Bitwarden Lease

One secure Bitwarden unlock per 24 hours

Use one local macOS broker process to retain BW_SESSION in memory for 86,400 seconds. Present the human with a native secure dialog, allow three password attempts, and share the lease across agent tasks through an owner-only Unix socket. Never return the Bitwarden session itself.

Resolve this skill

Set the directory containing this SKILL.md before invoking bundled scripts:

bash

BITWARDEN_LEASE_SKILL="/absolute/path/to/bitwarden-lease"

Do not assume whether the active copy is under ~/.agents, ~/.claude, or ~/.codex; resolve the selected skill path from the available-skills catalog.

Inspect without prompting

Run:

bash

"$HOME/.local/bin/bw-lease" status

This operation must never open a dialog. Interpret only:

• status=unlocked: the broker holds a live lease; use remaining_seconds.
• status=locked: explicitly unlock before requesting a secret.
• missing socket/client: inspect or install the LaunchAgent.

Do not use bw status for this check: brokered bw operations intentionally ensure a lease and may prompt.

Install or repair

Requirements: macOS, Bitwarden CLI bw, and a stable absolute Python 3 path. Prefer Homebrew Python outside a virtual environment when present.

Validate the package before installation:

bash

python3 "$BITWARDEN_LEASE_SKILL/scripts/self_test.py"
python3 "$BITWARDEN_LEASE_SKILL/scripts/install_bitwarden_lease_broker.py" \
  install --python /opt/homebrew/bin/python3

On Intel Homebrew, use /usr/local/bin/python3; otherwise use a reviewed, absolute, executable Python 3 path. The installer copies immutable runtime files to ~/Library/Application Support/BitwardenLease, writes an owner-only LaunchAgent, installs ~/.local/bin/bw-lease, and starts the service. Installing or repairing restarts the broker and therefore discards any current lease.

After installation, verify all of these without unlocking:

bash

launchctl print "gui/$(id -u)/io.github.antreasantoniou.bitwarden-lease"
ls -l "$HOME/Library/Caches/bitwarden-lease/broker.sock"
"$HOME/.local/bin/bw-lease" status

Require a running service and a socket mode no broader than 0600. Never claim a usable lease merely because the process exists.

Unlock once

Only trigger unlock when the user asked for credentialed work or an imminent authorized operation requires it:

bash

"$HOME/.local/bin/bw-lease" unlock

The native dialog is the only password-entry surface. It permits three attempts. Do not ask the user to type into an agent terminal, do not accept the password in chat, and do not pass it in argv, files, shell history, clipboard automation, or environment variables.

After success, call status again. Report lease state and approximate remaining time only. Never report vault identity metadata unless the task explicitly requires a public identity verification.

Consume a secret without exposing it

The client supports allowlisted bw get, bw list, bw sync, and bw status operations:

bash

"$HOME/.local/bin/bw-lease" bw get password ITEM_ID

Secret-bearing output is sensitive. Never run such a command directly when its stdout will enter a tool transcript. Route output directly into the smallest authorized one-shot consumer, suppress diagnostics that might echo it, unset derived environment values immediately, and verify only non-secret public identity or operation receipts. Do not write .env files, shell profiles, LaunchAgent variables, Keychain entries, GCS objects, CI outputs, logs, or evidence records containing the secret.

Each brokered Bitwarden CLI operation is bounded to 30 seconds. A timeout returns exit code 75 with no stdout, so one stalled bw child cannot serialize all later clients behind it or expose partial secret output. Treat a timeout as a transient broker/CLI failure; diagnose the child process and retry once after it is absent. Do not restart a healthy broker merely to retry, because restart discards the in-memory lease.

The broker rejects --session, --passwordfile, and --passwordenv supplied by callers. It has no operation that returns its in-memory session key.

Honor the availability boundary

The guarantee is one prompt per 24 hours while the broker process survives. A reboot, logout, broker crash/restart, explicit vault lock, account revocation, or Bitwarden session invalidation requires a fresh prompt. Never claim prompt-free survival across those events: that would require persisting a reusable decrypted credential.

If a brokered operation reports the session invalid before lease expiry, treat the lease as unusable and request a fresh explicit unlock. Do not silently fall back to ambient BW_SESSION, raw bw unlock, 1Password, service-account keys, or credentials found in project files.

Diagnose safely

Read only process state, permissions, and secret-free logs:

bash

launchctl print "gui/$(id -u)/io.github.antreasantoniou.bitwarden-lease"
tail -100 "$HOME/Library/Caches/bitwarden-lease/broker.stderr.log"

The logs must remain empty of passwords, sessions, vault objects, and secret command output. Read references/security-contract.md before changing the protocol, lifetime, persistence model, permissions, or allowed Bitwarden commands.

Close the loop

For changes to this skill or broker:

1. Run scripts/self_test.py and the skill validator.
2. Verify installed/reviewed script hashes if installation changed.
3. Check launchctl state and non-prompting lease status.
4. Record only the custody decision, lease state, and non-secret receipts.
5. Publish only source, tests, and non-secret receipts. Never publish runtime state, socket contents, vault identifiers, or retrieved values.