Building custom apps

Why build a custom app?

In addition to using out-of-the-box integrations and integration platforms like tray.io, zapier, or mulesoft, Asana customers use Asana’s API to customize their Asana experience. These customer-built apps, which we refer to as “custom apps,” come in many different forms: from simple scripts to full-stack apps with polished user interfaces.

Common use cases

While there are many possible reasons for wanting to build a custom app, here are five of the most common customer goals for building a custom solution using the API:

1. Integrating Asana with the other tools and infrastructure their company uses
2. Drawing insights and generating reports from their Asana data
3. Eliminating repetitive work through automations to increase productivity and reduce "work about work"
4. Customizing Asana’s features to align with the specific business needs and workflows of a team, department, or organization
5. Programmatically managing an Asana implementation at scale (e.g., user management, standardization, enforcing policies, etc.)

For more additional details on use cases, see common use cases.

Who this guide is for

This guide is designed to shepherd an Asana customer through the process of scoping, building, deploying, and maintaining custom apps. Unlike content for "third-party" app developers, this guide is specifically for developers that:

• Work for an organization that uses Asana
• Want to use Asana’s API to build a custom solution for their Asana instance (and not for other Asana customers to use)
• Have at least a basic understanding of API concepts
• May or may not be familiar with the Asana product

This guide is not a step-by-step tutorial with runable code examples on how to build an app. Instead, this guide will sequentially cover the concepts that you will need to understand in order to create a successful custom app for your company.