Build and run the official Bitwarden web client on your own machine. Useful for testing, contributing, or inspecting the code before trusting it.
This downloads the full Bitwarden client source code to your computer. The folder will be named 'clients' and will appear wherever your terminal is currently pointed.
Bitwarden uses npm workspaces, so one command installs packages for all the apps at once. This can take several minutes the first time — the node_modules folder will be large.
npm ci fails with 'engine' warnings or peer dependency errors
Make sure you are on Node.js 20 or higher. Run 'node -v' to check. If needed, install the correct version from nodejs.org and retry.
The repository contains multiple apps (browser extension, desktop, CLI, web). You only need the web vault right now, so navigate into its subfolder.
This compiles the web vault and serves it at http://localhost:8080. The 'cloud' flag tells it to connect to Bitwarden's real servers, so you can log in with your existing account. The first build takes a minute or two.
Port 8080 is already in use and the server fails to start
Find and stop whatever is using port 8080, or check the project's apps/web/webpack.config.js for how to change the port. On Mac/Linux run 'lsof -i :8080' to find the conflicting process.
With the dev server still running, open your browser and go to the local address. You will see the Bitwarden login screen served from your own machine, but it authenticates against Bitwarden's real cloud servers.
'open' is not a recognised command on Windows or Linux
Just type http://localhost:8080 directly into your browser's address bar. The 'open' command is macOS-only.
A locally running copy of the Bitwarden web vault at http://localhost:8080, connected to Bitwarden's cloud API, that you can log into with your existing account and inspect or modify.
This guide only covers the web vault in development mode — not the browser extension, desktop app, or CLI, which each have their own build steps documented at contributing.bitwarden.com. Development mode is NOT hardened for production use; do not expose port 8080 to the internet. If you want a fully self-hosted Bitwarden setup (including the backend server), that is a separate, much more involved project (bitwarden/server). This repo is primarily intended for developers who want to contribute code, not as an end-user installation method.