Bitwarden Secrets Manager

Pull API keys from Bitwarden Secrets Manager at process startup instead of storing them in plaintext inside ~/.mibyan/.env. One bootstrap secret (a machine-account access token) replaces N per-provider keys, and rotating a credential becomes a single change in the Bitwarden web app.

How it works

You create a machine account in Bitwarden Secrets Manager, give it read access to a project, and generate an access token.
Mibyan stores that single token in ~/.mibyan/.env as BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN.
Every time mibyan (or the gateway, or a cron job) starts, after ~/.mibyan/.env has loaded, Mibyan calls bws secret list <project_id> and sets the returned keys into os.environ.
By default Mibyan overrides values already in your environment, so Bitwarden is the source of truth — rotate a key once in the web app and every Mibyan process picks it up on next start. Flip override_existing: false in config if you want .env to win instead.

Mibyan honors a bws executable on PATH before checking PM selection. If neither exists, first use requests the pinned package from PM, subject to the lazy-install policy.

Why machine accounts (and why no 2FA prompt)

Bitwarden Secrets Manager is designed for non-interactive workloads: machine accounts can’t be 2FA-gated because there’s no human in the loop. The access token is the credential. Anyone with it can read every secret the machine account has access to, so treat it like a high-value bearer token — store it in .env (not config.yaml), and revoke + regenerate from the Bitwarden web app if it ever leaks. You set up the machine account in the web app, where your normal 2FA applies. After that the token is autonomous.

Setup

1. Create a machine account and access token

In the Bitwarden web app (or vault.bitwarden.eu for EU accounts):

Switch to Secrets Manager from the product switcher.
Create or pick a Project (e.g. “Mibyan keys”).
Add your provider keys as secrets. The secret Name becomes the environment variable name — use OPENROUTER_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, etc.
Machine accounts → New machine account → My Mibyan machine → Projects tab → grant Read access to your project.
Access tokens tab → Create access token → Never expires (or pick a date) → copy the token (starts with 0.). Bitwarden cannot retrieve it again — keep the copy.

Secrets Manager is included on the Bitwarden free tier with limits; no paid plan needed to try this.

2. Run the wizard

mibyan secrets bitwarden setup

It will:

If bws is absent, request its pinned package from PM.
Prompt you for the access token (input is hidden). Stored in ~/.mibyan/.env as BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN.
Ask which Bitwarden region your machine account belongs to — US Cloud, EU Cloud, or self-hosted / custom URL. Stored in config.yaml as secrets.bitwarden.server_url and passed to bws as BWS_SERVER_URL.
List the projects the machine account can see; pick one. Stored in config.yaml as secrets.bitwarden.project_id.
Test-fetch the project’s secrets and show you which env vars will resolve.
Flip secrets.bitwarden.enabled: true.

Non-interactive setup is also supported via flags:

mibyan secrets bitwarden setup \
  --access-token "$BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --server-url https://vault.bitwarden.eu \
  --project-id <project-uuid>

3. Confirm

mibyan secrets bitwarden status

From now on, every mibyan invocation pulls fresh secrets at startup. You’ll see a one-line summary in stderr the first time secrets are applied in a process.

CLI

Command	What it does
`mibyan secrets bitwarden setup`	Interactive wizard (install binary, prompt for token, pick project, test fetch)
`mibyan secrets bitwarden status`	Show config + binary version + token presence/validation
`mibyan secrets bitwarden token`	Rotate the access token: validate the new token against Bitwarden, then store it in `.env`
`mibyan secrets bitwarden sync`	Dry-run: pull secrets now and show what would be applied
`mibyan secrets bitwarden sync --apply`	Pull and export into the current shell’s environment
`mibyan secrets bitwarden install`	Install or repair the PM-pinned `bws` binary. No Bitwarden authentication required.
`mibyan secrets bitwarden install --force`	Check and repair the managed copy. Valid entries can be reused without another download.
`mibyan secrets bitwarden disable`	Flip `enabled: false`; leaves token + project id in place

Rotating an expired or revoked token

When the machine-account token expires, gets revoked, or the account is deleted, startup shows:

Bitwarden Secrets Manager: Bitwarden rejected the machine-account access token (BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN) — it was likely revoked, expired, or belongs to another region.  (...)
Bitwarden Secrets Manager: → Run `mibyan secrets bitwarden token` to paste a fresh access token ...

Fix it without re-running the whole wizard:

mibyan secrets bitwarden token                     # masked prompt
mibyan secrets bitwarden token --access-token 0.…  # non-interactive

The command probes Bitwarden with the new token before writing anything — a rejected token leaves your current .env untouched. On success it stores the token, clears the fetch caches, and warns if the configured project is not visible to the new machine account.

