Count overdue Asana tasks by assignee every weekday

SKILL.md---
name: asana-overdue-tasks
description: "Every weekday: overdue tasks in an Asana project or portfolio, grouped by assignee, with the oldest ones and the tasks nobody owns. Use when the user asks for this, or when it runs on a schedule."
---

# Asana overdue tasks by assignee

Every weekday: overdue tasks in an Asana project or portfolio, grouped by assignee, with the oldest ones and the tasks nobody owns.

Overdue tasks pile up quietly in Asana: the due date passes, the task stays open, and nobody says anything until the project review. A count by person shows a project manager where the plan has drifted, and who to talk to, before the review does.

The agent checks one project or a whole portfolio each weekday, groups the overdue tasks by assignee, and lists the oldest. Tasks with no assignee get their own line, because they are often the real problem.

## Two ways to get the data

Use the API or MCP route when you have an MCP server, a CLI or an API token for the app. Otherwise, if you can drive a browser the user is signed in to (Claude in Chrome, a Playwright or Chrome DevTools MCP server), use the browser route. Say which one you used.

## Route A: API or MCP server

### What you need

- An Asana account that can see the projects: the Asana MCP server or connector, or a personal access token in `ASANA_ACCESS_TOKEN`.
- The workspace gid and the project or portfolio gid, both visible in Asana URLs.

If something is missing, say what and stop; do not invent numbers.

### Steps

1. **Find the projects** (Asana): Use the project gid from its URL, or for a portfolio call `GET /portfolios/{portfolio_gid}/items` to list the projects in it.
2. **Search for overdue tasks** (Asana): On a paid plan, call `GET /workspaces/{workspace_gid}/tasks/search?projects.any={gids}&completed=false&due_on.before={today}&sort_by=due_date&sort_ascending=true&opt_fields=name,assignee.name,due_on,permalink_url`. Without search, use `GET /tasks?project={gid}&completed_since=now` and keep tasks with `due_on` before today.
3. **Group and age them**: Count overdue tasks per assignee and those more than 7 days late, and keep tasks without an assignee as a group of their own.
4. **Write the report**: Total overdue and the change since yesterday, a bar per assignee, the five oldest tasks with assignee, due date and days late, and the unassigned ones.

## Route B: the browser

### What you need

- Signed in to Asana as a member who can see the project or portfolio; advanced search needs a paid plan (Starter or above), and a free workspace falls back to the project's list view with the **Incomplete tasks** filter and a due-date sort.

If something is missing, say what and stop; do not invent numbers.

### Steps

Start at https://app.asana.com/. The user is signed in already; never type passwords or codes, and ask if a sign-in page appears.

1. **Run an advanced search**: Click the search bar at the top, then **Advanced search**. Add the project (or every project in the portfolio, from the portfolio's list) under **In projects**, set **Completion** to **Incomplete** and **Due date** to **Before** today, then **Search**.
2. **Sort and group**: In the results, choose **Sort: Due date** so the oldest come first, and **Group by: Assignee** if the view offers it; otherwise read the Assignee column and count by hand. Note tasks with no assignee as their own group.
3. **Age the tasks**: Count per assignee how many are more than 7 days late from the due date column, and copy the five oldest with their link (right-click the task, **Copy task link**).
4. **Keep a baseline for the change**: Click the star next to the search name to save it; the saved search reopens with fresh results, and yesterday's total comes from the previous card.

Note: Advanced search is a paid-plan feature; on a free workspace use the project's List view with Filter set to Incomplete tasks and sort by Due date, one project at a time. Search results load in pages as you scroll, which is fine for a few hundred tasks and slow beyond that. Subtasks appear only if they were added to the project.

## The report

- **Overdue tasks** in total and the change since yesterday.
- Overdue tasks per assignee, and how many are over a week late.
- The five oldest overdue tasks, with links.
- Tasks with no assignee.

