Import tasks from CSV

Move task data from another system into Cogno with a controlled review step. Cogno reads CSV files, asks you to confirm how every column maps to a Cogno field, maps source statuses and people to Cogno statuses and members, then creates the tasks. CSV import creates tasks once. It is not a live sync — for ongoing activity from GitHub or Slack, connect an integration instead.

Prerequisites

A CSV export from the source system, with a header row and one row per task.
Invite members first if you want assignees and collaborators to map to workspace members.
Absolute dates in the CSV (2026-06-11, not “next Friday”).
Stable parent references (title, source URL, or external ID) if the source has subtasks.

Import a CSV

Export a CSV from the source app

See the per-source recipes below for Linear, Notion, GitHub Issues, Asana, and Jira Cloud.

Open Task import

Open Settings → General and find the Task import card. Drop one or more CSV files into it, or select Choose Task CSV.

Map every column

Select an uploaded file to review its Column mapping. Map every CSV column to a Cogno field, or choose Do not import. Cogno pre-maps recognizable column names (Title, Status, Assignee, Due date, and similar) — confirm the guesses.

Map statuses and members

In Status mapping, map each source status value to a Cogno status. In Member mapping, map each source assignee or collaborator to a workspace member, or choose Do not assign.

Review the preview and import

Check the Preview of the first mapped rows, mark each file Mapping complete, then select Import. Cogno shows created, skipped, and error counts per file.

Spot-check the created tasks

Open Tasks and verify a few imported tasks: title, status, assignee, project, parent link, and the source URL back to the original app.

Status mapping

Cogno’s workflow statuses are Backlog, Ready, In Progress, In Review, and Done, plus the hidden Archived and Rejected states. When you map a column to Status, the importer lists every distinct source value and asks you to map each one. The dropdown offers the statuses a person may set directly:

Mapping target	Use it for source values like
Backlog	Backlog, Triage, Idea, Todo, Open
Ready	Up next, Selected, Planned work that needs a human
In Review	In review, Awaiting review
Done	Done, Closed, Completed, Resolved
Archived	Cancelled, Won’t fix

Two statuses are not offered:

In Progress holds only queued or running work in Cogno, so imported rows cannot enter it directly.
Rejected is reserved for declining Cogno’s own suggestions.

Rows with an empty status cell are created as Ready. The original source value is preserved in the task’s import metadata, so nothing is lost by mapping several source states to one Cogno status.

Member mapping

Map source assignees and collaborators to workspace members.

Source value	Behavior
Exact member name match	Cogno preselects the member when exactly one matches.
Multiple names in one cell	Split by comma, semicolon, or newline.
First assignee value	Becomes the primary assignee.
Extra assignee values	Become collaborators.
Unknown or ambiguous person	Choose a member manually, or choose Do not assign.

Parent task mapping

Map a parent reference column to Parent Task when the source system has subtasks. Cogno resolves the reference against tasks in the same import batch, previously imported tasks in the workspace, and their titles, source URLs, and import metadata.

Cogno supports one level of task nesting.
Ambiguous parent references and cycles are skipped (the child is still created, unlinked).
When the source export separates parents and children, import the parents first.

Field reference

Cogno field	Required	Multiple columns	Use it for
Task title	Yes	Yes	Main task title. Multiple title columns are joined with spaces.
Description	No	Yes	Long-form task body. Multiple columns are joined with blank lines.
Status	No	No	Source workflow state, mapped before import.
Assignee	No	No	Primary owner. Multiple values in one cell are split.
Collaborators	No	Yes	Additional owners, followers, reviewers, participants.
Due date	No	No	Task due date.
Start date	No	No	Task start date.
Project	No	No	Cogno project name — Cogno creates or reuses a project by name.
Parent Task	No	No	Parent reference for a one-level hierarchy.
Source	No	No	Original URL or canonical source link.
Metadata	No	Yes	Labels, priority, estimate, IDs, timestamps, and other unsupported fields.
Do not import	No	Yes	Columns to ignore.

Every column must be mapped or explicitly ignored, and a Task title column is required.

Date values

Cogno accepts absolute dates: 2026-06-11, 2026/06/11, 06/11/2026, 11/06/2026, Jun 11, 2026, and June 11, 2026. Timestamps work when the first 10 characters form an ISO date. Relative phrases (“tomorrow”, “next Friday”) are rejected.

Limits

Limit	Value
Header row	Required, plus at least one task row
Columns	Up to 100
Cell length	Up to 20,000 characters
Rows per request	250 (larger files are sent in batches)
Text per request	Up to 1,500,000 characters

If a batch partially succeeds, Cogno reports created, skipped, and error counts — earlier batches are already saved, so reload tasks before re-importing the remaining rows.

