Bitwarden Secrets Manager Setup Guide

This guide walks you through setting up Bitwarden Secrets Manager to use with dotman. By the end, you'll have all the credentials needed to securely manage your environment variables.

Prerequisites

• A Bitwarden account (create one at bitwarden.com)
• Access to a web browser

What You'll Set Up

Step 1: Create a Bitwarden Organization

If you already have an organization, skip to Step 2.

1. Log in to the Bitwarden Web Vault
2. In the left sidebar, click on Vaults
3. Under "All vaults", click New organization
4. Choose the Free plan
5. Enter your organization name and billing email
6. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the More from Bitwarden section
7. Check the checkbox Subscribe to Secrets Manager
8. Complete the setup

Step 2: Enable Secrets Manager (Existing Organizations Only)

1. Open the Bitwarden Admin Console for your organization
2. Navigate to Billing → Subscription
3. In the More from Bitwarden section, check Subscribe to Secrets Manager
4. Click Save

After enabling, you should see "Secrets Manager" in the product switcher at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Step 3: Access Secrets Manager

1. At the bottom of the left sidebar, you'll see the product switcher (showing "Password Manager", "Secrets Manager", "Admin Console")
2. Click Secrets Manager
3. You'll see your empty Secrets Manager vault

Step 4: Create a Machine Account

Machine accounts provide programmatic access to your secrets. dotman uses a machine account to read and write your environment variables.

1. In Secrets Manager, click New → Machine account
2. Enter a name (e.g., "dotman-cli")
3. Click Save

Step 5: Generate an Access Token

1. In Secrets Manager, go to Machine accounts
2. Click on your machine account (e.g., "dotman-cli")
3. Go to the Access tokens tab
4. Click Create access token
5. Enter a name (e.g., "dotman-token")
6. Set expiration (recommend: Never, or a long duration)
7. Click Create access token
8. ⚠️ Copy the token immediately – it won't be shown again!

Save this token securely. This will be your BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN.

Step 6: Find Your Organization ID

Your Organization ID is visible in the Secrets Manager URL:

Copy this ID – it will be your BWS_ORGANIZATION_ID.

Step 7: Configure dotman

Now you have everything you need! Run the dotman initialization:

When prompted, select Bitwarden as your provider and enter:

• Project name: Your project name (e.g., "my-app")
• Access token: The token you copied in Step 5
• Organization ID: The ID from Step 6

dotman will create a .env file with your configuration. You're now ready to use dotman with Bitwarden!

Quick Reference

After setup, your .env file should contain:

Helpful Links

• Bitwarden Secrets Manager Documentation
• Access Tokens Guide
• Machine Accounts Guide