## Post it to Briefkin

When `BRIEFKIN_TOKEN` is set, or `~/.config/briefkin/env` exists (the installer from https://briefkin.dev/docs writes it), also send the result to the user's Briefkin board as one card. Keep the `item_key` the same on every run so the card updates in place, use a new `event_id` per run, and put today's real numbers in place of the example ones. If the request fails, say so once and carry on.

```bash
[ -n "${BRIEFKIN_TOKEN:-}" ] || . ~/.config/briefkin/env
curl -sS -X POST "${BRIEFKIN_URL:-https://briefkin.dev}/v1/events" \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $BRIEFKIN_TOKEN" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d @- <<'JSON'
{
  "v": 1,
  "event_id": "asana-overdue-tasks/<date of this run, e.g. 2026-10-16>",
  "item_key": "asana-overdue-tasks",
  "project": "acme-web",
  "source": "Asana overdue tasks by assignee skill",
  "kind": "metric",
  "title": "23 overdue tasks, 9 more than a week late",
  "metric": {
    "label": "Overdue tasks",
    "value": 23,
    "better": "lower",
    "period_start": "<start of the period, ISO 8601>",
    "period_end": "<end of the period, ISO 8601>"
  },
  "glance": [
    {
      "type": "Grid",
      "props": {
        "columns": 2
      },
      "children": [
        {
          "type": "Stat",
          "props": {
            "label": "More than 7 days late",
            "value": 9,
            "tone": "warn"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "Stat",
          "props": {
            "label": "Unassigned",
            "value": 3
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "widget": [
    {
      "type": "Bars",
      "props": {
        "unit": "tasks",
        "tone": "warn",
        "items": [
          {
            "label": "Maya",
            "value": 7
          },
          {
            "label": "Jordan",
            "value": 5
          },
          {
            "label": "Priya",
            "value": 4
          },
          {
            "label": "Sam",
            "value": 4
          },
          {
            "label": "Unassigned",
            "value": 3
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Table",
      "props": {
        "columns": [
          "Task",
          "Assignee",
          "Due",
          "Days late"
        ],
        "align": [
          "left",
          "left",
          "left",
          "right"
        ],
        "rows": [
          [
            "Migrate pricing page to the new CMS",
            "Maya",
            "Sep 20",
            26
          ],
          [
            "Cookie banner copy",
            "Unassigned",
            "Sep 27",
            19
          ],
          [
            "Legal review of new terms",
            "Jordan",
            "Oct 2",
            14
          ],
          [
            "Hero illustrations, final files",
            "Priya",
            "Oct 4",
            12
          ],
          [
            "Set up uptime alerts",
            "Sam",
            "Oct 7",
            9
          ]
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Callout",
      "props": {
        "text": "Maya has 7 overdue tasks, 4 of them waiting on the CMS migration. Worth a re-plan before anything new lands on her.",
        "tone": "warn"
      }
    }
  ],
  "size": "md"
}
JSON
```

Widgets come from the Briefkin catalog (https://briefkin.dev/v1/catalog). Without a token, just give the user the report.

Set `period_start` and `period_end` to the window the number covers: the tile names it from them ("Last 7 days", "Today", "This month"). For a count right now (open items, a balance), send `"period_label": ""` so no period shows; for another name, send it as `period_label` (at most 24 characters).

## Run it on a schedule

Suggested: Weekdays at 9:30 (`30 9 * * 1-5`). From cron, with the agent signed in on that machine:

```bash
30 9 * * 1-5 claude -p "Run the asana-overdue-tasks skill"
# Codex: codex exec, Gemini CLI: gemini -p, Copilot CLI: copilot -p, OpenCode: opencode run
```

Or use the agent's own scheduler (Claude Code routines, Codex automations, Claude or ChatGPT scheduled tasks): https://briefkin.dev/skills/asana-overdue-tasks#schedule

Source: https://briefkin.dev/skills/asana-overdue-tasks