Interact with Bitwarden CLI.
- Key Features
- Installing
- Options
- Invoking
- Main Menu
- Item List
- More Menu
- Managing favorites icons
- Reporting Bugs
- Login with username and password, or API Key
- Two-step logins with Authenticator app, YubiKey OTP, or Email
- Unlock your vault with Touch ID
- Activity timeout to logout or lock your vault
- Recently selected item is listed first
- Automatically searches for the active browser tab's domain name
- Favorite items are indicated with a ❤️
- Search different fields of an item
- Any item by its name or folder
- Logins by username or URL
- Cards by brand (eg., search for "Visa")
- Identities by any field in the item
- Add new login items to your vault
- Copy username, password, TOTP code, or notes to the clipboard
- Copy TOTP code instead of password if called shortly after copying an item's password
- Edit or remove an item's username, password, TOTP or name without leaving Alfred
- Download an item's attachments
- Limit searches to a single vault and/or collection to prevent shoulder-surfing
- View any item in a separate window to copy/paste multiple fields easily
- View any item's fields within Alfred when using a Universal Action
- (Optional) Automatically sync vault in the background using a macOS Launch Agent
- (Optional) Display each item's favorites icon
- Download the workflow here
- Open the downloaded file to add it to Alfred
- Install the Bitwarden CLI(1) from the Bitwarden website, with
brew install bitwarden-cli
, or withport -N install bitwarden-cli
. - Install jq(2) from from the website, with
brew install jq
, or withport -N install jq
.
Your Bitwarden email address.
Installs a macOS Launch Agent that automatically syncs your vault every Sync Interval minutes.
Choose whether to be prompted for your Password or use an API Key to login. SSO is not yet supported.
These are the Client ID and Client Secret used for API Key logins. They are ignored when using the Password login method. See Personal API Key for CLI Authentication for more information.
Choose Authenticator app, YubiKey OTP, or Email. FIDO2 and Duo are not supported by the CLI. This is ignored when using the API Key login method. See Two-step Login Methods for more information.
You can unlock your vault with Touch ID instead of entering your master password. It does this by using sudo to store and retrieve your password in a secure location. See Using Touch ID for details.
You will see a window that says sudo is trying to execute a command as administrator
. If you select Cancel you will be prompted for your system password instead.

If you select Cancel from the password entry window, you will be prompted for your Bitwarden master password.
Choose a service to download favorites icons. The default is None; Bitwarden Accelerator will continue to show the default icon for all login items.
If you choose a service, icons will be downloaded in the background. You can continue to use Bitwarden Accelerator while the icon cache is being populated.
N.B. The icon cache is removed when Bitwarden Accelerator's version changes. Icons will be redownloaded the next time you list items in your vault.
How long Bitwarden can be inactive before timing out. Inactivity is determined by the time since invoking the workflow.
Sets the timeout value when Vault timeout is Custom.
Lock your vault when the screen is locked. The default is true.
What Bitwarden will do once the vault timeout is reached. Choices are Lock vault and Logout.
The Bitwarden server hosting your vault. The default is bitwarden.com, the US server.
Where to save attachments downloaded from your vault. The default is your Downloads folder. If you leave this blank, Bitwarden Accelerator will ask you to choose a folder each time.
How many seconds Bitwarden Accelerator will keep your password (or other field) in the clipboard. Afterwards, the previous contents of the clipboard are restored.
Bitwarden Accelerator will sync your vault when you load the worfklow if it has not been synced in this many minutes.
Uncheck this to keep Bitwarden Accelerator from displaying a notification when copying your password (or other field) to the clipboard.
Keyword used to bring up Bitwarden Accelerator's main menu
Keyword used to bring up Bitwarden Accelerator's search menu
Keyword used to search deleted items
There are three ways to invoke Bitwarden Accelerator.
- Using the Workflow Keyword (default: bw) will provide a list of operations. The list depends on whether you are logged into or logged out of Bitwarden, and whether your vault is locked or unlocked.
- Typing the hotkey will start a search of your vault. This is the same as choosing the Search Vault operation from the main menu.
- As a Universal Action, you can view an item's fields directly in Alfred.
The default hotkey is Control-Command-L, because the Bitwarden browser extension uses Shift-Command-L. If you wish to change or disable the hotkey, open the workflow in Alfred Preferences. The hotkey trigger is in the top-left corner.
Using the Trash Keyword (default: .bwtrash) will list any deleted items. Select an item to restore it.
The options you see in the main menu depend on the state of your vault.