Export recipes per source

Linear

Open the issue list, project, or custom view you want to move, open the command menu with Cmd/Ctrl + K, and choose Export issues as CSV.

Linear column	Cogno field
`Title`	Task title
`Description`	Description
`Status`	Status
`Assignee`	Assignee
`Project`	Project
`Due Date`	Due date
`Parent issue`	Parent Task
`ID`, `Priority`, `Estimate`, `Labels`, `Cycle`, timestamps, milestones	Metadata

Notion

Open the database, open the top-right page menu, choose Export, and select Markdown & CSV. Upload the database CSV from the unzipped export.

Notion column	Cogno field
Task name or page title	Task title
Description or notes	Description
Status	Status
Assignee or People	Assignee
Due date	Due date
Project or milestone	Project
Tags, priority, relations, rollups	Metadata

GitHub Issues

GitHub has no browser CSV export — use the GitHub CLI to format issues as CSV:

gh auth login

REPO="OWNER/REPO"
OUT="github-${REPO//\//-}-issues.csv"

gh issue list -R "$REPO" --state all --limit 1000 \
  --json number,title,body,state,stateReason,labels,assignees,milestone,createdAt,updatedAt,closedAt,url \
  --jq '(["number","title","body","state","stateReason","labels","assignees","milestone","createdAt","updatedAt","closedAt","url"], (.[] | [.number,.title,.body,.state,(.stateReason // ""),([.labels[].name] | join(";")),([.assignees[].login] | join(";")),(.milestone.title // ""),.createdAt,.updatedAt,(.closedAt // ""),.url])) | @csv' \
  > "$OUT"

GitHub column	Cogno field
`title`	Task title
`body`	Description
`state`	Status (`open` → Backlog, `closed` → Done)
`assignees`	Assignee
`milestone`	Project or Metadata
`url`	Source
`number`, `stateReason`, `labels`, timestamps	Metadata

Asana

Open the Asana project, open the dropdown next to the project title, and choose the CSV export option.

Asana column	Cogno field
Task name	Task title
Notes or Description	Description
Section or Status	Status or Metadata
Assignee	Assignee
Collaborators or Followers	Collaborators
Due Date	Due date
Projects	Project
Tags, custom fields, IDs, dates	Metadata

Jira Cloud

Open a project’s List (or Filters → Search work items), apply your filter, open the more-actions menu, choose Export, and select Export CSV - all fields.

Jira column	Cogno field
`Summary`	Task title
`Description`	Description
`Status`	Status
`Assignee`	Assignee
`Due date`	Due date
`Project name` or `Project key`	Project
`Parent` or parent issue key	Parent Task
`Issue key` or issue URL	Source
Comments, labels, components, priority, custom fields, timestamps	Metadata

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
File cannot load	Missing header row or no task rows	Confirm the CSV has a header row and at least one task row.
Mapping complete is disabled	Undecided columns, statuses, or members	Map every column, every status value, and every assignee value.
Task title column is required.	No title column mapped	Map a non-empty title, name, or summary column to Task title.
Single-value field has multiple columns	Two columns mapped to Status, Assignee, or similar	Keep one column mapped and move the others to Metadata or Do not import.
Assignee not found	Person is not a workspace member	Invite the member first, or choose Do not assign.
Date is invalid	Relative or unusual date format	Convert dates to an accepted absolute format.
Parent task not found	Unstable or missing parent reference	Import parents first, or preserve stable IDs/source URLs.
Characters look corrupted	Non-UTF-8 encoding	Re-export as UTF-8 or resave with a modern spreadsheet app.

For anything not listed here, see Troubleshooting.

Export tasks — the counterpart; an exported CSV can be re-imported.
Work with Tasks — statuses and day-to-day task flow.
Integrations — live event sources instead of one-time import.

Start

Release notes

Concepts

Guides

Reference

Help

Import tasks from CSV

Prerequisites

Import a CSV

Status mapping

Member mapping

Parent task mapping

Field reference

Date values

Limits

Export recipes per source

Troubleshooting

​Prerequisites

​Import a CSV

​Status mapping

​Member mapping

​Parent task mapping

​Field reference

​Date values

​Limits

​Export recipes per source

​Troubleshooting

​Related docs

Prerequisites

Import a CSV

Status mapping

Member mapping

Parent task mapping

Field reference

Date values

Limits

Export recipes per source

Troubleshooting

Related docs