Custom Item Type Excel Import

Upvoting! 

We have been moving towards CITs as an initial push from our previous Wrike Professional Services contact, so the fact that CITs isn't supported kind of throws a wrench in our wheel as we are trying to find solutions to create bulk items (i.e. through Excel import).

Hi everyone — Sumanyu here, Engineering Manager for Wrike’s Public APIs.

There are two ways to automate this — one no-code (MCP-based) and one script-based (as previously suggested by Anmol).
Both approaches use Wrike’s Public API under the hood to achieve the same outcome.

MCP-Based (No-Code) Approach
Using the Wrike MCP Server, users can convert all imported tasks to a chosen CIT interactively, without writing code.

1. Set up your MCP server using the developer documentation here: https://developers.wrike.com/wrike-mcp/
2. Here’s a short POC video that shows how to convert all Excel-imported tasks via MCP.
3. You can use or adapt the following prompt inside your MCP setup:

name: "Convert All Tasks to Custom Item Type"
description: "Converts every task in a specified folder/project to the given Custom Item Type (CIT) using Wrike MCP tools."

steps:

  - prompt: |
      Please enter the exact name of the Custom Item Type (CIT) you want to apply to all tasks.
      Example: "Creative Brief" or "Bug Fix".
    tool: "Wrike search custom types"
    params:
      title: "${user_input}"
    next: confirm_cit

  - id: confirm_cit
    prompt: |
      Here are the matching Custom Item Types I found:
      | ID | Name | Category |
      |----|------|-----------|
      ${data}
      Please confirm the correct CIT ID you wish to use.
    capture: cit_id

  - prompt: |
      Great. Now please paste the folder or project permalink containing the imported tasks.
    tool: "Wrike search folder project"
    params:
      permalink: "${user_input}"
    next: confirm_folder

  - id: confirm_folder
    prompt: |
      Folder found:
      Name: ${data.name}
      ID: ${data.id}
      Please confirm — should I proceed to convert tasks in this folder to the selected Custom Item Type (yes/no)?
    capture: confirm_continue

  - condition: "${confirm_continue == 'yes'}"
    prompt: |
      Fetching all tasks from the folder. This may take a few seconds...
    tool: "Wrike get tasks"
    params:
      folderId: "${data.id}"
    next: batch_convert

  - id: batch_convert
    loop:
      input: "${data.taskIds}"
      chunk_size: 100
      tool: "Wrike batch update tasks"
      params:
        taskIds: "${chunk}"
        convertToCustomItemType: "${cit_id}"
      progress_message: "Converted ${progress.count} tasks so far..."
    done_message: |
      ✅ All ${total.count} tasks have been successfully converted to the Custom Item Type (${cit_id}).

Script-Based Approach
For those who prefer a programmable route, there are two options:

1. Programmatic import: Read the Excel/CSV via code and create tasks directly in the desired CIT using
   POST /folders/{folderId}/tasks
2. Post-import conversion: Use the standard Excel import, then run a script that calls the
   PUT /tasks/{ids}?convertToCustomItemType={citId} API to update all imported tasks — the same mechanism leveraged by MCP.

To automate the complete process using custom scripts you can also use Wrike Integrate to listen to a Webhook when a new task is created inside a specific folder and then create a recipe to call PUT /tasks/{ids}?convertToCustomItemType={citId} to do the required conversion.

Recommendation:
Start with the MCP approach — it’s easier to maintain, scalable, and doesn’t require coding. I’m happy to share a simple script version if anyone prefers that route.


Sumanyu Soniwal Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Conviértete en un experto de Wrike con Wrike Discover

Sumanyu Soniwal Wrike Team member Conviértete en un experto de Wrike con Wrike Discover

upvoting

unvoating, counting 83, how many votes are needed?