If you are completely logged out of Bitwarden, you will see two options.
- Login to Bitwarden
Log into Bitwarden, with your vault locked.
- Configure Workflow
Opens Alfred Preferences to the Bitwarden Accelerator configuration screen.
If you are logged in, but your vault is locked, you will see three options.
- Unlock vault
Unlocks your vault.
- Logout of Bitwarden
Locks your vault and logs out of Bitwarden.
- Configure Workflow
Opens Alfred Preferences to the Bitwarden Accelerator configuration screen.
If your vault is unlocked, you will see many options.
- Search Vault
Lists all items in your vault.
- Search Folders
Shows a list of all the folders in your vault, then searches your vault for items in the selected folder.
- Add item
Adds a new login item to your vault. You will be prompted for the item's Name, Username, and Password.
If your web browser is the front-most window, the default Name will be the active tab's domain name.
The default Username will be your Bitwarden email address.
The default Password will be a random password generated by Bitwarden. It is 20 characters and includes uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
- Lock Vault
Locks your Bitwarden vault.
- Set Default Vault
Filter searches to a specific Vault (Organization), My Vault, or All Vaults. Or, set the default Organization for future searches with the Command modifier on the next screen.
Note that changing this setting with the Command modifier will also revert Default Collection to All Collections.
- Set Default Collection
Filters searches to a specific Collection, or All Collections. Or, set the default Collection for future searches with the Command modifier on the next screen.
- Sync Vault
Tells the workflow to synchronize your vault now.
- Logout of Bitwarden
Locks your vault and logs out of Bitwarden.
- Manage favorites icons
Opens a new menu to manage the favorites icons cache.
- Configure Workflow
Opens Alfred Preferences to the Bitwarden Accelerator configuration screen.
All items in your vault are shown, sorted by each item's name. If your web browser is the front-most window, items that match the current tab's domain will be listed first. Favorited items will be listed next, followed by all remaining items.
Supported browsers:
The default behavior when selecting an item depends on its type.
- Logins
Copy a login item's password to the clipboard. Use these modifiers to copy other fields instead.
Control Username
Shift TOTP code
Command Notes
Option Opens a new menu with additional actions
Fn Show all fields in a dialog window
Control + Command Open URL in your default browser
Command + Option View all fields in Alfred
Automatic field rotation
When selecting the same login item within Sync Interval seconds, and the password was the last field copied, the TOTP code will be copied to the clipboard instead of the password.
- Secure notes
The note is copied to the clipboard, as if the Command modifier were used.
- Cards
- Identities
All fields will be shown in a dialog window, as if the Fn modifier were used.
- SSH Keys
The private key is copied to the clipboard.
Move item to a Folder
Moves the item to the Folder you select and syncs your vault.
Mark/Unmark Favorite
Marks or unmarks the item as a Favorite and syncs your vault.
Download Attachments
If an item has attachments, this will show you a list with their names and sizes. Select one to save that attachment to the Downloads Folder.
Edit Item
Lets you edit or remove the username, password, TOTP or name of the item.
New passwords can be randomly generated by Bitwarden. It will be 20 characters and includes uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
Delete Item
Deletes the item from your vault.
You will get a warning that THIS ACTION CANNOT BE UNDONE. This is not actually true; the item is moved to your vault's Trash.
The Managing favorites icons menu has three options.
- Delete cache
This completely removes the icons cache. Icons will be redownloaded the next time you list items in your vault.
- Fetch icons
If there is no icons cache, Bitwarden Accelerator will automatically try to download icons using your chosen service.
You can use this menu option to refresh the icons at any time. It will (attempt to) download any favorites icons that are missing. Any vault item that has been modified since its icon was last downloaded will also have its icon redownloaded. I.e., if a vault item is newer than the icon, fetch its icon.
- Choose icon service
This will open Alfred Preferences to the configuration screen. Bitwarden Accelerator supports five services that you can use to download favorites icons.
- Bitwarden
- DuckDuckGo
- Favicone
- Icon Horse
When reporting bugs, please include the following information:
- Version of Bitwarden Accelerator
- Version of Bitwarden CLI (
bw --version
) - Version of jq (
jq --version
) - What you are trying to do
- What result you are getting
- What result you are expecting
- If the Bitwarden CLI is not installed, Bitwarden Accelerator will ask to install it using Homebrew or MacPorts. Homebrew or MacPorts must already be installed.
- macOS 15.1 (Sequoia) includes jq, so it is not neccessary to install separately.
- Integration with Firefox requires the Alfred Integration extension.