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/trello-setup

Connect Trello so Dex reads your boards and manages cards. Use when the user says 'I use Trello', 'my Trello board', or pastes a trello.com link. Not for Todoist (`todoist-setup`) or Things (`things-setup`).

From plugin
dex
51099 skills28 agents24 commands1 MCP

Claude Code

$ npx -y skills add davekilleen/Dex --skill trello-setup --agent claude-code

SKILL.md

trello-setup.SKILL.md
name: trello-setup
description: "Connect Trello so Dex reads your boards and manages cards. Use when the user says 'I use Trello', 'my Trello board', or pastes a trello.com link. Not for Todoist (`todoist-setup`) or Things (`things-setup`)."
manifest:
  id: trello
  auth: api_key_token
  category: task_access
  mcp_server: null

Trello Setup

Connect your Trello boards so Dex can work with them whenever you ask — check board status, create cards, or move them.

**What this enables (on request):** Once connected, say "sync with Trello" — Dex pushes new tasks as cards in the right list (Backlog/In Progress/Blocked/Done), marks completions by moving cards to Done, and pulls cards you moved or created in Trello. Sync runs on demand.

What This Enables

Once connected, you can ask Dex to:

  • **See board status:** cards by list, blocked items, stale cards — "how's the launch board looking?"
  • **Create cards:** "Add a card for the pricing review to the backlog list"
  • **Update from chat:** "Move the onboarding card to Done" (and, if you ask, mark the matching Dex task complete)
  • **Prep with context:** "Which cards are blocked before my 2pm?"

Privacy

  • Dex reads and writes your boards only when you ask it to
  • Your API key and token stay local on your machine and are gitignored
  • No attachments or comments are read unless you ask
  • Only boards you explicitly configure are accessed

When to Run

  • User types `/trello-setup`
  • User asks about connecting Trello
  • User wants Kanban board context in daily plans or project health
  • During `/integrate-mcp` if Trello is mentioned

---

Setup Flow

Step 1: Check if Already Connected

1. Check `System/integrations/config.yaml` for a `trello:` section with `enabled: true` through `core.utils.strict_yaml.load_yaml_path`; refuse duplicate keys, aliases, anchors, or merge mappings before reading or writing any setup field. 2. If found, skip to **Step 6** (Configure Board Mapping) 3. If not found, continue to Step 2

Step 2: Explain What We're Setting Up

Say:

**Let's connect Trello to Dex.**

This links your Trello boards so you can ask Dex to check board status,
create cards, and move them — right from our conversations.

**What you'll need:**
- A Trello account with at least one board
- Your Trello API key and token (I'll walk you through getting these)
- About 3 minutes

**Ready to go?**

Wait for confirmation.

Step 3: Get API Credentials

Walk the user through getting their Trello API key and token:

**Step 1: Get your API Key**

1. Go to https://trello.com/power-ups/admin
2. Click "New" to create a new Power-Up (or use an existing one)
3. Copy your **API Key** from the Power-Up settings

**Step 2: Generate a Token**

1. On the same page, click the link to generate a **Token**
2. Authorize the app when prompted
3. Copy the token that appears

Do not paste either value into this conversation. Open the ignored vault-root `.env` in your
local editor and replace these placeholders directly:

`TRELLO_API_KEY=<paste key locally here>`
`TRELLO_TOKEN=<paste token locally here>`

Save the file with mode `0600`, then reply only `saved`. Dex must never echo, read aloud,
log, or include either value in a command, argv, or process environment.

Wait only for the non-secret `saved` confirmation. Never ask the user to provide or validate either value in chat.

Step 4: Store Local Credentials

Confirm locally that `.env` defines `TRELLO_API_KEY` and `TRELLO_TOKEN` without printing or returning either value. Preserve unrelated lines. Never copy either value to `.mcp.json`, tracked YAML, commands, argv, logs, transcript, or process environment. Existing `.mcp.json` is scan/report-only and must remain byte-identical. Use `python3 -m core.utils.credential_workflow scan` for the redacted authority finding; repair permissions/ownership before continuing if it reports an invalid `.env` authority.

Before health, update only the non-secret tracked Trello fields to `enabled: true`, `api_key_env_var: TRELLO_API_KEY`, and `token_env_var: TRELLO_TOKEN`; do not add raw `api_key` or `token` fields.

Step 5: Test the Connection

Run a quick test through only Dex's sanitized Python-to-adapter-stdin read-only health path. It resolves `.env` internally and performs Trello `GET /members/me?fields=id`; never test through an ambient or external MCP:

python3 -c 'from core.integrations.task_sync import check_service_health; print(check_service_health("trello"))'

1. Confirm the returned health result 2. Show a brief summary:

**Connection test:**
- Trello authentication succeeded through the read-only health check

Everything looks good!

If it fails, troubleshoot:

That didn't work. A few things to check:

1. **API Key correct?** Should be a 32-character string
2. **Token correct?** Should be a longer string (64+ characters)
3. **Account access?** Make sure the token has read/write permissions

Want to re-enter your credentials?

Retry up to 2 times, then offer to skip and come back later.

Step 6: Configure Board Mapping

Ask the user which board to sync:

**Which Trello board should Dex sync with?**

The health check does not enumerate boards. Open Trello locally and enter the exact board name
and board ID you want Dex to use without pasting either credential.

You can add more boards later by running `/trello-setup` again.

After they choose a board:

**Now let's map your lists to Dex statuses.**

I'll look at the lists on [Board Name]:
- "To Do" -> Backlog (not started)
- "In Progress" -> Started
- "Review" -> (unmapped -- keep or map to Blocked?)
- "Done" -> Done

Does this mapping look right? Or should I adjust?

Let the user confirm or customize the mapping. Default status list names:

  • Backlog / To Do / TODO -> status `n`
  • In Progress / Doing / Active -> status `s`
  • Blocked / On Hold / Waiting -> status `b`
  • Done / Complete / Finished -> status `d`

Step 7: Save

Read more
@davekilleen
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51099 skills28 agents1 MCP
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Questions about trello-setup.

Which coding agents can use trello-setup?
trello-setup installs in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode and Windsurf with the skills CLI, using each agent's flag shown on this page. Flowy's auto-invocation, which fires a skill when your prompt matches, runs in Claude Code only.