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Security & Passwords by @startupbros

bitwarden-vault

Bitwarden CLI setup, authentication

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Bitwarden CLI Skill

The Bitwarden command-line interface (CLI) provides full access to your Bitwarden vault for retrieving passwords, secure notes, and other secrets programmatically.

Workflow Requirements

CRITICAL: Always run bw commands inside a dedicated tmux session. The CLI requires a session key (BW_SESSION) for all vault operations after authentication. A tmux session preserves this environment variable across commands.

Required Workflow

  1. Verify CLI installation: Run bw --version to confirm the CLI is available
  2. Create a dedicated tmux session: tmux new-session -d -s bw-session
  3. Attach and authenticate: Run bw login or bw unlock inside the session
  4. Export session key: After unlock, export BW_SESSION as instructed by the CLI
  5. Execute vault commands: Use bw get, bw list, etc. within the same session

Authentication Methods

Method Command Use Case
Email/Password bw login Interactive sessions, first-time setup
API Key bw login --apikey Automation, scripts (requires separate unlock)
SSO bw login --sso Enterprise/organization accounts

After bw login with email/password, your vault is automatically unlocked. For API key or SSO login, you must subsequently run bw unlock to decrypt the vault.

Session Key Management

The unlock command outputs a session key. You must export it:

# Bash/Zsh
export BW_SESSION="<session_key_from_unlock>"

# Or capture automatically
export BW_SESSION=$(bw unlock --raw)

Session keys remain valid until you run bw lock or bw logout. They do not persist across terminal windows—hence the tmux requirement.

Reading Secrets

# Get password by item name
bw get password "GitHub"

# Get username
bw get username "GitHub"

# Get TOTP code
bw get totp "GitHub"

# Get full item as JSON
bw get item "GitHub"

# Get specific field
bw get item "GitHub" | jq -r '.fields[] | select(.name=="api_key") | .value'

# List all items
bw list items

# Search items
bw list items --search "github"

Security Guardrails

  • NEVER expose secrets in logs, code, or command output visible to users
  • NEVER write secrets to disk unless absolutely necessary
  • ALWAYS use bw lock when finished with vault operations
  • PREFER reading secrets directly into environment variables or piping to commands
  • If you receive "Vault is locked" errors, re-authenticate with bw unlock
  • If you receive "You are not logged in" errors, run bw login first
  • Stop and request assistance if tmux is unavailable on the system

Environment Variables

Variable Purpose
BW_SESSION Session key for vault decryption (required for all vault commands)
BW_CLIENTID API key client ID (for --apikey login)
BW_CLIENTSECRET API key client secret (for --apikey login)
BITWARDENCLI_APPDATA_DIR Custom config directory (enables multi-account setups)

Self-Hosted Servers

For Vaultwarden or self-hosted Bitwarden:

bw config server https://your-bitwarden-server.com

Reference Documentation