id, name, notes, html_notes, due_on, assignee, custom_fields, etc., and required fields.

export const createTaskTool: Tool = {
  name: "asana_create_task",
  description: "Create a new task in a project",
  inputSchema: {
    type: "object",
    properties: {
      project_id: {
        type: "string",
        description: "The project to create the task in"
      },
      name: {
        type: "string",
        description: "Name of the task"
      },
      notes: {
        type: "string",
        description: "Description of the task"
      },
      html_notes: {
        type: "string",
        description: "HTML-like formatted description of the task. Does not support ALL HTML tags. Only a subset. The only allowed TAG in the HTML are: <body> <h1> <h2> <ol> <ul> <li> <strong> <em> <u> <s> <code> <pre> <blockquote> <a data-asana-type=\"\" data-asana-gid=\"\"> <hr> <img> <table> <tr> <td>. No other tags are allowed. Use the \\n to create a newline. Do not use \\n after <body>. Example: <body><h1>Motivation</h1>\nA customer called in to complain\n<h1>Goal</h1>\nFix the problem</body>"
      },
      due_on: {
        type: "string",
        description: "Due date in YYYY-MM-DD format"
      },
      assignee: {
        type: "string",
        description: "Assignee (can be 'me' or a user ID)"
      },
      followers: {
        type: "array",
        items: {
          type: "string"
        },
        description: "Array of user IDs to add as followers"
      },
      parent: {
        type: "string",
        description: "The parent task ID to set this task under"
      },
      projects: {
        type: "array",
        items: {
          type: "string"
        },
        description: "Array of project IDs to add this task to"
      },
      resource_subtype: {
        type: "string",
        description: "The type of the task. Can be one of 'default_task' or 'milestone'"
      },
      custom_fields: {
        type: "object",
        description: "Object mapping custom field GID strings to their values. For enum fields use the enum option GID as the value."
      }
    },
    required: ["project_id", "name"]
  }
};

src/tool-handler.ts:38-61 (registration)

Registers the createTaskTool (asana_create_task) by including it in the all_tools array, which is filtered based on read-only mode and exported as list_of_tools for the MCP server.

const all_tools: Tool[] = [
  listWorkspacesTool,
  searchProjectsTool,
  searchTasksTool,
  getTaskTool,
  createTaskTool,
  getStoriesForTaskTool,
  updateTaskTool,
  getProjectTool,
  getProjectTaskCountsTool,
  getProjectSectionsTool,
  createTaskStoryTool,
  addTaskDependenciesTool,
  addTaskDependentsTool,
  createSubtaskTool,
  getMultipleTasksByGidTool,
  getProjectStatusTool,
  getProjectStatusesForProjectTool,
  createProjectStatusTool,
  deleteProjectStatusTool,
  setParentForTaskTool,
  getTasksForTagTool,
  getTagsForWorkspaceTool,
];

src/asana-client-wrapper.ts:122-141 (helper)

Supporting method in AsanaClientWrapper that prepares task creation data (adds project to projects array if missing, sets defaults for resource_subtype and custom_fields), then delegates to the Asana SDK TasksApi.createTask.

async createTask(projectId: string, data: any) {
  // Ensure projects array includes the projectId
  const projects = data.projects || [];
  if (!projects.includes(projectId)) {
    projects.push(projectId);
  }

  const taskData = {
    data: {
      ...data,
      projects,
      // Handle resource_subtype if provided
      resource_subtype: data.resource_subtype || 'default_task',
      // Handle custom_fields if provided
      custom_fields: data.custom_fields || {}
    }
  };
  const response = await this.tasks.createTask(taskData);
  return response.data;
}

mcp-server-asana