Configuration

Defaults in ~/.mibyan/config.yaml:

secrets:
  bitwarden:
    enabled: false
    access_token_env: BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN
    project_id: ""
    server_url: ""
    cache_ttl_seconds: 300
    encrypted_cache:
      enabled: false
      max_stale_seconds: 0
    override_existing: true
    auto_install: true

Key	Default	What it does
`enabled`	`false`	Master switch. When false, Bitwarden is never contacted.
`access_token_env`	`BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN`	Env var name that holds the bootstrap token. Change this if you already use `BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN` for something else.
`project_id`	`""`	UUID of the project to sync from.
`server_url`	`""`	Bitwarden region or self-hosted endpoint. Empty = `bws` default (US Cloud, `https://vault.bitwarden.com`). Set to `https://vault.bitwarden.eu` for EU Cloud, or your own URL for self-hosted. Plumbed into the `bws` subprocess as `BWS_SERVER_URL`.
`cache_ttl_seconds`	`300`	How long an in-process or disk fetch result is reused. Set to `0` to disable fresh-cache reuse.
`encrypted_cache.enabled`	`false`	Store the last successful fetch in an AES-GCM encrypted cache at `~/.mibyan/cache/bws_cache.enc.json`.
`encrypted_cache.max_stale_seconds`	`0`	When encrypted caching is enabled, allow that cache to be used only after network/timeout failures, up to this age. Authentication failures never use stale secrets. A successful encrypted write removes the legacy plaintext `cache/bws_cache.json`.
`override_existing`	`true`	When true, Bitwarden values overwrite anything already in env (so rotation in the web app actually takes effect). Flip to `false` if you want `.env` / shell exports to win locally.
`auto_install`	`true`	Requests the PM-pinned `bws` package when no binary exists. PM’s lazy-install policy also applies.

Failure modes

Bitwarden never blocks Mibyan startup. If anything goes wrong, you’ll see a one-line warning in stderr and Mibyan continues with whatever credentials .env already had:

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN is not set`	Enabled in config but token cleared from `.env`	Re-run `mibyan secrets bitwarden setup`
`Bitwarden rejected the machine-account access token … invalid_client`	Token revoked, expired, machine account deleted — or the token belongs to another region (e.g. EU token hitting the US identity endpoint)	Run `mibyan secrets bitwarden token` to paste a fresh token; for region mismatches re-run setup and pick EU/self-hosted (or set `secrets.bitwarden.server_url`)
`bws exited 1: invalid access token`	Token revoked or wrong	Run `mibyan secrets bitwarden token` with a new token
`bws timed out`	Network blocked or Bitwarden API slow	Check connectivity to `api.bitwarden.com` (or your `server_url`)
`bws binary not available`	No PM selection or executable on `PATH`, and automatic installation is disabled or failed	Run `mibyan secrets bitwarden install` and read its diagnostic.
Checksum failure	The download does not match the PM lock	Stop and investigate the download source. Do not bypass the hash check.

Startup warnings now include a → remediation line telling you exactly which command fixes the failure.

Security notes

The bootstrap token (BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN) is itself sensitive — anyone with it can read every secret the machine account has access to. Treat it the same as any other API key.
Mibyan will refuse to let Bitwarden overwrite the bootstrap token itself, even with override_existing: true. If you store BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN as a secret inside the project, it’s silently skipped during apply.
PM checks the managed archive against its SHA-256 hash in pm/lock.json. A mismatch aborts installation.
The same lock declares the version. First use does not resolve a “latest” release. External binaries remain outside these PM checks.

When NOT to use this

Single-machine personal setups where ~/.mibyan/.env is fine. You’re trading one credential for another and adding a network dependency at startup.
Air-gapped environments that can’t reach api.bitwarden.com.
CI/CD where the existing secrets-injection mechanism (GitHub Actions secrets, Vault, etc.) is already set up — pick one path, not two.

The good case for this is multi-machine fleets, shared dev boxes, gateway VPSes, or any setup where you want centralized rotation and revocation across multiple Mibyan installations.

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Bitwarden Secrets Manager

How it works

Why machine accounts (and why no 2FA prompt)

Setup

1. Create a machine account and access token

2. Run the wizard

3. Confirm

CLI

Rotating an expired or revoked token

Configuration

Failure modes

Security notes

When NOT to use this

​How it works

​Why machine accounts (and why no 2FA prompt)

​Setup

​1. Create a machine account and access token

​2. Run the wizard

​3. Confirm

​CLI

​Rotating an expired or revoked token

​Configuration

​Failure modes

​Security notes

​When NOT to use this

How it works

Why machine accounts (and why no 2FA prompt)

Setup

1. Create a machine account and access token

2. Run the wizard

3. Confirm

CLI

Rotating an expired or revoked token

Configuration

Failure modes

Security notes

When NOT to use this