cyber-asana vs official Asana MCP

Asana ships an official MCP server (hosted, OAuth) alongside which cyber-asana runs its own local MCP server. They are not competitors — tool names do not collide, and running both in the same host is the intended setup. This page shows what each one covers so you know which to reach for.

Note

Compared against Asana’s documented MCP tools reference (27 tools). The official server also exposes undocumented internal/widget tools in some hosts; those are out of scope.

At a glance

	Official Asana MCP	cyber-asana MCP
Tools	27	105
Transport	Hosted remote (https://mcp.asana.com/v2/mcp)	Local stdio (cyber-asana mcp)
Auth	OAuth 2.0 (hosted, an MCP app you register)	Personal access token, or OAuth 2.0 + PKCE via cyber-asana auth login (your own API app)
Config key	asana	cyber-asana
Backing surface	Asana’s MCP-native V2 API	Asana REST API
Output	JSON	JSON, or TOON via CYBER_ASANA_MCP_FORMAT=toon
Also available as a CLI	No	Yes — same core, same operations

Overlap: 21 tool pairs. Official-only: 6. cyber-asana-only: 84.

What only the official server has

These are routed to the official server by design. cyber-asana’s remit is write-heavy REST automation; discovery, preview-then-confirm flows, and preview APIs stay where they already work. The exception is made when the REST cost turns out to be trivial — the reasoning for each is below, so you can tell a deliberate boundary from an oversight.

Official tool	What it does	cyber-asana alternative
search_tasks_preview	Preview a task search before running it	None by design — a host-UX confirm flow, not an API capability
create_task_preview	Interactive preview of a task before creating it	None by design — same reason; asana_task_create writes directly
create_project_preview	Interactive preview of a project before creating it	None by design — same reason; asana_project_create writes directly
get_agent	Fetch an Asana AI agent	None while Asana’s agent endpoints stay early-access and require an opt-in header
get_workspace_agents	List a workspace’s AI agents	Same — though asana_search_objects covers basic discovery via typeahead’s agent / actor types
get_status_overview	Aggregated status report across projects and portfolios — task summaries and flagged blockers, found by its own keyword search	None for the search half. Once you know the GID, asana_status_overview rolls up the latest status and task counts for a project or portfolio in one call — deterministic and parent-scoped, with no keyword search and no blocker flagging

If your workflow depends on preview-then-confirm flows, Asana AI agents, or searched status reporting, keep the official server installed.

What both servers cover

21 pairs overlap. Use whichever server is already loaded — ✅ means the two are equivalent for everyday use, 🟡 means the scope differs (explained under the table).

Capability	Official	cyber-asana	Match
Get a task	get_task	asana_task_get	✅
List tasks	get_tasks	asana_task_list	✅
My Tasks	get_my_tasks	asana_task_my_tasks	✅
Search tasks	search_tasks	asana_task_search	✅
Create a task	create_tasks	asana_task_create	✅
Update a task	update_tasks	asana_task_update	✅
Delete a task	delete_task	asana_task_delete	✅
Comment on a task	add_comment	asana_comment_create	✅
Get a project	get_project	asana_project_get	✅
List projects	get_projects	asana_project_list	✅
Create a project	create_project	asana_project_create	✅
Get a portfolio	get_portfolio	asana_portfolio_get	✅
List portfolios	get_portfolios	asana_portfolio_list	✅
List portfolio items	get_items_for_portfolio	asana_portfolio_item_list	✅
Get a user	get_user	asana_user_get	✅
Get the current user	get_me	asana_user_me	✅
List users	get_users	asana_user_list	✅
List teams	get_teams	asana_team_list	✅
Create a status update	create_project_status_update	asana_status_create	🟡
List attachments	get_attachments	asana_attachment_list	✅
Find objects by name	search_objects	asana_search_objects	🟡

Where the pairs are 🟡, the scope differs — and not always in cyber-asana’s favor:

• Create a status update — cyber-asana is the superset. create_project_status_update posts to a project or portfolio; asana_status_create adds goals, and asana_status_get / asana_status_delete round out the resource.
• Find objects by name — the official server is the superset per call. search_objects searches across object types in one call; asana_search_objects takes one resource_type, because that is all Asana’s typeahead endpoint accepts. Both are capped, relevance/recency-ordered, and explicitly not exhaustive.

What only cyber-asana has

84 tools, mostly relationship edits and resources outside the official server’s V2 scope.

Task relationships

asana_task_subtask_list, asana_task_subtask_create, asana_task_dependency_list|add|remove, asana_task_dependent_list|add|remove, asana_task_follower_add|remove, asana_task_project_add|remove, asana_task_get_many.

This is the biggest gap. The official server can create and update tasks but cannot wire them together — subtasks, dependencies, followers, and project membership are cyber-asana only.

Sections

asana_section_list|get|create|update|move|delete, plus asana_section_task_add. The official server has no section tools at all, so board-column workflows — including reordering the columns and dropping a task straight into one — need cyber-asana.

Tags

asana_tag_list|get|create|update|delete, plus asana_tag_list_for_task, asana_tag_add_to_task, asana_tag_remove_from_task, asana_tag_list_tasks.

Goals

asana_goal_list|get|create|update|delete.

Out-of-office entries

asana_ooo_list|get|create|update|delete. Asana holds who is away and nothing else does; the official server exposes no path to it, so checking availability before assigning work needs cyber-asana.

Writes on projects and portfolios

asana_project_update, asana_project_delete, asana_project_counts, asana_project_search, asana_portfolio_create|update|delete, asana_status_list|get|delete, asana_status_overview. The official server creates projects and portfolios but does not update or delete them, and has no way to list the status updates on one parent. asana_status_overview rolls a parent’s latest status and task counts into one call — the deterministic half of get_status_overview, without its keyword search.

Custom field settings

asana_custom_field_list_for_project|portfolio|goal|team. The official server has no way to ask which custom fields a project accepts, so an agent writing custom_fields has to guess the field and option GIDs. These four reads answer that directly.

Workspaces and teams

asana_workspace_list, asana_workspace_get, asana_team_get.

Attachments

asana_attachment_get, asana_attachment_create, asana_attachment_delete. The official server can list attachments but not add or remove one; asana_attachment_create uploads a local file or links an external URL to a task, project, or project brief.

Comments and stories

asana_story_list|get|create|update|delete and the asana_comment_* aliases — the official server can add a comment but not read the thread back, and cannot correct or withdraw one it posted.

No REST equivalent at all

Tool	What it does
asana_url_parse	Turn an Asana web URL into the task/project GIDs it refers to
asana_project_export	Render a project and its tasks as a Markdown document
asana_task_scan_todos	Scan a codebase for TODO/FIXME comments and draft tasks from them

Choosing between them

Both can be installed at once — see Using alongside official Asana MCP for the dual config. When both could do the job:

Prefer official asana	Prefer cyber-asana
Cross-object discovery in one call (search_objects, search_tasks_preview)	Anything relational: subtasks, dependencies, followers, sections
Preview-then-confirm creation flows	Write-heavy automation and bulk edits
Asana AI agents	Tags, goals, portfolio and project updates/deletes
New MCP-only capabilities Asana ships first	Token-efficient output (--toon), auto-pagination, --full control
Zero local setup — hosted OAuth	Running the same operations from a CLI or a script

Rule of thumb: official for discovery and previews, cyber-asana for writes and structure.