Migrate from Cerebro to Asana

Cerebro Projects map directly to Asana Projects. Project name, description, status (Active/Archived), start date, due date, and tags transfer as-is. We use the project-level tags array to populate Asana project-level color labels. Projects are created first in the migration sequence so that all child tasks can reference a valid parent Project.gid at insert time.

Cerebro Tasks map to Asana Tasks. The Cerebro task name maps to Asana name, notes to the task description field (stored as HTML), start date to start_on, and due date to due_on. Assignee is resolved by email against the Asana User table during the User mapping phase. Task status (open/done) maps to completed in Asana. All tasks are inserted before subtask resolution begins.

Cerebro's unlimited nesting depth is the primary structural challenge in this migration. Asana supports subtasks exactly one level deep per task. For Cerebro task trees deeper than two levels, we flatten nested structures into sibling tasks within an Asana Section, and we preserve the original parent-child relationship as a predecessor dependency edge (using Asana dependencies). We record the original nesting depth and root parent in custom fields cerebro_original_depth__c and cerebro_root_parent__c for audit. This mapping requires manual review with the customer's PM lead during scoping to confirm the flattening strategy matches their workflow expectations.

Cerebro Tags are workspace-level labels that can be applied to any project element. We extract the full tag taxonomy per object and map them to Asana Tags, which are global to the Organization. Tag color and name are preserved. Duplicate tag names across object types in Cerebro are merged in Asana to avoid tag proliferation. Tags used for priority or status encoding are identified during scoping and may be converted to custom fields instead.

Cerebro Gantt chart dependencies are stored as explicit edges between tasks with dependency type (Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Finish). We export all dependency edges from Cerebro and recreate them in Asana using the dependencies add endpoint. Asana supports Finish-to-Start dependencies natively; other types are stored as custom fields cerebro_dependency_type__c on the dependent task and flagged for manual review post-migration.

Cerebro stores media files on its own distributed server infrastructure with URL-based references. We extract every attachment URL from the Cerebro export, download each file individually (with timeout and retry handling per asset), and re-upload to Asana as a file attachment on the corresponding task. Audiovisual commentaries are treated as standard video attachments. Thumbnail previews and Cerebro-specific preview formats do not carry over; we flag these as requiring optional manual re-upload. Large files exceeding Asana's 100MB attachment limit are chunked or hosted as linked Google Drive references.

Cerebro Comments map to Asana Stories with type=comment. Author attribution is preserved via user email mapping. Comment body transfers as plain text. Inline media references in comments are converted to download-and-re-attach links pointing to the re-uploaded attachment in Asana. Cerebro's built-in translator feature may have injected UI-localized strings into comment text; we strip common localization artifact patterns (e.g., repeated string suffixes, bracketed language tags) during comment normalization, though manual review of comment content post-migration is recommended.

Cerebro's team and individual calendars aggregate task assignments and deadlines into a calendar view. We extract calendar-scheduled entries and map them to Asana Tasks with start_on and due_on populated from the original calendar entry. All-day vs partial-day semantics differ between platforms; Cerebro's all-day events are flagged with cerebro_all_day__c set to true in the migrated task. Full calendar view reconstruction is out of scope; we deliver the calendar data as a task list with date fields populated.

Cerebro uses permission groups for access control: users belong to named groups with specific read/write/Admin rights per project. Asana uses Teams with member roles (Member, Guest, Admin) scoped to Organization or Team level. We extract every distinct permission group, list its members, and map to the closest matching Asana Team and role combination. Groups with no direct Asana equivalent (e.g., custom granular per-project rights) are flagged in the permission handoff document and require manual post-migration permission review by the customer's admin.

Cerebro Users are resolved by email address against Asana's User table. First name, last name, and email transfer. Any Cerebro user without a matching Asana User is held in a provisioning queue; the customer's admin creates the Asana account before the permission mapping phase runs. Inactive Cerebro users are mapped to Asana inactive members with their task assignments reassigned to a default project owner.

Cerebro project templates are collections of pre-configured task structures, tags, and settings cloned per new engagement. We export the full template structure as a static project export. Asana has a native project templates feature on Premium and above. We create an equivalent Asana project from the exported structure and, if the customer is on Asana Premium or Enterprise, convert it to a template using Asana's template API. If the customer is on Asana Basic (free), we deliver the template structure as a written task-breakdown document for manual cloning.

Cerebro Gantt charts are generated from task dates and dependency edges. We extract timeline data (start date, end date, duration, and dependency edges) from Cerebro and reconstruct the Gantt layout in Asana as a Timeline view. Note: Timeline view requires Asana Premium ($10.99/user/month) or above. If the destination Asana workspace is on a lower tier, we deliver the timeline data as a written dependency map and the customer's admin enables Timeline by upgrading or uses a third-party Gantt tool.