asana-mcp-troubleshooting

Asana MCP Troubleshooting

When to use this skill

Use this skill when:

• The user says Asana tools are not available or not showing up in Cursor
• The user reports an authentication error when using Asana tools
• The user says "I'm stuck" or "it's not working" after installing the plugin
• Any Asana MCP tool call fails with a connection or auth error

Diagnosis flow

Work through these checks in order. Stop at the first one that fails and resolve it before continuing.

Check 1: Are the environment variables set?

Run:

echo "CLIENT_ID: $ASANA_CLIENT_ID"
echo "CLIENT_SECRET: $ASANA_CLIENT_SECRET"

If either prints empty or the literal string $ASANA_CLIENT_ID: The env vars are not set. This is the most common cause of failure.

Tell the user:

The Asana plugin needs two environment variables to authenticate. You'll need to create an Asana OAuth app to get them.

Step 1: Create an Asana OAuth app

1. Go to https://app.asana.com/0/my-apps
2. Click Create new app and select "MCP App" as the app type
3. Name it anything (e.g. "Cursor MCP")
4. Under OAuth, add this exact redirect URI: cursor://anysphere.cursor-mcp/oauth/callback
5. Copy your Client ID and Client Secret

Step 2: Set environment variables

Add these lines to your shell profile and save the file:

• macOS/zsh → ~/.zshrc
• Linux/bash → ~/.bashrc
• Windows WSL → ~/.bashrc

export ASANA_CLIENT_ID="paste_your_client_id_here"
export ASANA_CLIENT_SECRET="paste_your_client_secret_here"

Step 3: Apply and restart

source ~/.zshrc   # use ~/.bashrc if on bash

Then fully quit and restart Cursor.

After the user confirms they've done this, re-run Check 1.

---

Check 2: Is the redirect URI registered correctly?

If env vars are set but auth still fails, the redirect URI may be missing or wrong.

Tell the user to go back to https://app.asana.com/0/my-apps, open their app, and confirm this exact URI is listed under OAuth redirect URIs: